Thanksgiving in San Antonio

We spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio, which is only about 1 1/2 hours south of Austin. We had a really nice weekend, with just our own little family (do we qualify as little anymore?), and it was fun to have kind of a non-traditional Thanksgiving for a change.

PART ONE: THE ZOO

We drove down on Thursday morning and spent most of the day at the San Antonio zoo. Henry had never been to a zoo, so it was really fun to see his excitement when he saw all the big animals (he loves animals, but mostly thinks they exist only in books).

We were all impressed by the big grizzly bear:

It kept walking around and doing little poses for us:

While we were walking through the zoo, an older gentleman stopped me and offered to take a picture of our family.  I gladly said yes (we rarely get pictures of us all together), but got a little worried when I went to hand over my camera and noticed how badly his hands were shaking.  I felt bad, because as I looped the camera strap around his hand (there is no way he could have held on otherwise), he told me he used to be a professional photographer.  He tried his best to keep the camera still, and this is what we ended up with:

Henry's yelling "ella! ella! ella!" in this picture:

Chillin' on the komodo dragon:

My five little kiddos. I'm so thankful for these guys!

More fun at the zoo:

One of the highlights of the zoo was the little petting area where they had goats for the kids to pet and brush.  Henry was so funny - it turns out that he is terrified of goats.  He loved the idea of them, and walked around growling and flexing (he flexes every muscle in his body when he gets super excited), but he would freak out if any of them got close to him, and he refused to brush them.

Here's Oliver, Rachel, and Lizza calmly brushing their goats:

And Henry freaking out:

PART TWO: THE HOTEL

After the zoo, we headed straight to our hotel.  We ate an early Thanksgiving dinner, right in our hotel restaurant.  It was so nice to not have to do any cooking or cleaning!  They even had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on the menu (turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, etc.), although Oliver was the only one who chose to order it. 

The kids absolutely loved our hotel.  We spent a lot of time just hanging out, swimming, and playing "the hotel game".  This was a game that involved Daniel and the kids dividing up into teams and then trying to find/catch the other team (but with no running or yelling, of course).  The hotel was set up perfectly for it - there was a huge open atrium in the middle with 4 glass elevators, so you could see people going up and down on the elevators.  I think the hotel game might have been the highlight of the trip for the kids.  That and the breakfast - there was a big continental breakfast that they also loved.  The first morning they were slightly overwhelmed by all the choices, but by Saturday morning they were pros, and knew exactly what they wanted. 

PART THREE:  DOWNTOWN SAN ANTONIO

On Friday we drove into downtown to see the Alamo and the Riverwalk.  The weather was great, and we had a good time just walking around. 

The four oldest at the Alamo:

Our family in front of the Alamo:

Enjoying all the "day after Thanksgiving" festivities.  They couldn't believe it was already being decorated for Christmas:

Posing along the Riverwalk:

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant along the river:

Daniel entertaining the kids as we walked along.  He always comes up with awesome stories to tell them:

PART FOUR:  FOOTBALL

One of the reasons why we stayed in San Antonio is that Oliver's flag football team (which Daniel coaches) made it to the State Quarter-finals, and their game was in San Antonio on Saturday.

We brought along all our football game stuff, and after we checked out of our hotel, we headed over to the game. 

Henry has been to enough football games this year to know how the system works - he just sits in his stroller the whole time and entertains himself with books and toys so I can watch/video-tape the games.  He stays happy as long as I keep a steady supply of snacks/treats coming. 

Rachel and Elizabeth had a great time playing and occasionally cheering for Ollie.

They didn't win, but Oliver had a great season, and we're so proud of him.  Next year he'll be in tackle football, like Tristan.  Yikes!

After his game was over we headed back to Austin, and got home just in time for the BYU/Utah game. 

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend.