Last few weeks in San Antonio

Shortly after getting back to Texas after Christmas Michael got a job offer to be the new Assistant to the City Manager for the city of Lake Jackson, Texas. We were thrilled! We had such a great feeling of peace when we visited LJ in November and the more we learned about the city and it's employees the more we felt it would be a good fit for our family and Michael's career. However, despite being 99.9% sure we would accept, I still needed a night to let it all sink in and pray a little more about it. We had built so many wonderful friendships in San Antonio and it would be really hard to leave, but we knew this was the right path for our family. The only downfall was that Michael was to start the first Monday in February, giving us just barely 3 weeks to move!!

 

Thankfully the city was providing us with a generous moving allowance. We barely even used half of it! This allowed us to hire people to pack, load/unload the truck, and clean our apartment for us! This was great for reliving a lot of stress in those last couple weeks and on moving day (which also happened to be my birthday). The most stressful part of wrapping things up in SA was getting out of our apartment lease. Needless to say after a lot of negotiating (by Michael- I tried to stay out of it because the manager made me really angry) we were able to break our contract without having to pay any huge fees. I am very happy to be done with that apartment! :)

 

In between all the moving prep and dealing with our apartment we were able to fit in some fun final outings in San Antonio.

• Before we were sure if we would hire people to pack we started packing some boxes ourselves. We took down the queen bed in Collin's room, leaned it against the wall and started stacking boxes. Collin LOVED climbing up and down and all over them. He especially loved to sit on one and fold his arms for prayer each night. It was like his own little throne.

•  Baby time at the Library. This was a regular outing every Monday. One of our last weeks we decided to stay with some friends for the toddler time right after. I was amazed that Collin bravely went and stood right up front with all the big kids! Can you spot him?? He is in red.

•  With our moving allowance we were also able to take a weekend trip to Lake Jackson to apartment hunt. We left Friday late afternoon and came back Sunday. After a long day in and out of apartments and lots of prayers we were able to put a deposit down on one. We were also able to meet a young family from the ward here and go out to eat with them. Its always nice to meet such friendly and welcoming people in a new area! We also were able to attend church in Lake Jackson Sunday morning before heading back to SA. It was a great first impression and we knew it was going to be a great ward!

We stopped for dinner Friday night. Collin loved getting chocolate milk and drinking from a big boy cup. He also loved getting to sit right next to his daddy!

•  For FHE one night we went to check out the Japanese Tea Gardens by the San Antonio Zoo. We had always heard that they were so pretty and I really wanted to check them out before we moved. Unfortunately, they were a little disappointing. Half the ponds were dry, no fish and not really the right season for pretty flowers. Oh well we enjoyed a nice walk through them, learned a little history about them and ended the evening with a picnic at a nearby park. We planted our blanket near a baseball field to watch a game that was going on and near the train tracks so we could see the Zoo train when it passed by. We had some really great weather in those last couple weeks, it was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

•  Since moving to San Antonio nearly every week I got together with my good friends Marissa and Becca to cook. It was such a fun tradition that I am really missing! Some weeks we just made lunch, or we would make freezer meals, bread, something sweet, dinner for that night, and all sorts of other delicious things! We usually met at Marissa's house (she had a nice big kitchen) and the kids played while the ladies cooked. I felt like I was a pretty decent cook before we started. But since then I have tried lots of new and unique recipes and learned many techniques from Marissa. Some highlights that I remember: The bread recipe that I now make regularly was one of Marissa's recipes, gingerbread houses complete with stained glass (jolly rancher) windows, homemade ricotta cheese, eclairs, pan glazed plums with ice cream, oven roasted tomatoes. It's making my mouth water just thinking of all these! Many of early recipes Marissa documented on her cooking blog http://anotherstickofbutter.blogspot.com/

The Cooking Group. Photo cred Becca

This was one of our first times getting together. We met downtown for lunch and some exploring. Its amazing how much can change in such a relatively short time! Photo cred Becca...I borrowed it from her blog :)

This was the last lunch we made together. This delicious sandwich had a yummy cream sauce, melted cheese, toasted bread, ham, broccoli, and topped with a delicious runny egg. I was in heaven!

•  One last picnic on our front lawn. This was one of our favorite things to do when the weather was nice. I have so many memories of doing this last spring with friends. Especially the day we set up tents in preparation for our camping trip. Fun times! This day Becca, Bronson and Evie joined us. Those kids have so much fun playing together. Despite the age difference, they both are so nice to Collin. Especially Bronson, he is always looking out for and protecting Collin. I love it, and am so sad they won't get to grow up together more!

 

Had to snap a few last pictures by the front door. This was my favorite spot for "baby bump" and "Sunday best" pictures.

•  Michael and I got to go out for one last downtown date night. I dropped Collin of with a friend and met Michael after work for a Riverwalk boat tour. We always said that we would go when we had visitors but that just never happened. So we had to go before we lost our Bexar county resident discount. It was a beautiful evening, and a fun and relaxing ride. So glad we didn't have to wrangle Collin. It was fun to learn some interesting SA history. Would have been fun to do this when we first moved here so we could share interesting tidbits with visitors when we took them to the Riverwalk. Oh well. This was a tree we saw. There was something significant about it, but I can't seem to remember what. But its the only picture I took that night, so I had include it. ;) We finished the night with our favorite fajitas from Mama Margie's. I am going to miss that place!

•  Play group with our church friends. We met so many great people in San Antonio. I know I keep say that, but really if it wasn't for the people I probably would have hated living in San Antonio. We loved going to playgroup when we could. Here is Collin with two of his little friends- Ada and Chloe. And he had the biggest melt down when it was time to leave. I think he sensed something was different. Broke my heart to see him so sad and nearly made me cry too!