San Antonio, 2013

My Dad has a golf tournament in San Antonio that he's been doing for the past few years, and usually Ella and my mom join him. But this year my mom was in NYC with Jamie, so Anna and I got to tag along.

Grandpa and Ella on the plane. I am including this picture to show off how my camera's autofocus. It didn't work for a few years and I have an awful lot of photos with Ella's face blurry but her top button sharp sharp.  I finally got it fixed, and it now magically knows what to focus on  (most of the time, at least)

We started off the trip visiting my college roommate and her cute little girl. It was really fun to catch up right where we left off...only now with husbands and kids. She showed us all the cool places. Like the Japanese Tea Gardens. Exactly what you picture when you think of Texas, right?

Then we rode a train to a cool kiddie park with old school rides. I promise Ella had more fun than it looks in this picture. But it's in focus, as opposed to this one:

I guess good camera can't make up for bad photographer.

We spent most of our time with these guys:

We love you, Lauren. Good job Greg. 

We spent most of our time at the Lazy River at our hotel. I've heard an awful lot about this lazy river, and let me tell you, it lived up to the hype. So much fun that we didn't take a single picture.  But the good folks at the Marriott did. Just imagine how much fun 5 Packer cousins had here.

There were also s'mores.

A little story about my powerful mind. I ordered the Granola for breakfast. Local yogurt, local honey.  

It was incredible. The yogurt was light and airy and tasted like a whipped, sweet Greek, vanilla mousse. When I asked the waitress what kind of yogurt it was she replied, "Dannon." What? No way. So I ordered it the next day, and asked the waitress (a different one) what kind of yogurt it was. "Yoplait." And even though I still think they were both wrong and it came from a small, organic dairy farm in San Antonio...it didn't taste nearly as good the second day. 

We rounded out the trip with Sea World. Sea World is always a good idea, but when you get a text like this a few hours before you are heading out it makes it extra special.

Even though she was a little hot and sweaty, Ella thought it was pretty darn great.

Kate and Ella third whale back, hands in the air. Brave, brave girls.

The young ones haven't yet realized that if you smile there is a chance you will get a treat. 

Thanks, Grandpa, for a great great trip! 

*Lauren reminded me of a funny story. There is a long standing debate between my parents whether my dad's ability to chat it up with anyone is creepy or friendly. He obviously thinks it's friendly...my mom's not sure sure. Near the end of the day at Sea World the kids wanted to go on a ride with a long wait, so Grandpa Paul told them that if they would go on a different ride he would get them a treat on the way out. When we got to the treat stand it was closing time, and with 5 indecisive kids we were not the ideal customers. As usual, my dad was making friends with the kid running the joint. When we went to pay our total dropped from $35 to $25. We wanted to make sure there wasn't a mistake and asked about it.  He quietly gave us his employee discount. Lauren summed it up nicely:

"Creepy doesn't get you the employee discount!" 

Score one for Dad.