Vacation To Del Rio

 

And off we go...

 

6 Hours to the town of Del Rio.

 

Joshua's first trip to Del Rio.

 

We have never driven this far with Joshua, so this was an experience for me and my parents. (John had to work. So sad he couldn't come, but I love that man for giving me and Joshua such a great life.)

 

To keep Joshua busy, I made him an activity bucket full with stickers, paper, crayons, games, movies and pipe cleaners.

 

I thought it would keep him busy for at least half the time.... and I was right.

 

 

 

It kept me busy too though. Every other minute he would change his mind about what he wanted to do.. so I was constantly having to fish out something new.

 

"Mama can you get my sticker book?"

 

5 minutes later.

 

"Lets put this up, I want to play my alligator game."

 

5 minutes later.

 

"Can I watch Ducktales?"

 

5 minutes later.

 

"Can you get the stickers and sticker book again."

 

 

It was a workout!!! Next time I am limiting what I bring.

 

 

 

We finally made it to our first stop on the list.. Fredericksburg, Texas. There we visited the Christmas shop and let Joshua pick out a ornament like he does every year. This year he picked out a beautiful horse.

His favorite place though, is visiting the towns. I love them too and wish we had a place in our house to display one, but we don't... maybe someday.

In the mean time we admire them at the shop. The Disney town is our favorite.

The next place we visited was Rustlin Robs. This is where I stock up on all my Jelly's, spices, and marinades for the year. I LOVE their stuff. Nothing else compares.. seriously.. nothing.

The winery is not the place for a little boy, but I dragged him there and made him behave as I ventured in to get a few bottles of their famous Christmas wine. It's served warm.. and its delish.

I also purchased lots of other bottles there... whoops!  What can I say.. Mommy and Daddy sometimes like to have a nice glass of wine.

And always a must when your with my dad... The Der Lindenbaum restaurant. German food at it's best. Joshua and I shared a sausage plate and Joshua seemed to actually like the food.

Score 1 for the German team!

Then we moseyed down to the bat caves. At dusk the bats leave for the night.. and there were hundreds of them... ok... thousands....

there were so many of them and they just kept coming out for like a hour!

It was a great experience... a very smelly, but great experience.

PS. Bats smell terrible.

This is just one of the 100 bat clusters we saw come out of the cave. Wow!!

Then it was off to Walmart, where Joshua had to have a picture with Stuart Little. Exciting!

This by far is my favorite part.... the old horse machine. Joshua has ridden this since he was a year old and every year we take a picture on the old horse. Hopefully one day we can take a picture of his son on the horse as well.

We grabbed a quick lunch at the airport diner before leaving Fredericksburg. Joshua was infatuated with the planes. He didn't want to eat, drink, color.. or do anything else for that matter. All he wanted to do was watch the planes take off.

It was a great day and there were several planes flying out that day. We even had the privileged of watching a private jet take off... that one was kind of scary because he almost ran out of runway before he lifted off the ground.

And of course... the old beer truck. This is a must see every year too. I love the way its perfectly preserved.

Joshua, Granna and Papa hanging out by the plane.

And finally...we made it to Del Rio!!

Joshua was so excited as he got to spend time with his second cousins Vivien and Georgia. He had so much fun with them, and they all got along so well with each other...

 

 

And boy was Joshua surprised to see this at Aunt Kathi and Uncle George's house...

 

their brand new pool!! Isn't it a beauty?

Joshua was excited!

Miss Vivien preferred the laid back feel of the hot tub.

And Joshua put on a pink puddle jumper and learned to swim. (Ok not really learned, but those things are seriously awesome! They help develop a child's swimming abilities and put them in a upright position to swim.)

Georgia and the beautiful butterflies.

Everyone had such a blast!!

Joshua loved sharing his sticker book with Vivien.

And papa bought all the kids water guns....   water guns that make noise at that!!

The pool is the place to be...

Georgia wrapped up one of her old books and gave it to Vivien as a gift. How sweet!!

On our way home we stopped at this German bakery.. they have the best cookies ever!

Just check out all the stuff Joshua was eyeballing...

He decided on this one... and couldn't wait to get home to gobble it all up.

 

 

All in all .. it was a great trip.

 

Joshua did have some tummy trouble. He threw up on the way there, and on the way back. Honestly though, that is to be expected. He has always had car sickness since he was little. But really.. he did travel well and was even a trooper when he got sick.

 

I love going out to visit Del Rio. I love spending time with family. I miss them even more every time we have to leave, but I am so thankful we made this trip. I know we will be going out there again very soon, and I can't wait!!