Back From San Antonio

Yesterday Mom and the kids got back from San Antonio. Mom was just taking the last car seat out of her parents van as I pulled into the driveway. It looks like everyone made it through the adventure unscathed and with their sanity intact.

Walking into the house I was greeted by a "Daddy!" from the living room as my little girl comes running toward me with outstretched arms. I picked her up gave her hugs, kisses, and held her in my arms for quite a while. I had missed my little girl. I think she missed me too. After I let her down to run around the house she came up behind me, hugged my legs, and said "Daddy I missed you". That wasn't the last thing she said either; not by a long shot. I think while I was gone someone stole Alyce and replaced her with a duplicate. This little girl that came back from San Antonio was a little chatter box. Once she started talking she wouldn't stop. And her talking wasn't just babble or saying random words. She was describing the world in full sentences. Going upstairs she saw her room and said "That's my purple room". She looked at my gym back and said "Daddy's bag is red". I'm not sure what changed over those 10 days. Maybe it was just that I wasn't there to see the gradual improvement.

The trip both to and from San Antonio seems to have gone better than I expected. Both Alyce and Luke handled the trip well and didn't ever get fed up with being in the car. Two years ago around this time we took a trip up to Minneapolis to see my brother and during the return trip we had some issues with Alyce. This time Mom had a secret weapon, her iphone. This phone has the ability to play movies, video games, and stream cartoons over the airwaves. If you have kids and don't have one of these devices go get one now and finish reading this when you get back. I don't know the amount of time Alyce spent watching movies but I know she watched both Cars and Wall-E at least twice each. So that is 8 hours out of peace an tranquility for those in the car.

Lodging also went rather well. Mom, Alyce, and Luke all shared a room during the trip. I give Mom lots of credit. It couldn't have been easy to get both kids to sleep in the same room and not have one wake up the other. As a bonus both kids slept through the night every night.

Mom and the kids got some time in the water with the whole family. Alyce got to wear her new life jacket we picked up and I think she was a big fan. Alyce doesn't have a healthy respect of the water yet, or the ability to swim so some form of flotation device is a necessity. They picked up some water guns too which I'm sure led to some good water gun fights. I don't think Alyce had to coordination yet to fill it up but I think she was able to shoot a few people

The family also spent a day at Sea World. While there they got to see a water ski show that scared Alyce a bit, Shamu the Whale or as called it "Shampo", and a seal show. I think there is one more but it escapes me. They saw a few other animal exhibits but I don't think they rode any rides.

The final observation I had about their return was how much Alyce and Luke seemed to grow. I'm sure they grew very little but it didn't appear that way. Alyce seemed to be taller while Luke seemed to have lost weight