A post the size of Texas

We had SUCH a great time in Austin! I loved the warm weather, letting the kids run out to the backyard to play at their own will, and without having to bundle all of them up (although it was chilly for a few days). The kids having cousins to play with, even neighbors. Still a foreign concept to me. Great company and conversations, hot tubbing, playing cards, watching movies, eating lots of Belgian chocolate and candy...

Ah, vacation! I really love it!
First night we get a babysitter and we go downtown Austin to see the Mariachi's, and a little bit of the city and capital building.Here's what Kate thought of the trumpet player. She was in a good sleep.
Somehow there were little packets of oatmeal (neighbor gift? I'm not sure) for the kids to put out on the lawn for the reindeer to eat. We told Tommy to go feed the reindeer...so he did!
Christmas Eve dinner. Aren't they all so well behaved?
Making cookies for Santa, uh Tommy, these are for Santa
Isn't it great how excited and willing kids are to go to bed on Christmas Eve?
Santa's surprises
Nothing beats the excitement of Christmas morning!
Her absolute FAVORITE of all the gifts. She even wrote a letter to the elves thanking them for making such a "wonderful" Tinkerbell doll. I just love her!

Matching keyboards...a big hit! The nice thing is they have volume control :)Like father, like son. He LOVES eggnog!!
This sums up how Kate was on this trip, GOLDEN! Super happy baby, and slept really good! (Too bad my other kids didn't, I could have really caught up). And we'll have to go back, because since we've been home she's gotten into her old habits of waking up a lot.
A definite highlight of the trip was our walk and bike ride around Austin. Beautiful weather and beautiful scenery!
What a trooper this little one was on the tandem bike for an hour.And another trooper...Grandma Packer, Gram Cracker, Grandma Grape (I love all her names). 84 and still has tons of energy. I was really impressed how well she kept up with this crowd.

The whole gang. We all fit under one roof :) Which went well, except for my sick kids keeping everybody up at night :( Although it's hard to tell from the pictures, my kids were pretty sick with fevers and bad coughs. Luckily, Katelyn never got the fever.
We went to the Oasis restaurant that overlooks Lake Travis. A spectacular view!
And some fun shots of my kids


The Tree of Life. Well, not sure what it's called but it's one beautiful tree.
Santa left his sleigh. Wow!
Tommy loves wearing his super hero cape! (Thanks Grandma!!) And since he was dressing up for the occasion, he grabbed Daddy a tie...
Our last day in Texas we went to San Antonio. The most beautiful day too! 74 degrees!!!!!!
We stopped first at the Temple.
Two crazy girlies with their Hello Kitty shirts. Too cute!
Then we went to the Alamo. Pop, Grammie and Natalie offered to watch the kids in the garden while we toured the inside. We finish up and come out to find this perfect, calm little scene.
HOWEVER, it was a bit more exciting than that! Tommy managed to get his little head STUCK in that little drain hole. Tom was the first to try to get him out, then Anita, no luck, then Natalie, still no luck. So, if you can picture it...Tommy screaming at the top of his lungs (and calling for his daddy), a large crowd of people gathering, park rangers running over, and Natalie on the phone with 911. I'm glad I wasn't there, but what a story it tells!! One of the tourists that came over to see what the commotion was about crept down to look in the hole and found a way for Tommy to turn his head to get out. Luckily that happened before any fire engines and chisels had to show up. After an ice pack he only came away with a small bump and scratch. All the kids got Alamo suckers and star pins from the Rangers.
He was pretty proud to tell Daddy all about...good thing he wasn't too traumatized! He almost went as far as demonstrating what he did to show him, but luckily everyone jumped to him, "No, Tommy!"
Oh, the Alamo
The river walk in San Antonio. Where's Waldo?

Thanks again Portugals for being AMAZING hosts!!! We love where you live and we're so happy we got to come and see it all. I hope your family feels better soon.

Our flight home went really smoothly. No throwing up, some minor ear discomforts, but they were all very happy and well behaved. Our trip home from the airport was another story. After 80 elevators, a kid who had walked enough, lugging all of our carry-ons to get to the airtrain and subway, and hailing three taxis to take us the last mile home and no one would take us...2 1/2 hours later we arrive at our apartment. New Years Eve and I was asleep by 7:30 (allergies+airplane pressure+stress=very bad headache) but Katelyn decided to wake up at 11:45 and I noticed a bunch of boats out on the water, so I woke up Jake and we watched a somewhat obstructed firework show over the Statue of Liberty. My kind of way to celebrate the holiday.

Monday was an extremely hard "back to reality" day. I'm ready for another vacation :)