San Antonio

Evan and I went to San Antonio last weekend for his annual demolition convention.  Although the weather didn't cooperate the first couple of days, the rest of the trip was gorgeous.  It was fun to see a new city and experience the culture of Texas!

It was complete cloud cover heading into San Antonio:

Our hotel room at the Hyatt on the Riverwalk:

Meeting Rebecca in person for the first time.  We have been friends online for 6 years, but have never met face to face.  She drove down from Dallas to spend the day with me in San Antonio:

Despite the freezing temps, we still had a great day together:

Walking along the Riverwalk:

The riverboats were not out at all during the first two days we were in SA, the river was just packed with them the rest of the trip, when the weather warmed up!

Our hotel was located right on the Riverwalk.  This was our path leading down to the restaurants and shopping area:

Me by the waterfall:

Evan by the waterfall:

We met up with the Bolander crew on the Riverwalk and spent a few hours in Durty Nelly's Irish Pub.  It was a fun time! 

They had a singer/piano player that could play almost anything!

We met up in the hotel lobby bar before the cocktail reception:

Rick and Andy had way too much fun with the cowboy accessories!

We had a great time with the crew from Bolander - what a fun group!

Monday night's dinner was at Cowboy Dance Hall.  We were bussed to the dance hall for dinner, dancing, and a professional bull riding competition.  This was the live band on stage:

They also had armadillo racing on the side of the bar:

Getting in our seats at the bull riding competition:

Very cool - they lit up the arena with fire before the show:

One of the bull riders.  I really need to get better at low light photography - all of my photos were grainy and dark! 

Mark on the mechanical bull:

Brad's turn:

And then Andy and Jamie:

The pool area at the hotel was on the rooftop.  It was pretty small, so on the sunny days, it was packed and hard to get a chair.  They did have a great waitstaff, so that made up for it! :)

They had a huge fitness center at the hotel:

I slept in as late as possible and then took advantage of the fitness center equipment:

We went on a River Cruise on Tuesday:

 The Statue of San Antonio:

We also visited the Alamo on Tuesday.  There was a long 'moat' like area running outside of the museum.  Inside, were about 15-20 of these goldfish and they were HUGE!

I thought mine were large, but these were over 2' long!  Mine would be a meal for these fish!

Lots of pops of color in San Antonio this time of the year.  This was along a wall outside the Alamo:

And a cactus bed outside that was very intersting:

A tree with long limbs that begged to be climbed on.  Apparently that is why there is a sign that says "please stay OFF of the tree"!

Evan outside of the Alamo Museum:

Me outside of the Alamo building:

Evan outside of the audio tape tour area:

Me by the entrance:

The Riverwalk on Tuesday night.  This week is spring break in Texas and the entire area was hopping!!!

I took this shot standing on a bridge over the Riverwalk:

Views from our hotel room - we were on the 18th floor and had an awesome view!

Most of the hotel pools were on the rooftops - we could watch the people swimming from our room!

Our group at dinner on Tuesday night - Brad, Mark, Jamie, Andy, me, and Evan (Rick and Debbie had already left):

Jamie was so funloving.  This was a great group to be with and we had a blast! :) 

Newest Bolander Employee

Ryan visited Evan's office one day about a year ago and when he did, he stopped in the President's office.  The president's name is Mark Ryan.  Mark took out a business card, scratched out his name Mark and added Mackey after Ryan.  Under his name, it says President.  Ryan to this day believes he is the 'boss' of his Dad's office.  When we left for the airport last week, Ryan quickly settled into Evan's chair and decided that he could get used to his office! :)

Spring Cleaning

I am a little over halfway through my spring cleaning. It takes forever, mostly because I like to go through everything really well and I don't get long periods of time to work on it. Last weekend I tackled the laundry room and the foyer. I was going through the laundry room closet and realized that with our 9' ceilings on our main level, we had a lot of wasted space above our shelf and way too much stuff piled up on there. I took everything out, sorted through it, and got rid of anything that was too small or that we no longer wanted/needed. There was a lot that still fit the kids that I wanted to keep, so I had Evan install a shelf above our current shelf to add some much needed storage. SO MUCH BETTER!

Funny, I remember thinking when we moved into this house (Kyle was 2 when we bought it) that we had so much storage room. Now, quite the opposite! Amazing how much 3 kids and all of their 'stuff' changes your perspective!

Just a portion of the things that needed to go back into the closet:

Wasted space above my shelf:

Evan installing the new shelf:

New shelving, prior to putting things back into the closet:

Much more organized space, yeah!!!!

My little goofballs!  The only time they want to help me spring clean is when it is time to get above the foyer closet to dust!

Jewelry

I filled a few orders and also made a gift for a good friend of mine.

This necklace is for my friend, Rebecca.  We met years ago online, through a support group I created after we lost our daughter, Olivia, in 2003.  While I have never met Rebecca in person, I feel like I know her and the others on my online board more closely than I know many of my 'in real life' friends, given the circumstances that brought us together.  Next weekend, Evan and I are flying to San Antonio for his annual demolition convention and Rebecca is driving from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to meet up with us.  I can't wait to meet her in person! :)