Visiting Bret in TX!!!

      Bret kept bugging me about going out to Texas to visit him. He would tell me about how other peoples families were there visiting them and tell me about all the stores, restaurants and things that we can do there. We have kids and things going on here so I didn't think that it was really possible for me to go. One day I was standing there talking to my friends and we were talking about how we don't have any stores around here and my one friend brought up San Antonio and how much they have there. I piped in saying "ya Bret keeps trying to talk me into going to see him by telling me all the stuff they have there". My other friend, Jalynn, gets all excited and says "you should totally go, i'll watch your kids!" It caught me off guard because that's not what I was going for. Then just before we left the park she came over to me again and said "really Charise I will watch your kids if you want to go, it's not a problem." So I got excited some and decided to look at plane tickets. I found one for a really good price and headed a out a couple weeks later. 

      Bret and I have had a couple one nighters with out kids but this was 4 nights!!! We had so much fun! San Antonio would probably not be my first choice to have a fun weekend with Bret but I take what I can get.  I got there Thursday evening. We went and had dinner and roamed the mall. It's been awhile since I have walked in a mall. We looked for some jeans but it's so hard to find some that fit my big thighs and no hips and waist. Vanity usually pulls through for me but they are out in the midwest. Any who it was still fun to just be with Bret. 

      Friday Bret had to go to class. I just hung out at the hotel, ate breakfast, exercised and got ready for the day. It was great! Bret got done early which was awesome. Then he could help me with my phone. Bret and I have not joined the world of smart phones and my oh so crappy phone...crapped out on me on the way to San Antonio. So we spent all afternoon trying to get my phone fixed. What it came down to was that my phone is old and not smart. Bret and I toyed with the idea of just getting new phones but we are going to Germany so we don't want to start a new contract. Blah blah blah, I ended up getting an even older phone that is a flip phone from some one off of craigslist in the area. It works great so far. That night though was really fun. We went to the Alamo Draft House. It is a movie theater/restaurant. It looks like a movie theater but it has a table like thing in front of you and you order food just like a restaurant and eat during the movie. 

      Saturday we were able to go to the temple! It was beautiful. Later that day we went downtown and checked out the Alamo (yes we remembered it). It is was interesting. That didn't take long so we decide to go across the street and go see a 4 D movie, walk through a wax museum, and Ripley's Believe it or Not museum. It was so random but fun. It was also Fiesta Texas going on so there was a lot of people hanging around waiting for a parade. We decided not to stay for the parade and went on the river walk. It was beautiful and we ate at Mexican restaurant there on the walk. 

      Sunday we just relaxed and went to church. Church on post is interesting. There were not many people there and they only do 2 hours because a lot of the enlisted soldiers ate not allowed to be gone that long. It was actually kind of nice to just go for 2 hours. I also felt very dressed up. Most of the people there were men and they were in "civilian" clothes. Bret says they are usually in their nice military uniform but they must have gotten a free day to wear their civilian clothes. Bret's rules are not that strict and he just wears his normal church clothes. That night we went and had dinner at a friends house. Our neighbors that lived a couple houses down from us here now live in San Antonio. It was really fun to see them. 

      Monday morning I flew back home. It was so good to see Bret and I didn't want to leave him but I was also wanting to get home to my kids. I felt bad for my friend that was watching them. Even though she reassured me multiple times that things were great and they were having fun. It was funny but hurt a little when I came home. My friend dropped us off back home and when she left McCoy just threw a huge fit and sat and cried at the window for I little bit (I may have cried a little too). He wanted to go back and keep playing at their house. I did eventually win him back over and he prefers me over Jalynn. So I feel a little better about myself. Of course Lynndon and Cooper had a blast with their friends and getting to sleep at their house. I just love the people we have met here. I don't know how i am going to pay them back after all the help they have given me since Bret has been gone. 

Just before I went to go through Security at the airport I realized I still had McCoy's sippy cup of milk in my purse. I had to go find a bathroom to dump it out and I just carried a sippy cup with me even though I had no kids with me. 

The Alamo! It was hot and I little humid that day.

In one of the little courtyard of the Alamo.

The beginning of the wax museum.

Thumbs up for Will Smith!

This is an awful picture but some of the wax people did not look so good. 

From Left to right we have-Michael, and Bret, and Michael, and...little Michael. 

It was so hard to get a good picture but this was the worst wax person. I feel like it does not look hardly at all like Oprah. 

Watch ya got there Obama? 

The Hulk, Charise pretty much the same thing. 

In Ripley's. The biggest tire.

Bret, a little on the short side...

Crazy amount of detailed carved out in this piece of ivory. 

I'm one in a thousand according to the plaque above this picture. 

I don't know that I should be proud or not that I can do some of the things in Ripley's...I can't get the very tip of my nose though.

On the River Walk with this handsome fellow :) I think i'll keep him.