The Dursts Come to Town

Dan's sister's family was coming to town for a wedding, so they spent a few nights with us. Dan's brother's family (Adam) came over, too. Dan's parents, not wanting to miss an opportunity to see three kids at one time, made a trip out of it, as well. The fun started on Thursday. Friday Dan took the day off and we showed his parents where Texas was won - the San Jacinto battlefield.

Saturday we took everyone down to one of our new favorite places to go with company - Kemah Boardwalk. However, they have started charging more and the rollercoaster was closed, so we might have to reconsider our little happy place. Not to mention, our poor nephew was barfing his guts out all day.

I didn't get many pictures of everyone, but here's one with Afton and her cousin Lucy who's 3 months older than Afton. I think they kind of look alike.

While everyone was here we enjoyed the beautiful weather and went on lots of walks to the lake to feed the ducks. Sam got some great use out of his new bike and rode the whole way!

 And Sam has been making great use out of his Christmas present. We play Candyland at least once every. single. day.

Thanks for coming, Durst family!

Sea World

The day after Christmas, we packed our bags and drove on over to the wonderous city of San Antonio, Texas. We arrived around 2:30, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and went to Sea World. Dan and I have year passes (you pay once, you get in free the rest of the year) but we had to buy one for Sam now that he's three. We'll have to make him do chores to pay for that.
They have a nice "kid zone" type area with lots of little rides and a big playset. We spent most of our time there. Dan and I also switched off riding the two big roller coasters.

When we got hungry, we headed to the famous Riverwalk. Except the GPS wasn't finding "Riverwalk." So I thought "Riverwalk Garage" sounded like it would get us pretty close. I assumed it was a parking garage. Well, it turns out that it's a mechanic garage, so we ended up in some ghetto part of town surrounded by auto mechanic buildings. Nice to see the real San Antonio... Once we got to the Riverwalk, it was pretty. We took a few pictures.

We tried to maneuver around all the other people also walking on the tiny sidewalk. Dan was pushing the double stroller and I was trying to keep Sam from falling in the river. I wished I was Andre the Giant when he yells "Everybody MOVE!" in The Princess Bride. Dan started bumping people with the stroller, but that's as aggressive as we got. After a while we got sick of it and ate some dinner at a restaurant at street level. We also did a drive-by of the Alamo.

Then back to the hotel for us. It had apparently been a while since we slept in the same room as Sam because he WOULD NOT go to sleep for the longest time. Dan and I were attempting to read in one bed while Sam was lying in the other, but anytime I shifted or anything he would raise up and look at me and smile or ask some kind of question. So it wasn't a very restful night for any of us.

The next morning we got up and swam in the hotel pool, then headed back to town to check out a church. It was overrated.

 Then I saw this guy who looked like he must have been famous, so I paparazzi'd him.

We met up with Dan's brother's (Adam's) family at Sea World and spent the rest of the day with them before driving back to Houston that night.

Happy birthday

Happy birthday to my wonderful mother!

Love you!

Wreath

I have things I want to write about: Sea World, our visit from in-laws, the rest of the books I read in '11, but I just made this wreath and I think it's cool and I want to share it.

It's supposed to be "Valentine's-y" but Dan didn't think it was. Do you like it? Our ward is having an auction to help the youth pay for their Nauvoo trip this summer. It cost $5 to make. Do you think it would make more than that in an auction? (If not, I'd rather just give them $5.)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Christmas was wonderful, as usual.

We started the festivities on Christmas Eve with a nice dinner with Kirk and Gretchen. We had ham and rolls (Gretchen), and salad and cheesy potatoes (me). I know, I got the easy stuff. After dinner, Kirk read the Christmas story while we acted it out with homemade puppets.

Our neighbors invited us over because Santa was coming to their house. It was great. Except for the fact that our kids hate Santa. Carter, however (and apparently Gretchen), love him.

 This is as close as Sam would get.

 Afton, too. That's our neighbor in the black dress.

They have a rule where before you get your gift from Santa, you have to sing a song. So it was nice to sing some Christmas carols (and the OU fight song - we live next door to the biggest OU fans in the world) to feel the holiday spirit. We went back to our house for dessert and to open PJs from G&G Cheney.

Christmas morning Dan and I got ready for church and woke the kids up to see their stockings and eat some breakfast before 8 a.m. Sacrament meeting.

After church we opened the rest of our presents and enjoyed Christmas tree-shaped beignets (perhaps a new tradition?) using Cafe Du Monde's recipe. Delish.

We went over to Kirk and Gretchen's house for leftovers that night and played some mean speed scrabble.

Merry Christmas!