Our time in Texas

I wanted to compile a list of the things we've done or accomplished over the last 4 years in Texas. I thought it would help bring back some great memories. We leave in the next couple days for Louisiana; definitely going to miss it!

1) Schlitterbahn Water Park
2) San Antonio Temple
3) Tubing down the Comal River and Guadalupe River
4) Our first cruise out of Galveston: to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cozumel
5) Pedernales Falls State Park

6) San Jacinto Battle Reenactment
7) Houston Temple
8) San Antonio Missions
9) The Gaylord Texan Resort

10) Cameron Park Zoo
11) Rafting Lady Bird Lake
12) Mother Nef State Park
13) Rebekah's first 5K, 10K, and half marathon(need to do the full thing someday)
14) Bryan's first 10K, 1/2 marathon, and full marathon
15) The Alamo
16) Ink's Lake State Park
17) San Antonio's Sea World (I think we went every year?)
18) Our first Olympic Triathlon

19) Dallas Temple
20) Houston Rodeo
21) Our first basketball game, Houston Rockets
22) Wicked Musical
23) Canyon Lake Silver Leaf Resort
24) Our first half marathon trail run
25) Fiesta Texas
26) Tyler Texas Silver Leaf Resort
27) Bryan's first motorcycle
28) Colorado Bend State Park

29) Kemah Boardwalk
30) Houston's Downtown Aquarium

31) Lake Conroe Resort
32) Sam Houston's giant statue
33) Dr. Pepper museum
34) Blue Bell Factory

35) Fort Worth Stock Yards
36) Our first ballroom dancing lessons
37) Sailing on the Galveston Gulf
38) Our first drive by shooting, scary!
39) Remodeling our first house

40) Hurricane IKE
41) Brad Paisley Concert!
42) Bryan's first time hunting
43) Cooking our first Thanksgiving Dinner
44) Rebekah's first jury duty
45) Natural Bridge Caverns

46) Our first pair of Texas boots
47) Many trips from Texas- Mexico, Utah, Arkansas, Arizona, St. Thomas Virgin Island, Korea, Hondorus, Alabama, and Washington
48) Houston's Natural Science Museum and Body Works
49) Driving pretty much every highway of Texas:)
50) Our first pregnancy- yeh that's right- we have a baby on the way, due in February!

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.