San Antonio Missions

Bryan started Officer's Basic Training on the 5th of July. He is so excited to start working and just start this new chapter in his life and our life. We will have so many changes and things to look forward in the next couple of months. 

That weekend, we decided to spend some time down in San Antonio. We went to Sea World, but spent most of our time at the water park. It is so hot down here, the only thing worth doing outside has to involve water. We had a lot of fun, but no pictures were taken.

The next day, we decided to tour the San Antonio Missions. It was educational and a good way to spend our Sunday afternoon.  

 Mission San Jose.

The most beautiful and most preserved.

Inside the bastion of Mission San Jose. This was Bryan favorite part of the mission. 

 Mission Espada. 

Mission San Juan.

Mother Neff State Park

Early June we decided to spend the day at Mother Neff State Park. After about 3 hours, we had hiked the entire park. We didn't realize how small the park actually was.

 We hiked to the viewing tower and saw some of the Central Texas valley.

We saw so many of these crazy spider webs. If you look close enough, there is actually a spider in there. Gross!

 Bryan.

 It seems we always run into turtles when we go hiking. Lucky us! 

The last stop was a cave. It wasn't really so much of a cave. Many years ago, the Indians used it as a burial ground.

And that consisted of our state park tour. Check!

Orders

To those who didn't know and may be reading our blog and not writing comments or reading for the first time, we are headed over to 

Fort Polk, Louisiana. 

It was definitely are last pick, twice actually.  Bryan reports on June 14, 2012. He will be going to Officer's Basic Training starting the 5 July. It lasts two months down in San Antonio, Texas. This actually is perfect, because I will finish up my time with the Army and begin my outprocess at the end of August.

The positives: We will be living together. The army can only get better after this post. Super outdoors and family oriented. Finally get to visit New Orleans. Close to Houston (so we can keep an eye on our property). Close to the beach? Cajun food. Never lived in a town of 6,000 people. Our new kayaks are perfect for the flood season.

Truck

The day we found out Bryan was getting a state side assignment we bought this.

Bryan sold his Chevy S10 back in January when the transmission went out. We had just put about the trucks worth of money into it the month before and I have been a little fed up with the stupid money pit. So I told Bryan to just get rid of it. Bryan was carless for the next 5 months. Not really. His parents lent him one of their cars while he was in Oklahoma during his internship. Very nice of them.

Anyways, its a new addition to our little family.

Dr. Pepper Museum and Cameron Park Zoo

We went up to Waco to visit with Bryan's grandma and aunt. On the first day, we toured the Dr. Pepper Museum. The museum has a scavenger hunt set up to guide you through the tour. It was actually pretty tough.

 Bryan and his grandma looking at the old soda machine mixer.

 Bryan's Aunt Julie at the artesian spring water well- supposedly the purest of all waters and the perfect ingredient for the soda.

 At the end of the tour, we got root beer floats from the soda fountain. Yum!

 On the second day, we went to the zoo. It was raining on the drive to the zoo, but made for a great day alone in the park. Unfortunately some of the animals were kept in their holdings due to the weather, which is odd, they are animals! It was mostly the larger animals- elephants, tigers, bears.

 This guy swam over to greet us.

Grandma enjoyed the park from her wheelchair. Her late husband (Bryan's grandpa) was a veterinarian and she enjoyed being escorted around the park. It was nice to visit family. We will have to come up again.

Pedernalas Falls State Park

Now that we have a lot more spare time (with Bryan being out of school and permanently living together), we are trying to explore Texas.So we decided to go camping at Pedernalas Falls State Park. We haven't camped in a while, and let me just say that next time we go, we need an air mattress. Both of us did not sleep so well with the crickets, birds, and hard surface. The park is beautiful. Unfortunately, the area pictured below is not opened to swimming. We were able to hike it though.

 We hiked a good 12-15 miles while we were there. Lots of wild life. On the first hike, I was alarmed by a snake and practically jumped into Bryan's arms. On the second hike, we saw this tarantula walking across the path. I have never seen one here in Texas, crazy enough. We also saw a lot of fish, mostly the skeletons from the birds eating them on the rocks.

We stopped by some bird watching station. 

Bryan swimming up stream- the Pedernalas River.

 The water was perfect temperature.

We still don't know where we are headed, but it won't be Texas. We will be sad to leave here. It has treated us well.

Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory

Have you ever had this ice cream? It virtually is the best out there. We are really going to miss it when we leave Texas. Who doesn't like Blue Bell Ice Cream? Bryan's favorite is cookies and cream. I like all, but if I had to choose one, it would be their holiday flavor called carmel pumpkin spice. 

 We took a tour of the factory in Brenham, on our way back from Houston. The tour ends with a free bowl of ice cream. Seconds were just $1. And these are not little scoops, these are 3 big scoops! The workers are even sampling the flavors with you as you pick out a flavor. In fact, the factory workers eat all the free ice cream they want! Lucky.

 Yes, I am squeezing the logos utters and eating a bowl of ice cream. 

We would go again just for the free ice cream and refill. Love it!