Good Friends, Good Times

So, it's a couple of months late, but here's the follow up post to our very busy and wonderful week in July. The second half of that week, my dear friend Aliceson and her family came to stay with us, and we got to do some sight-seeing that we don't normally do. Living here in San Antonio, sometimes I forget to enjoy so many things. It was like a refresher course to hang out with our friends while they did the touristy stuff.

Aliceson has 3 girls. I was not sure how my 3 boys would take to having 3 girls staying in their home. Chance especially gets in trouble often for being mean to girls, simply because they are girls. The boys voiced their concern when I told them about the Haynes family coming to stay, but to my surprise, they all got along great, and the boys even missed their friends when they were gone. It was a great gift to me to have the boys learn that not all girls are bad. :)

It helped that the girls loved playing Nintendo DS. Katelynn and Emily even showed Charlie how to make all of the DS'es connect...


And that they loved to swim. (Emily)


And walking/riding bikes in the neighborhood. (Aliceson and Larry with Olivia and Chandler)


Katelynn on Charlie's bike.


Sweet Emily. Oh, how I love how girls will actually stop and smile for a camera!!


All these things scored major points with the boys.

One day we headed down to the Riverwalk. Here's the whole gang: Larry, Olivia, Aliceson, her parents, and Katelynn and Emily.


And took a Riverboat ride. (Chandler, Chance and me)


This is Aliceson with her parents, Charles and Diane. Diane was my Sunday School teacher in middle school and she's a beautician, which meant she permed my hair a time or two back in the day! Now that I actually cut my boys hair, I told her I was a little nervous when she saw the "job" I had done on their last cut. But she was so gracious, as usual. I <3 these people!


Then we headed to the Children's Museum. It was a typical hotter-than-Hades day in San Antonio, so we were grateful for the air conditioning!
Aliceson, Olivia, Larry, Emily & Katelynn.


The kids playing on the blue screen. Katelynn, Charlie, Emily, Chance.


Larry and his oldest (Katelynn) playing chess.


The Museum had a mock HEB. This is Aliceson helping Emily with the check-out.


I have to mention Chandler with this grocery store deal. He was completely enthralled. As of in, I had to pull him out kicking and screaming when the museum was closing. He could've spent hours filling his cart with food (which just happens to be his favorite thing on the planet. The child could eat for a living and a hobby!).



At one point, he breaks his cart out of the museum, and goes for the more organic approach - he gets the chickens out of the chicken coop and carts them around. Hilarious!




One other funny part of the museum was the leer jet. Chandler was convinced it was going to take off, and refused to get out!
See ya, Mom! I'm off to a big beach house in Jamaica!


On another day, we ventured to the zoo.
All the kiddos...This was taken by Aliceson with her dslr...We share this interest in photography, so of course we had even more to talk about.


At the risk of embarrassing myself, she also took this picture because she thinks it's funny that I can touch my nose with my tongue... ;)


We had a picnic while we were there, completely with Astronaut ice cream, courtesy of NASA. Chuck's been working with NASA lately and is so excited about it... The ice cream was a hit!


Emily & Olivia getting Chandler to laugh...


Katelynn at the stream in the kids' area.


Emily.


Livie.


Chance.


Aliceson & I.


Aliceson's oldest, Katelynn, has a personality a lot like her momma's. Which explains how we bonded so fast...Aliceson caught this photo that day.


And we ended the day with popsicles and a train ride. FTW!


My sweet friends, Aliceson and Larry.


Aliceson & Larry - thanks so much for sharing your family and vacation with us!! It was SO great to see you guys! And I do think we need to make it an annual thing... We love and miss y'all!