Spring Break Adventure

Spring Break seemed to pop out of nowhere for us. Since we had such mild weather here in January and most of February, we were thrown off by our crazy weather in March and were ready for some warm and sunny weather. Not long before the break, we finally decided to go to Texas. It was time to make the vacation happen that was supposed to occur sometime before covid changed a lot of things. 

This was Victoria's last Spring Break with us during high school, so we wanted to enjoy a relaxing vacation together. We drove 10 hours and then 8 hours the next day to make it to my Aunt Terry's house in Allen, TX to see Terry, Doug, and my cousin Danielle. Before leaving the area the next morning, we saw my Uncle Mark and his wife, Phyllis, who don't live far from Terry and Doug. It was nice to reminisce with both couples and the kids enjoyed getting to know them after a long time without seeing them.

First hotel gym on the way out!

Victoria giving tips

We made it!

They loved the attic in the guest room at Terry's!

These bouncy balls were also a huge hit!

Terry and I

We missed Danielle in the pic, but so glad we got to see her for dinner!

Mark and Phyllis! 

We drove 5 more hours (a couple hours more than we had thought it was) to San Antonio. The kids are great car travelers and enjoyed to Texas scenery, though Jason and I were surprised at how busy it's gotten there. There's a lot more traffic than there used to be. We heard that about 60,000 people move there a day! Mostly from CA, but from other states as well, and Mexico too. 

After arriving at our hotel in downtown San Antonio, we settled into our suite and walked to the Riverwalk where we found a delicious Mexican restaurant to eat at with excellent chips and salsa to munch on while we waited for our food. We did some souvenir shopping and explored the Alamo before starting on the ghost tour that we had booked. The nice thing about traveling with older kids is that we can all go to bed later and have a much longer day of our travels. We got a lot in that first day that even included a long drive! Though the weather was cooler and windier than we would have liked, the kids really enjoyed driving in the car and chilling there and our first night in San Antonio was so fun! We really learned a lot about the Alamo, and San Antonio itself, as well as some of the fun and slightly scary ghost stories that were told during our 1.5-hour tour. We even saw the rock that marks the midway point between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans! We were beat by the time we walked back to our hotel, but well-rested for the next day's adventure when we woke up.

The haunted hotel where our tour started. I have a few pics of other haunted buildings, but this was my favorite. 

This shop isn't haunted, but we thought it was cool!

This was haunted either, but as I said, we got to see more than just the ghost tour on this walking adventure!

Old haunted church. I think it's the oldest in the country. 

The midway point between the Pacific and Atlantic!

Our ghost tour guide was fabulous!

The Riverwalk at night was peaceful, but walking back to the hotel at 10pm sure gave us another look at downtown San Antonio, if you know what I mean!

After a nice hotel breakfast that Erik really loved each day, we went to tour some missions. It was colder and windier than the day before, but still nicer than the weather everywhere else! It was fun to see the missions around Easter time since both of the ones we saw had churches that still function and had a few extra reminders of the sacred Easter season. Plus, as we anticipated reading about the Easter story in Come Follow Me this week, the crosses and depictions of Christ on the cross seemed more meaningful. 

Mission Concepcion 

They weren't very tall!

Mission San Jose. This one was much bigger, though I'm only including a few pics. It was so fun to learn more about these. It reminded me of the missions we used to study in CA when I was a kid and not interested in them one bit!

This was about 3/4 into the mission grounds. It was huge!

An oven 

Inside one of the living quarters.

The church

Doesn't it remind you of Easter?

We had free use of the laundry facilities at our hotel and so while the clothes were washed, we worked out in the gym and the kids tried to swim. We learned, however, that Texans aren't ready for swimming in late March, though I wasn't either, my kids thought the 50-degree weather was perfect swimming weather! Since the pools are all outside and aren't heated, they weren't very warm and needed some cleaning, but the younger 3 swam for a bit anyway. Victoria was hoping to get some rays in for tanning, but that didn't happen for a few more days.

That evening we went to New Braunfels to go to the oldest dance hall in the US! It's where George Strait and many other country singers became big and famous. It was the only country music "hangout" we could go to that wasn't 21 and up. Victoria really wanted to go line dancing somewhere and this was the only place we could go. It turned out to be super fun and quaint. There wasn't line dancing, but some couples were dancing in the back and there was a little stage in the back for kids to play around on while their parents relaxed at the tables at the front with their beers. It was family-friendly, as no one was drunk and the music was clean and fun. There were cute little antique shops outside that added to the quaint feel of this little area. I give it a big thumbs up!

Cute hotel by Gruene Hall.

Little shops

Incredible musicians!

Playing pool in the back.

We even got to dance to a couple songs ourselves!

Wednesday morning we packed up and then walked on the River Walk one more time to go a different way. San Antonio was one of our favorite spots on this vacation! Our next destination was our other favorite of the trip and the real purpose to go to Texas in the spring- the Blue Bonnets!

We drove out to the Texas Hill Country near Marble Falls to see the famous old Bluebonnet House. It just sits in the right place amongst so many beautiful flowers, so it became famous. On our way to Burnet to do some hiking through the Bluebonnets fields, we happened upon the Longhorn Cavern State Park which was a fun place to explore and take pictures. The hike didn't disappoint and we walked for a couple of hours amid glorious views and breathtaking scents of the flowers. This was the day we finally got some sun and I actually could take off my jacket!

Indian blanket flower

Indian Paintbrushes amongst the Bluebonnets.

That evening we ate dinner with our friends who just moved from Michigan to Austin last summer. We had a blast reminiscing with them and the boys played with their kids. The next day we hiked Mount Bonnell, which had a gorgeous view of the Colorado River and downtown Austin, as well as some fun rocky areas to explore. It wasn't a long hike by any means and certainly not a "mount" to people from Utah, but for us Michiganders, it was great! Afterward, we ate lunch at a food truck, which is a big thing in Austin, and it was probably the best Tex-Mex I have ever had! It's a combo truck between Tex-Mex and bbq, which is why it's so good because the meat is so tender and flavorful since it marinates and slowly cooks all day long. We walked around Lady Bird Lake near downtown Austin for bit before trying to swim again and then going back to the Coburns for dinner again. We were supposed to see some other good friends on Thursday, but they were sick, so we got bonus time with the Coburns and the boys got to sleep with them Thursday night. After picking up the boys on Friday morning and one last little visit with Shannon (it wasn't their spring break, so their kids were in school), we went for our last big adventure- kayaking on the river to Lady Bird Lake. The sun was playing peek-a-boo, so we got some sun, saw the most turtles I've ever seen at one time, and the kids swung off the ropes into the river. 

The Coburns!

Colorado River

Austin in front of the city of Austin!

So tender and flavorful!

I took so many pictures of turtles but only included a few. There were so many of them!

We again had another little-bit-too-long-in-traffic drive up to Argyle, just past Dallas, to see our good friends the Johnsons. Jason took the discussions in their home many years ago. Their oldest son who's Jason's age and whose wife is from Westland, MI, just down the road from us, weren't in town so we didn't get to see them and their family, but we had a lovely dinner and visit with Jerry and Lavonda. They walked up to the car to greet us and waved to us as we drove away a few hours later. Such a nice couple and so happy we would drive over to see them. We had a hiccup with our hotel that night, the only hiccup in the whole trip, so we had to drive a couple hours, later than we wanted, to just inside Oklahoma because our other hotel was canceled last minute. It was fine, though Jason was tired, he continued driving and we were able to knock 2 hours off our drive on the way back the next day.

The Johnsons!

That was General Conference Saturday. I learned when we went to Utah one year for Spring Break that if there's ever a better time to make a long drive, it's on General Conference weekend. Everyone is able to listen without any distractions and we get so much more out of it those first days of listening. The only bit we didn't hear much of was the second session on Sunday because we actually arrived home just after the first talk. We listened as we unpacked, but we definitely didn't sit, so I couldn't take good notes, though I plan on going back to study them as I usually do. 

The vacation was everything we needed- relaxing, full of delicious food, excellent company, fun entertainment, and spiritual uplift at the end. We felt ready to start school again on Monday and jump into the last bit of the school year. 

Everything is bigger in Texas!