A Visit From Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Jessica

Boston was beyond excited about his grandparents and aunt coming to visit last week. He loves visitors! When he woke up last Thursday morning I told him we were picking up Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Jessica from the airport that day. He thought I met right that second, so he got his shoes on and was ready to head out the door. I had to give him a timeline of events that were going to happen first that day so he wouldn't think we were going to get Grandma every time we got close to the front door. After I gave him the timeline he repeated it over and over that morning. It was really cute to hear his little two-year-old voice say, "Go running, go to store, play, take nap, (then he would get a few pitches higher) GO GET GRANDMA!"

I woke Boston up from his nap early so we could pick them up from the airport at 1:40. Boston ended up falling back asleep in the car on the way to the airport, so when he opened his eyes his Grandma was sitting right next to him in the car! We started with the usual San Antonio touristy stuff. It was the perfect weather for walking around downtown and touring the Alamo. If you read my blog regularly, I'm sorry if you're getting really sick of seeing pictures of us in front of the Alamo. I think almost all of our family has seen it now, so the Alamo pictures should be fizzling out.

When Scott got off work we dropped Boston off at his friend's house and went downtown for dinner on the Riverwalk. My family laughed at me for being all excited that it was cold enough to wear boots and a coat. That doesn't happen too often in Texas, so it was exciting to me. We ate at Republic of Texas, and even though the food wasn't that great, the atmosphere made up for it. It's impossible not to enjoy eating dinner on the Riverwalk, but I would suggest a different restaurant if you go there.

 Watch out for these serenader guys on the Riverwalk. Sure they're fun, but they'll finagle $20 out of you before you know it. Two songs, probably less than 5 minutes total, 10 bucks a song. These guys make bank, and they don't take "no thanks" for an answer.   

They've already started putting up the lights and Christmas decorations on the Riverwalk. I love the Riverwalk at Christmas and I can't wait to go back this year after it's all lit up. It's not as pretty as Temple Square, which I'm really going to miss this year, but at least it's warmer. :) 

On Friday we went to Medina Lake for a little bit and played on the playground there. The lake was closed, so it was a short visit.

Later that day we stopped by the San Antonio Rock'n'Roll Marathon expo on our way back to the Riverwalk (the boat ride had closed after we ate dinner the night before, so we were going back for the boat ride). Boston had fun pretending to drive this display car. 

The Ozarka water booth had contacted me and asked if I wanted to attend a Q&A session with Josh Cox because they had found my running blog and thought I would like to meet Josh and blog about his running advice. They thought right! It was fun to hear what he had to say and meet him. He holds the American Record in the 50K. If you want to hear what I learned from him, I'm planning to write about it on my running blog soon. 

Thanks to my family for letting me drag them all to the race expo for awhile! They did have lots of good samples out though, so hopefully they weren't too bored. I LOVE going to race expos, even if I'm not running the race I guess. I wish so badly that this race was on a Saturday. :( It's huge and awesome and right in our city. 

 

On Saturday we had fun at Sea World from 12-6. It was a long day with no nap for Boston, but he did really well considering he had missed his nap. 

Boston liked taking Grandma and Grandpa on all his favorite rides like Shamu, Abby, and the merry-go-round. 

We made sure to steer clear of the splash zones at the Shamu show. It was a nice day, but not warm enough to get wet!

Boston and Grandpa at the Shamu show.

My sister Jessica had the awesome idea to buy some fish and pet the dolphins. We've been to Sea World more times than I can count, but we've never actually fed/pet the dolphins. 

Boston was a little too nervous to pet them. I think their big mouths full of teeth had something to do with that.

Jessica lured them in with the stinky dead fish she bought, and we both had fun petting them.

I've wanted to touch these dolphins for a long time, so it was fun to finally see what they feel like! They feel like wet rubber. I guess that's not too hard to guess though.

We also got to pet the baby stingrays. Boston isn't scared to touch those. They don't have big mouths full of teeth. 

A few other things we did while our visitors were here:

  Watched Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse after Boston went to bed, went to church, made some yummy gluten-free pumpkin muffins, and just hung out. Boston really wanted to sleep on the couch with my mom their first night here, but I told him he could lay down with her in the morning when he woke up. The next morning he woke up bright and early to everyone's delight (ha ha), and crawled right in the blankets with my mom. A night's sleep didn't make him forget my promise.

Click here for the pumpkin muffin recipe. 

We also took my parents to one of our favorite restaurants, Scenic Loop Cafe. (My sister had to leave a day before my parents so her husband could get back to work.) The atmosphere is so cute, they have an outdoor playground for Boston, and the food is SO GOOD. We love this place. 

Boston was so sad when we dropped my parents off at the airport. He cried his eyes out for a good 15 minutes in the car on the way home. It was sad. Then when he woke up the next morning he said, "Boston's crying. Boston wants to see Grandma." "Boston wants to wake up, open door, and see Grandma." (The past few days when he woke up in the morning he would see my mom sleeping on the couch. That's what he meant by wake up, open door, and see Grandma.) Then today he repeated that timeline I had told him the day we picked my parents up from the airport. I was surprised he remembered it. 

Anyway, it's been fun having visitors once a month for the past 4 months! We don't have any more visitors lined up now. How sad. Any takers?