Back from Texas!

Happy weekend friends!  Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying your weekend a tad more than I'm enjoying mine.  Before I left for Texas I had an ear infection that was just crappy.  Well, my antibiotics made me sick, and rather than call the doctor like a normal person would to ask for a different prescription, I just stopped taking mine, flew across the country, and came home worse than I was in the first place.  Day three of my Z-PAK?  Check.

On to Texas, where everything is bigger.  I've been to Texas several times before, and I have to admit, everything really is bigger in Texas!  The highways are huge and have many lanes, the buildings are tall, and there are just massive amounts of open space as far as the eye can see.

Our journey to Texas was super short as it's George's "busy season" (C.P.A. lingo for tax time).  So, we weren't in Texas for long; we arrived on Saturday night and had to leave midday on Monday.  Still, we accomplished quite a bit!

On Sunday, Ashley and her family took us sightseeing in San Antonio.  I have to admit, I really didn't know much about the place until our trip.  There is this huge River Walk in San Antonio, and, Ashley told us it would take about a day and a half to walk the entire thing.  Since we didn't have enough time for that, we took a river boat ride through the water to give us a little history lesson on the River Walk.  Here are Ashley and Nick on our boat ride.

After our little cruise, we walked over to the Alamo.  At this point, I felt like a horrible American citizen - I had no idea what I was looking at!  I tried to learn as much as I could, and, I am now studying the entire history of the Alamo now that I am home and stuck in bed with my sinus infection.  Here's our tourist photo from the front of the Alamo.  Unfortunately, my daughter Maddy is not in the picture as she couldn't make the trip due to a cheerleading competition.

This is a horrible picture, and yes, I know I look more pregnant than Ashley!

On Sunday night, we exchanged Christmas presents (we decided not to ship them since we would be seeing each other so soon after the holiday).  Ashley gave me two gifts that made me cry (nothing new there!).  First, she gave me a 4-D picture of Hope.  I had no idea she'd even gone back to the ultrasound facility to get said picture, so, it was a lovely surprise.  To see my baby girl so clearly is just magical!  Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner to scan the photo, and, I won't post it here.  I posted it on my Facebook page, and, too many people told me they couldn't understand what they were looking at!

Next, Ashley gave me the most precious gift.  It is a pink teddy bear, and when you squeeze its heart, you hear Hope's heartbeat that was recorded during the ultrasound!  I play it over and over and over again, and, I always cry when I hear it.  Ashley also made Hope her first piece of nursery wall art - if you study it long enough you'll learn our nursery color scheme (no, it's not just pink!).  Here are both gifts below.

On Monday morning, we met Ashley's doctors for the first time, and, we also went for Hope's anatomy ultrasound.  Thankfully, we were all able to breathe a huge sigh of relief when we learned both Ashley and Hope are doing very well.  Ashley is handling the pregnancy beautifully, and, Hope is growing and developing perfectly.  This picture below is from the ultrasound and is too precious; it's Hope covering her face when the doctor tried to take her picture (yes, those are her arms and hands).

No pictures please!

After our doctor's appointment, Ashley took us to a "real" cowboy store.  The place was packed with the most beautiful boots, belts, outfits...you name it!  I've never put much thought into authentic western gear, but, this place was amazing!  We got this outfit for Hope to wear on the plane ride home from Texas.

All in all we had a fabulous time - it was just too darn short!  The next time we go out we'll be there longer...and we'll finally get to meet our little princess - we are so excited!!!!

Ashley, Jason, Benjamin, and Caitlynn, thank you for welcoming us into your home and for such a fun-filled weekend!  We can't wait to see you again soon!

Cheers!