Every other year my dad's side of the family has a reunion on Father's Day weekend. This year we met in Austin. My nephews rode with my parents, so we somehow conned my sister into riding with us.
It didn't take long for her to regret this decision...
I sat in front of her and kept letting my seat back on her. She sat next to Deacon and was in charge of feeding him when he fussed. Carson called her "stinky" the whole time and Brian [who quite possibly has the worst voice ever] sang. She threatened to rent a car for the ride home. hehe
We finally arrived to the hotel, but not in time for dinner with the rest of the family, so we hit up the pool instead.
2006, San Antonio:
1999, Nashville:
1997, Fredericksburg:
The hotel we stayed at was right on Town Lake, which is next to the bridge where about 2 million bats live. A man was selling swords right by the pool for all of the bat watchers and of course Carson & Austin talked their Meme into buying one for them. I think the swords went EVERYWHERE with us.
The next morning we woke up and walked down the street to find breakfast. But, had to make a stop for the grandsons to pose by a giant guitar:
We found a tasty little restaurant that sold crepes.
Mine was SOOO good. I can't remember what it was called but it was a strange combination of brie, pears, and walnuts that came together tastily (is that a word?).
After breakfast we went back to the hotel for our traditional silent auction that helps raise money for the next reunion. Probably against better judgement, I nominated myself president of the next reunion in New Orleans, and because Joni left the meeting early, we decided to make her vice president. :)
Deacon was a little overwhelmed by all of the chaos and decided it was nap time.
Joni took Austin and Carson to the Children's Museum:
We met back up for lunch at a Mexican restaurant that was really good, but we can't remember the name.
They put us upstairs by ourselves, which was probably a smart strategy on their part...
They made table-side salsa too. I've had table-side guacamole, but never table-side hot sauce. It was really good.
That night our entire family had a boat ride scheduled to watch the bats. We met for dinner first at a bbq place.
There was a little stream that ran behind the restaurant that you could walk down to and see turtles.
The boat ride was a definite highlight. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining, and the weather cooled off to a comfortable level.
This is a picture of the bridge where the bats live, and you can see our hotel in the background too:
We didn't see very many bats because they had just had their pups, but I was okay with not having swarms flying around by my head.
We found a tasty little restaurant that sold crepes.
Mine was SOOO good. I can't remember what it was called but it was a strange combination of brie, pears, and walnuts that came together tastily (is that a word?).
After breakfast we went back to the hotel for our traditional silent auction that helps raise money for the next reunion. Probably against better judgement, I nominated myself president of the next reunion in New Orleans, and because Joni left the meeting early, we decided to make her vice president. :)Deacon was a little overwhelmed by all of the chaos and decided it was nap time.
Joni took Austin and Carson to the Children's Museum:
...and we took Deacon to the pool. Wal-mart only had pink baby floats, so Deacon was forced to float in the feminine ride.
Brian thought it looked less girly without the shade:
We met back up for lunch at a Mexican restaurant that was really good, but we can't remember the name.
They put us upstairs by ourselves, which was probably a smart strategy on their part...
They made table-side salsa too. I've had table-side guacamole, but never table-side hot sauce. It was really good.
That night our entire family had a boat ride scheduled to watch the bats. We met for dinner first at a bbq place.
There was a little stream that ran behind the restaurant that you could walk down to and see turtles. There is never a dull moment with us, so Austin felt it was his duty to keep us entertained by accidentally dropping his shoe behind the fence into the water. Somehow my dad ended up cutting his finger while trying to cut bamboo to fish the shoe out, and one of our family members jumped the fence and fetched the shoe.
The boat ride was a definite highlight. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining, and the weather cooled off to a comfortable level.
This is a picture of the bridge where the bats live, and you can see our hotel in the background too:
We didn't see very many bats because they had just had their pups, but I was okay with not having swarms flying around by my head.The kids were happy too because they all took a turn to drive the boat.
The next morning we packed up to leave. Our family is usually good about taking group pictures the first day when everyone looks nice, but we somehow overlooked it until right before check-out when we were wearing our comfy driving clothes and just got out of the shower.
The next morning we packed up to leave. Our family is usually good about taking group pictures the first day when everyone looks nice, but we somehow overlooked it until right before check-out when we were wearing our comfy driving clothes and just got out of the shower.
We also didn't take the big group picture with all of the family.
For fun, I thought I would post group pictures of our clan from previous reunions.
2006, San Antonio:
1999, Nashville:
1997, Fredericksburg:
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