Road Trip #2

Well, we braved the roads once again for Andrew's second road trip. This time, we headed for San Antonio. We left Thursday night hoping that Andrew would sleep most of the way. Nonetheless, he started crying about 20 minutes into the trip. I have to admit I was contemplating telling James to turn around and head back home. But luckily, shortly thereafter, Drew fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the trip just waking up a few times for a few moments quickly falling back asleep after drinking some milk. When we got in around 12:30am, Nonna was still awake waiting up for us. We put Drew down for bed, but he woke up a little while later in a ridicuously good mood wanting to play and check out the new surroundings. He finally went to bed around 1:30am.

Friday, we ran some errands around town including some shopping. That afternoon, we watched Stephanie's volleyball game. She did great, but unfortunately, her team lost. After the game, we headed for dinner at Johnny Carino's. A.J. did really well considering how much he was in the car going everywhere. He was also really cute when Stephanie's dog, Bandit, came up and barked at him and James. Did he cry? No. Did he shy away into Daddy's chest? No. He actually laughed. It was too funny.

Saturday, we went over to the Maher residence to visit with them. Sally made a terrific lasagna lunch. Brian even took James to see the new Brandies High School where Brian will be coaching soccer this year. When we were living in San Antonio, we spent a great deal of time hanging with Brian and Sally. So, in a way, it was just like ole times just talking and catching up. But this time was also nice and different because we were also spending time with their two sons, Chance and Brandon, as well as Andrew.

Later that evening, we had a nice family dinner at Doris's house with Mike, Janine, Stephanie and Thomas. It was an incredible meal as always; and we always love spending time with the Gonzaleses. We also spent a good portion of the night watching the Olympics.

Sunday morning, we went over to see Joey and Nicci Tse who were in town from Belgium where Joey is working for BASF. James and Joey went to elementary school together and lived together for one year at UT. We also stayed with them during our European vacation last year. During that time, we really got a chance to get to know their kids, Nathan, Hannah, and Sarah. It was great seeing all of them again and seeing how big the kids have gotten in about a year's time. One of James's soccer buddies and friend since elementary school too, Brad, also came over to Joey's parents' house with his wife, Laura, and their two daughters, Caroline and Rebecca. It was so much fun seeing all the kids together. We even took Andrew for his first dip in the pool; he seemed to really like it a lot, especially trying to drink the water just like he does in the tub.

After that, we headed over to visit another of James's friend, Alex, who James has known since he was 4 years old. Alex and his wife, Charlene, have 3 kids: Diego and twins, Xavier and Siena. We all went to lunch at Marie Callender's to celebrate Alex's birthday. The twins are just too cute!

By the time we were done with lunch, it was time to head back to Houston. We got really lucky because Drew fell asleep not even 15 minutes into the car ride and slept pretty much the whole time. Again, he woke up a few times, but each time, he went back to sleep right away after drinking some milk. About 10 minutes from home, he woke up for good. James and I were totally surprised by how well he did in the car both trips. He really did us proud that weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend full of family and friends. It was so nice seeing all the kids and their parents, of course. Thank you, Doris, for your hospitality and for everything you did/do! And thank you everyone for making the time to see us! We loved spending time with all of you and are missing you already!

Here is a slideshow of the pictures from this weekend. Mommy only wishes she had taken more, but she was too busy having fun.