Oh, I guess I should be posting, huh?

Don't you just live off of my blogging every day? What are you doing without my blogging? I am so sorry!
I 'll just post tons of pics and the rest of the story of our visit with Drew to make it up to you all.
On Saturday Drew was allowed to leave base for most of the day. We weren't really going to get away with sitting in the hotel room doing nothing for that long, so we decided to visit the Riverwalk and the Alamo. Drew had one request, to eat at a sit down restaurant before we left. So we ate at Tony Romas. That qualified as our new place to eat for the month of November. And with the price, it made up for not eating at a new place in September and October. I kid you not. The food wasn't even that great, in my opinion. Drew loved it, though.

In the middle of the Riverwalk Mall area, there is an outdoor picnic spot. The pigeons love it, of course. The kids, do, too. Lots of interaction with birds.
Sam and Trinity were fascinated with how many birds there were. The birds were even flying up and eating out of people's hands. They were just amazed!

So I had to try it with the kids to see if they could hold a bird.



Sam didn't like it at first, but after the second attempt he let the bird sit there for a few seconds without running away and jerking his arm back.

Trinity would NOT try it for anything in the world. But she didn't mind watching.

There was one thing that Trinity asked for on the entire trip. (not including wanting to stop at every single playplace between San Antonio and Minnesota)
She wanted to go on the Riverwalk boat tour.


We checked it out, and it was actually pretty cheap, especially with Drew's military discount. So we got on a tour. The weather was much nicer on Saturday than it was for the graduation, so we didn't need coats. Short sleeves was a bit cool, and a sweatshirt would have been adequate. But I didn't have that, so I used Donnie's coat on the boat just in case it got cool. (it didn't)


As you can see, Drew's personality is not at all different. He is still cocky and a big ham.

Sam took the boat ride very well. He fell asleep before we got on board, and did not wake up until we got off the boat.

That made for a very pleasant, and SAFE, boat ride.

The driver thought we were nuts for not being dressed for a blizzard. Turns out he had FIVE layers of clothing on. And yes, he proved it. He even had sweat pants on under his jeans.

Trinity absorbed everything about the trip. The entire ride was about 30 minutes long. The driver spent 10 minutes talking about how many layers of clothing he had on and how they had snow once on Christmas, but it didn't stick to the ground.

The driver actually did do quite a bit of things to amuse us. He found a couple making out on a high balcony and had us all say "Awww" loudly to them. The guy was then cut off from his kissing, lol.

Trinity spent most of the ride looking out over the side, pointing and talking and looking and enjoying every moment of it.

I loved watching her enjoy the ride. She saw ducks, and was so excited to see little ducklings. I only once had to have Donnie pull her back a little bit, just to ease my mind.

Later we walked over to the Alamo. The mission building is pretty to see, but really, there was very little information to make you happy you went there. The most exciting part was looking at the enormous gold fish in the "moat."

This is a picture of Sam on the bus after Drew's graduation ceremony on Friday. He was extremely tuckered out! You can't see it, but his jacket front is covered in hot chocolate.

I guess all that cold sucked the energy out of him. And we were rejoicing!

Just so you know, Sam did have some fun on the trip. Mostly he wasn't happy, but he loved the playground.

The playground was huge and had 3 sections. They were divided by age. I didn't notice the first day, but on Sunday we returned and I encouraged him to go play on the one for his age. He wasn't there a minute and a half and he had bit THROUGH his lip. He did great on the play ground for 6-12 year old kids. Put him on the one for kids under 3, and big time owies.

Here is a picture of Trinity hamming it up for the camera. She enjoyed the attention being on her any time she could get it.

Mostly the attention was on Sam and keeping him out of trouble. Constantly.

Getting him to sit still in a restaurant was nearly impossible! we almost didn't care to eat most of the trip.

But here we are at our first stop to Popeye's Chicken. It truly is an amazing place to eat. Mmmmm!







And here is a picture of me pulling Sam off of some kid more than twice his age. He had him pinned to the ground.

Now, the kid laid down himself, but he sure didn't know what to do when Sam sat on his chest and tried to bury him in pebbles.

So, I rescued him.

Don't you just love the covers over the playground? I realize that they need them in Texas or the kids wouldn't have skin left most of the year. But I think we need them in Minnesota, too. The equipment gets hot here, too, at least two days a year.

Oh, and that playground wasn't age appropriate for Sam, either, but he did fine there. That was the 3-5 year old playground.