"Vacation" is over.

Why the quotes? Well, vacation with an 11 month old really isn't a vacation. Anyone who has tackled the task before knows what I'm talking about! But, all-in-all, we had a great time. Luke & I still have 2 days off + the weekend, so we've still got some more time for fun & MAYBE relaxation. On to the play-by-play of the past 5 days...
For some reason we took NO pictures on Saturday. That's right - day 1 of our very first family vacation & we didn't take a single picture. Strange, huh? Anyway, the day went like this:
4am - Helen got up & finished loading everything into the car, got some coffee going, got dressed, blah, blah, blah.
4:45am - Helen got Luke up, he got ready, blah, blah, blah.
5am - Kasen got a new diaper, but stayed in his PJs. :)
5:15-5:30am (I forget exactly) - on the road to Austin, TX!
8:30am - we arrived! We were an hour early (for Jack & Kim's wedding rehearsal), so we stopped at IHOP, then headed on over... we ended up being late - go figure.
9:50am - got to the rehearsal, hung out a few minutes afterwards.
11am - Tried to check into the motel, but they didn't have any rooms yet. So, we headed to Chuy's to meet up w/the rest of the groomsmen (and Jack & his dad) for lunch.
Then it was back to the motel where we tried to get Kasen to nap so we could also nap, but that just didn't happen. Before we knew it, it was time to get dressed.

6pm - Rehearsal dinner... Kasen lasted 'til almost 8:30/9, then we headed back to the motel for SLEEP!

Then came Sunday. We woke up early, as usual, then headed to McDonald's for lunch, Target for a few things we needed, then back to the motel for Kasen to nap. (Which he did!!) Luke was busy doing wedding stuff from 11am until midnight-ish, so Kasen & I were on our own in the big city. I wanted to take him to the Capitol, but things were crazy still from the Democratic Convention & the Governor's Mansion catching on fire at 1am that morning. So, I used the nifty GPS to find a park. Not real sure we were in a good part of town, but Kasen had the playground all to himself:

After about an hour of play, we grabbed some Taco Cabana & headed to the motel. Then I knew I had to entertain Kasen somehow, so I took him for his first dip in the pool! He LOVED it! I wish I would've taken pictures, but I'm not that talented. ;) After the little swim Kasen was worn out, so he napped... Just in case you didn't catch that thumb in his mouth:
Unfortunately, I had to wake him up to go to the wedding & he was not happy about that. Not one little bit. But, we both survived that hissy fit & got dressed & on our way.
Here are my two handsome guys! (Yes, he's still unhappy that I woke him up.)

Kasen & I all dressed up.
Family shot:
The ceremony shots I took weren't so great. Hey - I was towards the back, on the far side, in case we had a meltdown. Plus, I was trying to entertain Kasen & take pics - let's see how well you can do!

Here's Kasen entertaining himself during the bridal pics:
And, the super-duper cute Sam playing with Kasen. (Sam (Drew & Jenny's son) is 17 months old.)


The guys with Kim...
The whole bridal party:
I tried to keep Kasen happy, but it didn't work. So, once I decided to leave the wedding & got Kasen in the car, here's the meltdown he had. (Luckily he didn't get THIS bad at the wedding.)
Monday morning we woke up & headed to San Antonio. I found a great last-minute deal on Priceline for $89/night ON the river. It was great!
We got int San Antonio a little early & were afraid we wouldn't be able to get our room yet, so we found another park. (Thank you GPS!!!) Well, the first one we found - The San Antonio Park, had a promising name, but was a run-down, nothing-left field. This was the 2nd one we found, and had plenty to entertain us all.)

Until IT happened. Kasen got carried away & ran into part of the equipment & was left with a HUGE knot between his eyes. I don't think this picture does it justice, I mean you just can't tell - it was AWFUL! It was huge pretty much immediately. Poor little guy!
He didn't mind too much 'cause he got to play "drive mommy's car" instead.

We finally checked into the hotel (which we were very impressed w/for that price!!), and headed down the river for some linner. (Yes, LINNER - the meal between lunch & dinner.)
Here's Kasen's first visit to the river:

We needed to kill a little more time before bedtime, so we got dressed & headed to the pool! :)

The next morning we walked all the way down the river to the mall, where we had breakfast. Kasen joined in with a banana & apple juice.

After breakfast we strolled the mall, then had a leisurely walk back to the hotel. (Then it was nap time! Yay!)


I insisted we hit up the Market (El Mercado) in the afternoon, and we kicked it off with linner (yeah, we're into eating 2 meals/day I guess - breakfast & linner) at Mi Tierra. Yummmm!

Kasen had to have a guitar!
Then, back to the hotel we went. We had already packed Kasen's toys in the car, so we entertained him with water/Gatorade bottles & misc object in the hotel room. Fun times I tell ya!
Kasen went to sleep around 7pm last night & woke up at 7:30 this morning. He was worn out! Once we were all up & dressed, we headed to San Marcos. It was a CRAPPY drive 'cause there was a bad wreck on 35 that left us at a standstill. It took about an hour to go just over a mile. But... we finally made it to San Marcos & grabbed some brunch at Cracker Barrel, then headed to the outlet mall! Luke got a new watch, a drill, and some shoes. Kasen got some shoes & some divided plates ('cause it's almost time to move onto big-boy meals!). We also got a pizza stone & a grill brush. Yeah, we're boring. What did I get? An ice cream cone. Seriously. The girl of the group bought nothing. Man, I am getting way too frugal!
Kasen took his first ride on one of those "thingies". This one was Kermit's car. (Obviously.)
Then, the ride home seemed to last forever. I did everything I could think of to entertain Kasen, and somehow we managed to get home in one piece - all of us.
Now it's about time to hit the sack. We've got a lot of unpacking, laundry, and other crap to do tomorrow. Thanks for letting us share our "vacation". :)