Rest of the vacation

November 24, 2008-Monday

100th find!!!!

We did it!! We found our 100th box today!! It was in Floresville at Pecan Park. It was kind of neat that this one ended up being our 100th find because I got to spend extra time at this box. See, as we were approaching the tree where it was supposed to be hidden in, Scott looked down and said “Uh oh!” There on the ground was the box all smooshed. He picked it up and could see little bitty teeth marks all over it. It looked like a squirrel had gotten a hold of it, then laid it down in the path of a truck. Thankfully though the logbook and stamp were not too far from the box. I pulled out my “Dr.” kit and got to work on a repair job. I had an extra box and logbook in my backpack so I was able to save the box.

Then we headed to my best friend Abbie’s house. Scott and her husband Gregg kept the littles while me, Abbie, Kimberly, Kirsten and her daughter Emily all went letterboxing. We had such a good time. We found 8 boxes and 2 hitchhikers!! We also met another letterboxer out on the trail. We were getting back into our car from just stamping in when I saw this lady walking in the direction we just came with a backpack on her back and a white piece of paper in her hand. I told Abbie “That looks like a letterboxer.” So Abbie got out of the car and asked her if she knew which way was north? (That is the “secret” code you ask someone else to see if they are a letterboxer. If they point up to the sky then you know they are a boxer, if they look at you weird then you know they aren’t.) Well sure enough she pointed up. Her name was Mosaic Butterfly. She was from San Antonio. We exchanged stamps with her then said our goodbyes. Before we left though we told her which boxes we were going to get next. She had just left that location and told us to be sure to check out the neat rock formation on the left side as we leave the park. Abbie and I thought that was a secret clue that she was telling us she had just planted a box there. So once we got to the park, after we found the boxes we knew were there, we began searching all through these rocks for a mystery box. By this time it was almost dark though, so we stopped and called it a night. Later on I emailed her and told her what we did, but couldn’t find a box. She then wrote me back and said there was no box. She just wanted us to be sure to see the neat rock formations. LOL
You have to be careful what you say to letterboxers. We tend to read too much into innocent comments. LOL

November 25th-Tuesday

Today I met up with my good friend Emily for lunch. It was nice to get to catch up with her and see her boys. Meanwhile, Scott was having lunch with two of his friends. It’s been so nice catching up with everybody. I thank God for friends. They are such a treasure.
Then we went over to Scott’s brother’s house for dinner. It was nice seeing my nephews again and watching the cousins play together.

November 26th-Wednesday

It was a relaxing day today. The girls helped Vickie make 4 pecan pies for Thanksgiving. They had fun cooking with their grandmother. Meanwhile Scott went hunting with his brother. I couldn’t believe the report I received when he got back. They saw about 30 hogs and 7 wild turkeys, yet the only thing he got was a raccoon! LOL Apparently Keith wouldn’t let Scott shoot anything b/c he was afraid it would scare the deer off. They are going to try to go hunting again either tomorrow or Friday.

November 27th

Today was Thanksgiving!! We went over to Scott’s brother’s house for the meal. His aunts, uncles and cousins were all there. There was 25 of us total. We had a good time. They have a bunch of cows that stay in the pasture behind their house. The kids enjoyed feeding them. After lunch we played this game called Spouseology. It was so much fun. It was a nice Thanksgiving.

November 28th-Black Friday!

Scott and I braved the stores once again. Our plan was to get up at 4am, however Scott accidently set his alarm for 4pm so we overslept. We got up at 5:00 and headed out. First we went to HEB plus but when we got there we found out the sale prices we saw in the ad weren’t good until the 29th! We were so frustrated! So then we headed over to Target. The line was all the way behind the building. We found a few things there and were standing in the LONG line to check out only to realize that everything we got was regular priced items! So we were joking how we woke up at the crack of dawn, waited in hour long lines only to get regular priced items. LOL Then we headed over to Office Depot and Wal-Mart for a few things. We got back to the house around 9:00.
After lunch Scott went hunting with Keith again. I just hung out at the house and rested. by the way, Scott finally got a hog!

November 29th

Vacation is over. We are now home. We had a great time and have alot of wonderful new memories to last a lifetime. :)

Weekend to Remember 2

Today we went to eat lunch at Hu Hots which is a Mongolian Grill. I had never had mongolian food before. It was really, really good! Then we went letterboxing. We found 7 boxes. There were 2 more in the series we were working on, but we had to stop b/c we had hit 99. We need to be with the kids to find #100. :)

So we're back in the hotel now. I'm about to take another Calgon bath. Scott is going to get my popcorn ready, then we're going to watch Hancock the movie here in the room.

I have enjoyed today so much. It's been perfect!

Weekend to Remember

Scott and I are in the middle of enjoying a WONDERFUL time away with just the two of us. We arrived in San Antonio Thursday evening. On Friday we left the kids with his parents for the weekend to stay at the Hyatt Regency Hill Country Resort and Spa for the Family Life Marriage Conference. This is our 4th time to go to this conference.

When we arrived at the Resort we were in awe of it's beauty and the special treatment we got. A bell hop took our bags and put it on a roller. He watched our bags as we checked in then brought our luggage to our room. That was a first for us. Then we headed to the conference. There are over 1000 married couples here at the conference.

We left the conference a little bit early to head back to our room. I had been given an assignment. I forgot to mention a few days ago I received a text message from a secret "agent" saying that there was a very important mission to be accomplished this weekend and wanted to know if I would help out. I accepted. Well, during the conference I received another text from this agent telling me to go to the room, get my camera, then go take pictures of some of the things I saw in the hotel then return. Once I returned I found a note outside the room door that said the following:

"Enjoy a hot bubble bath. I'll get your popcorn ready while you soak. All of our sessions have been canceled for tomorrow. After your bath we can watch LOST. We'll sleep in and have breakfast in bed sent by room service. Then letterbox when you are ready."

I walked in and Scott had prepared a hot calgon bath for me. It was sooooooooo wonderful!!!!!

So far I have followed the directions to a tee and enjoyed every minute of this mission. :)

We slept in until 8:15. We had breakfast in bed sent up by room service. Then we did our "homework" from the conference so we're not totally skipping out. LOL (By the way, tomorrow we do plan to attend the conference again. :) Now we're about to go eat lunch and do some letterboxing. Then we're going to come back to the room and watch a movie.

I'm having a great time with my wonderful husband. :)

This first picture is in the lobby where they are in the middle of building a REAL candy land type thing. I watched as the men were putting real icing on the gingerbread house! It's amazing!!

This tree is down the hallway from our room.

The hotel had robes for us!! This is me after my nice, hot bubble bath.

Here I am enjoying my popcorn getting ready to watch LOST.

Day 3 of Houston trip

The day started out with us taking Scott to the conference. Then we attempted to do some letterboxing before the rain began. We went to Memorial park where there were like 45 boxes!! I had wanted to try to find 9 boxes so we could reach 100, however I figured out real fast that was NOT going to happen. So then my goal was just to find 1 so I could hide the hitchhiker we had found. The mosquitos were HORRIBLE!!! They were eating us up alive!! We tried to find one box but it wasn't there. So we tried the next one and it was there. After I stamped in we began back to the car. It began to rain at that point. So we found the box just in time.

Then we picked up Scott for lunch. He was able to be here long enough to see Connie and meet her kids!

I took Scott and Katherine back to the conference. (She wanted to go with him instead of hanging out with us.) We met back up with Connie and her kids and went to the Museum of Natural Science. It was pretty neat. We tried to find a box that was hidden by the museum, but we couldn't find it. As we were driving away we realized we had been looking in the wrong place! ARGH!

Then came the big headache of driving back. Traffic is unreal here!

I went to the Church and picked up Katherine and Scott. He drove us back to the hotel so he could have the van. I took the kids swimming for about an hour and am now relaxing watching Dancing with the Stars.

Tomorrow we head home. I can't wait to get back.

Day 2 of Houston trip

This morning we woke up and went to the convention. I was able to enjoy the singing part and got to hear about 10 minutes of some famous Christian baseball player before I had to leave with Christopher and Kyrie. I was able to look at all the different booths there and got some info for our women's ministry.

At lunch my friend Connie who I haven't seen in about 15 years met me at the convention. We went with the kids to eat at Whataburger. Then we came back to the hotel to let the kids swim in the indoor pool.

After that I went and picked Scott up from the conference since he had a 3 hour break. He swam with the kids, then we all went to dinner. Now I'm sitting here in the hotel room while the littles are destroying the room and being wild. LOL I'll be glad when Scott gets back.

Day one of Houston trip!!

We left for Houston today to go to the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas. We headed out around 2:30.

We stopped in Lufkin for lunch.

We made it to Houston at about 7:30. We are staying at a really nice hotel! Because of the convention we got a really good deal! Here are some pics of our suite.

If you go down the hallway from our room just a little bit you'll see this view.

Pumpkin Patch and Letterboxing

I took the kids to Pittsburg today to go to a pumpkin patch there with our homeschool group. The kids had fun.

First we had to begin by taking some pictures of my little pumpkins. :)

Then they went through a hay maze.....

had a potato sack race...

climbed a big hay mountain, then went on a hay ride.

We ended our time here by decorating some pumpkins.

Then we got in the car and went to McDonalds to eat. After that we headed out to go do some letterboxing!! There were 4 boxes there in Pittsburg. The first two we found at a cemetary. The other one at a museum. Then the last box was at the World Headquarters for Pilgrims Pride. We got the biggest surprise at that box. There was a hitchhiker in there!!! Our very first hitchhiker find!! I was soooooooooooooo excited!!!! This hitchhiker started in New Hampshire, then went to Montana, Colorado, then Texas. I'm going to plant it this weekend when we go to Houston. I only have a couple of pictures of our letterboxing adventures today. I forgot to take pictures at the first 3 stops.

This first picture was a cool car we saw. I just had to get a picture of it. LOL Then the other picture is in front of the Pilgrims Pride Distribution Center.