The Campbell Family Blog: Road trip- San Antonio, TX

Well, this past weekend Ryan experienced his first long road trip to San Antonio, TX. He did wonderfully!! We kept him very busy and it was very hot, but he was a trooper and although he had his tired times in the evenings he did about as well as we could've hoped for.

Day 1: Friday, Mike took a vacation day from work and we left our home around 8:30am. Ryan had woken up that morning at 7:45. I fed him, got him dressed, let him play for about 10 minutes, then loaded him up in the car seat to go. He played with toys in his car seat for the first half hour or so then was out and slept for two hours! (YAY!) When he woke up it was about time for him to eat, but he was happy after I climbed back in the back next to him and played with a few toys and gave him some juice. We stopped just north of San Antonio before Loop 1604 so I could feed him about 12:15pm then continued on to our destination at La Cantera, where we arrived at 1:15pm. We met up with our friends the Turners for lunch at Grimaldis pizzeria. It was delicious! They had just built it before we left last year, but had limited hours and we never were able to try it out before we moved. The Turners have a little girl, Emma, who just turned 1 at the beginning of the summer. She is such a cutie and has grown so much since we saw her last! We went back to the Turner's house after lunch to play for a couple hours so Ryan could stretch and be out of his car seat. It was also just too hot to be outside. The little ones enjoyed playing for about an hour then Emma went down for a nap and Ryan ate and we left. Following our visit with the Turners we went to see a former sorority sister, Jenna Rose, and her two new twin girls- Katelynn and Leah. SO CUTE!! They are one month old and soooo tiny! I think one of the girls is about 5 lbs an the other is a little over 7 lbs at one month. It was nice to see Jenna and meet her precious little angels. After this visit we finally went to the Wood's home where we were staying for the weekend to get all our stuff unpacked and set up for the night. Unfortunately, Ryan didn't get any other naps other than the first long one and a couple 10 minutes between places that afternoon so he was pretty tired. He ate and then we headed out to one of our fav Mexican food restaurants in San Antonio, La Fogata! It was just as good as we remembered (minus being over 100 degrees and sitting outside). While we were there Ryan had a little bit of a meltdown which I think was a mixture of the heat and the fact that he was TIRED!! So, we took turns walking him around, ate then headed home for the night. Ryan had his first big boy bath sitting up in a tub at the Wood's house that night and then went straight to sleep about 9:30pm. The adults stayed up and watched a movie, Bounty Hunter, then turned in for the night around midnight. (long day!) Ryan did great sleeping in his pack 'n play for the first time and slept until 5am, woke up to nurse, then went back to sleep until about 8am.

Day 2: Began after Ryan was up for the morning at 8am. John had gone out and bought various pastries for breakfast from Broadway bakery (yummy!). We had kolaches, muffins, and scones- all delicious. After taking it easy in the morning and letting Ryan play and get in his long morning nap, we got ready for the day and Kristy went to a baby shower while John, Mike, Ryan and I went to Pam's Patio for lunch. I enjoyed their Spinach, strawberry and chicken salad and a strawberry lemonade! After lunch we met back up with Kristy at the house and let Ryan get in a nap. Then, we went to the Shops at La Cantera for a little shopping and Piccomolo gelato. To get out of the heat we headed back to the house and cleaned up, fed Ryan then went to Paesano's for dinner. We had planned to go to the River walk, but figured with the heat and tourists, since it is the end of the summer, we'd rather steer clear. Ryan will have to get his picture with the Alamo and River walk on our next trip. After dinner, bath and bed for Ryan- the adults enjoyed a friendly game of Yahtzee that EMILY won!! (finally!! Mike always wins!) It was lots of fun, then we all turned in for the night since we were pretty tired.

Day 3: Sunday morning we got up around 7:30am after Ryan woke to nurse (he was also up at 4am). We let him play on a blanket downstairs while we ate breakfast and then he napped while we got ready for church. We went to Crossbridge Community Bible Church, which was where Mike and I attended for a little over a year while we lived in San Antonio. We saw a few familiar faces, but many new ones. It was neat to go back and see the service. A few things have changed and they have built a Community Center on their land that they were paying off when we attended. Also, in April 2011 they are going to start meeting in a new sanctuary on their property. (They currently meet at Ronald Reagan HS) It is neat to see the growth of the church and Ryan got to go to BZ-A during service, which is where I used to serve on the 1st Sundays of the month. He had fun for the first half hour or so, then I got a page over the screen which I knew I would because we were past a feeding and I was hoping to enjoy some of the service. However, since he ate during service, we were able to go straight to lunch from church. We went to lunch at Perico's where everyone else had breakfast tacos and I got their enchiladas verdes. Yum! I miss fresh homemade flour tortillas everywhere you go in San Antonio and sooo good! After lunch we went back to the Wood's and packed up our stuff and loaded up the car for the trip home. I'll just give a brief summary on the long trip that we had going home because it's tiring just to think about. Left Woods home @ 1:15pm I-10/DeZavala. Accident/traffic 1604 to get onto I-35N (45min). Nursed Ryan in San Marcos, shopped Ann Taylor store (30min), crazy traffic to leave outlets- 45 min (just to get out of parking lot onto freeway!!), stand-still traffic just north of SM to Buda (1hr+), Another slow-up Lorena, Waco for Subway dinner and nurse Ryan, slow-down in Hillsboro, finally home @ a little after 8pm... Whew! Definitely don't miss the traffic on I-35 and I remember why we always traveled 281 when we lived in SA.

We hated that the trip ended on such a sour note, because it really was a great trip and Ryan did so well. He was pretty fussy by the end of the day Sunday, but can you blame him?!? We were too!! Also, we realized the next day when Ryan had his first tooth come through (8/16) that some of the fussing could've been related to that, but I do think he was bored/tired of being in his car seat. I think that's the summary of our trip! It was great to go back and we hope to go again when it is cooler and show Ryan some of the "historic/touristy" side of San Antonio. You'll see most of our trip revolved around friends and food! That's the way it should be, right? :) Hope you enjoy some of our photos below. I tried to take a few, but didn't get any with the other babies. I hope to steal some the Turners took eventually of Ryan and Emma. Enjoy!