The Houston Temple

While visiting Houston, we wanted to see the Houston temple, so we headed over there after church. It is in a very nice neighborhood among some of the most amazing mansions you can imagine - probably oil barons' homes. I mean, who else could actually live like that? It is amazing what being near a Mormon temple does for your home value.

It is a beautiful temple and the grounds are large and lovely.

When we got there, though, the gates were locked. Oh well. At least we could look through the fence. But then the security guard drove up in his golf cart and unlocked the gate so that we could come into the temple grounds. We had all of the temple grounds to ourself. It was so nice.

Our boys looked so handsome in their sunday clothes, so we had a take a few pictures.

Then we just enjoyed the beautiful flowers, fountains, and the peace and spirit that is always felt at the temple.

It is a beautiful and large temple, and it is celebrating it's 10 anniversary this month.

The church owns all the woods and meadow around the temple, and the security guy says there are a family of deer that live there.

I love this picture! Don't they look like missionaries? Two by two. Soon enough, right?

Can you feel the love?

Seeing Gruene - Day 8

On our last day with Natalee we decided to visit a small old German village near New Brunfels called Gruene (pronounced green - just like the color.) But when we drove in we discovered that, of course, a river runs through it, and in these parts, where there is a river, there are folks tubing. Suddenly, most of our gang lost all interest in exploring the quaint little town of Gruene, and wanted to go tubing instead. Good thing Dennis bought those tubes, huh? So after we dropped Dennis, Nate, the twins, Caleb, and Lorin off at the river, Natalee and I were allowed to explore the fun little shops with only our three little ones, and Alex along to help. It actually worked out perfect, because I would NOT have wanted to bring all those kids into those fun shops.

We were also lucky enough to stumble upon quite a nice craft market where artisans were showing their wares. Natalee got some cool fused glass earrings, and we also got a few fun things for our parents.

I loved what someone did with old windows, and the shelves and other fabulous decor made from old tin ceilings. Oh, how I wish we had room in our car!

We also got to explore an old Victorian home that was now an antique store.

I was drooling over this green room with the yellow and red toile! If only I had a girl.

Luke and Brynn were very good in the stores.

Of course there were things that the kids enjoyed too, like the toy store with all kinds of imaginative and unusual toys, and the garden shop with the fountains and the doves in a big cage that Ethan really liked. I liked that they sold ice cold water bottles, because by this point we were pretty darn hot. That is probably why the kids were so drawn to the water features.

We enjoyed exploring the Gruene General Store, packed full of sundry items and samples of Texas specialty foods. My favorite was the pecan honey butter. Oh my! I'd make a trip back to Texas for some of that right now!

We explored a bit more of the town. I just loved the old German and Victorian architecture.

And of course so good ol' western barns and silos.

It was really a cool place.

I wanted to take this old gazebo with the swing home with me. It would be great in my backyard, don't you think?

It was getting pretty hot walking around, so we decided to slip into a large Antique mall where Natalee was happy to find a vintage 50s era dress pattern in her size. She is a talented seamstress and I can't wait to see that darling dress on her.

But for the kids, the coolest thing in the whole huge antique barn was this traffic signal, all lit up and on the ground. They had so much fun turning their bellies and hands different colors and gave a whole new dimension to the game "red light, green light" We couldn't tear those two away.

Now that would have been a cool thing to strap on top of the car and bring home with us!

After a few hours, Dennis called us and told us where down river to come pick them up. They had had a terrific float down the river, and we had had a great little bit of girl time together. It worked out perfectly.

Unfortunately, that is where we had to say goodbye, since we had to go in different directions - Natalee, back home to Abilene, about 5 hours north, and us to our final stop, Houston, a few hours east.

It was hard to say goodbye! We had such a great time with these guys! I know the cousins had a blast together, and I always love to spend time with my baby sister. Love you Nat!

Tubing Down the Guadalupe - Day 7

Our timeshare that we were staying in with my sister was perfect. It was called a tree-top villa, which is the perfect description because it was practically a tree house. In fact, Luke called it a tree house. It was a house built on stilts up in the tree tops. The second floor was the main floor with a kitchen living room, two bedrooms, and two bathroom. The third floor was a big loft and another bathroom. The first floor was bizarre. It was a big room with a washer and dryer, a stationary bike, and a huge hot tub, with another bathroom tucked in the corner. It was big enough to put a blow-up mattress if we needed it. So you could throw in your laundry and ride the stationary bike or take a dip in the hot tub while you waited for your load to get done. I chose the tub over the bike. Hey - I was on vacation.

The one down side was that we had to go up exactly 50 steps just to get to the front door. But the up side, which was the best part, was that we had the whole house to ourselves, and we were surrounded by trees. That means that the kids could run and jump and scream and do all the things that 9 kids would want to do in a place like that without disturbing any neighbors. Perfect!

After trekking around San Antonio all the day before, we decided day 7 of our vacation would involve just relaxing and enjoying the resort up in the hill country near Canyon Lake. We never made it to the lake, but we didn't need to. We managed to stay pretty wet anyway.

This pool was right across the street from our treehouse, was open until midnight, and we pretty much had the thing to ourselves. It was a great pool with this big watery island in the middle, and a few floating logs that were tethered down.

The kids had way too much fun on those!

When everyone had swam themselves out we decided it was time to relax a bit, not lounging in front of the TV, but lounging in inner-tubes in the Guadalupe River.

Apparently it is THE THING to do in the area - tubing on the Guadalupe River, and we are always game for a new adventure. Do what the locals do, right?

Well, there are tubing businesses all up and down the river. You rent a tube and pay a shuttle to take you up-river, drop you off, and let you float back down to where you parked your car.

That is how it works. But Dennis is kind of infamous for finding a "better way", so he went out and bought 8 inner-tubes, had them inflated, and then had to figure out how to get those huge things back to us. He managed somehow, and the nice people at our resort were kind enough to drop us off up river. It all worked out (he worried about how to pack all those inner-tubes in our car for the trip home later.) But what we are going to do with a bunch of lovely inner-tubes in the desert, I have no idea!

What a fun activity that was!!! It was a hot, hot day, but the river water was so cold, and most of the river was shaded by tall trees. The river was pretty shallow in most places, and we sometimes got caught and scraped over rocks (thank goodness the inner-tubes were fitted with hard plastic bottoms!) The kids could pretty mush stand up at any time.

The river flow was so slow that we just creeped along. The kids had so much fun and made up games and chased each other.

See the blue bus on the bridge with the trailer behind it to carry tubes? Vehicles like that where everywhere!

When we got in the river it seemed like everyone and their dog was floating in that river! Like I said, it is THE thing to do there. They would float in big groups, and usually had a tube or two that were just for their coolers.

Happily, we discovered that the place where we got in the river was where everybody was getting out, which means that in no time we had the whole river all to ourselves! Perfect!

Of course, this was another one of those situations where I couldn't bring my camera, so I just shot some quick pictures before giving it to Dennis to take this picture before putting it back in the car. We were all holding on to each other trying not to float away and leave Dennis behind by the time he got back from the car. Funny.

It is really too bad that I didn't have my camera because it was one of those times full of wonderful photo opportunities. It was absolutely gorgeous floating along that river! Cliffs and tall trees hung with long swaying clumps of moss, with huge roots right in the water. There were pretty little cabins and lots and lots of green and shade. We saw water fowl, dragon flies were landing on us, and we even caught glimpse of a turtle or two. It was just beautiful country, and so relaxing to float through it!

It took about two hours to float from our drop off point to our resort's dock on the river. We had floated home!

What a great way to spend a summer afternoon. That's what we need in the desert - a nice cold shady slow river. The ultimate lazy river. Oh well.

And when we climbed out of the river we walked past the resort's other pool, and of course, since we were already in our suits, why not go for another swim? I couldn't believe those kids had the energy!

When we finally made it back to the treehouse, everyone was hungry, exhausted, and water-logged.

It was probably my favorite day of the trip - just enjoying a new place, enjoying nature, enjoying each other... and staying cool.

Remember the Alamo! - Day 6

On day 6 of our trip we headed to beautiful San Antonio and the symbol of Texan valor and bravery, the Alamo. Before heading out, however, we decided to educate ourselves about what went on there that fateful few days by watching the movie "The Alamo' before leaving our timeshare. That way we would all know what we are supposed to be remembering when we hear "remember the Alamo." It was such a good movie and really got us excited about seeing the real thing.

So that is just where we started - at the Alamo and the beautiful gardens surrounding it.

The Alamo was originally a church, but at the time of the infamous siege by Mexican General Santa Anna in 1836, the old ruins of the church and the wall surrounding it became the fortress that Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, William Travis and other heroes defended for 13 days to their own deaths. So even though it was no longer a church, it is holy ground - a shrine to the martyrs for freedom.

I love the Alamo. I saw it a few years ago without my kids, and I was anxious to bring them back here are to teach them the great and tragic history of this place.

Of course they loved it too, especially the cannons.

But it was a hot day, so as wonderful as the gardens and exhibits were, the one part of the Alamo that proved the most popular with this crowd was the fan.

San Antonio is a beautiful city, and that famous Texas pride is everywhere! I don't think any other state in the union has as much state pride as good old Texas! They have Texas shaped everything! I saw Texas shaped woven into carpets, welded on fences, dog bowls shaped like Texas, and even the waffle maker at our hotel made Texas shaped waffles! I think that is so cool! They even have their very own pledge of allegiance that the kids say in school. I wish all states were that proud, maybe our federal government wouldn't be as inflated as it is right now.

We decided to take a river cruise to see the famous San Antonio Riverwalk from the water.

It was so fun, and so beautiful!

And then we decided to do a little River-walking ourselves.

Such pretty bridges and river-side restaurants. It really reminded me of Venice. So romantic - even with 9 kids in tow.

It was so colorful and there was so much to explore.

It was warm out, and we took a long break at this outdoor amphitheater on the water's edge.

The stage was on the other side of the river. Russian dancers were practicing for their show there that evening.

While the adults and teenagers rested the kids raced each other down the grassy rows of seats. Where do they get the energy?

We resumed our stroll along the Riverwalk. Above is how Luke and Brynn hide. Can you see them?

We chose to have dinner in a Mexican restaurant under a bridge where the kids took turns practicing the reproduction Alamo era bugle that we bought at the Alamo so that the boys can work on their "bugling" merit badge. I'm sure that the people at the restaurant, and everybody up and down the river loved that.

A photo op. What a pretty place!

Our walk through the city brought us back to the Alamo where we waited for the sun to go down so that we could see it all lit up.

What a great old city with some really fun architecture.

When the sun went down, the lights went up. The Alamo is gorgeous when it is all lit up like that and seems say to all "Remember the Alamo!"

Nathan attempts to play Taps on the bugle, as if to honor the fallen heroes.

What a great day!