Gini and Will Visited!

I apologize for the delay. It's been a crazy week. Let me finish telling you about the second half of Gini and Will's visit!

On Saturday, we went to the San Antonio Zoo and the Japanese Tea Gardens. Brandon had our camera at the zoo and took approximately 8 billion photos, so I'm just going to pick a handful here, and I'll consider posting the rest on facebook. But seriously, it's a lot.

Gini and I both used our umbrellas all day. It was so very hot out.

Komodo dragon!

Sea horses are such crazy animals. I stood at this tank and stared at them for a good 10 minutes, just mesmerized.

We spent forever in the reptile house. Brandon turns into an 8-year-old boy around lizards.

There were a ton of photos of lizards and snakes,

... but I'll spare you. If you want to see more, I can post them on Facebook.

Everywhere we went, Gini and Will had to do the "turn your penny into a thing" thing. They apparently collect them. It's a really affordable souvenir that doesn't take up a lot of space!

GIANT HIPPOS! TAKING AN UNDERWATER NAP!

Pictures of people.

Pictures of people.

Gini: "Notice we are in the Africa section of the park, and yet these are Asian elephants!"

Most of the animals were hiding in the shade.

This is an okapi. Gini bought a stuffed version in the gift shop, and named it "Okapi the okapi."

I think the heat robbed the kangaroos of all their boingaboinga.

Quick photo opp by the cacti.

They had fans in the gift shop, so I indulged.

Then, dinner! Mexican food again, of course.

One quick shot of the Japanese Tea Gardens, then our camera ran out of battery.

On Sunday and Monday, we went to Schlitterbahn! We brought a waterproof disposable camera with us and took turns carrying it and taking photos, so we actually got quite a few pictures of everyone:

Picture in front of the castle.

Everybody say "Water sliiiiiide!"

Trying not to fall off the crocodile.

The whole group.

Ready? Set, GOOOOOO!

Super pumped. 

Thumbs up action shot!

 Rawk on action shot!

 

In front of the castle... lots of sun in our eyes.

Honestly, Schlitterbahn was AMAZING. It was exhausting, but super duper fun. Back home, my summer tradition is to go to Cedar Point every summer. I've been going since I was 3. Being that Cedar Point is one of the best roller coaster parks in the world, my new summer tradition had big shoes to fill. Conveniently, Schlitterbahn is less than half an hour away from us, and it happens to be one of the best water parks in the world. So, an apt replacement, to say the least.

Seeing Gini and Will again was really nice. Now they need to tell everyone in Kzoo how much fun San Antonio is, so the rest of you guys will come visit us! ^_^

Gini and Will are Visiting!

When we went home for Christmas, we met up with our friends Gini and Will, and started talking about the possibility of them coming to visit. Six months later, they got engaged just in time to come to San Antonio to celebrate! They're staying with us for a week, and doing a blitz of all the fun stuff we've found to do in this city. Here's what we've been up to so far:

We started with some shopping. We checked out the Japanese food mart. This was high on William's list because he minored in Japanese and loves everything to do with Japan.

Of course Gini immediately found the Pokemon.

Then, we went thrifting. Gini and Will do a LOT of shopping at thrift stores - Will basically taught me how to be thrifty. When he found out there are 19 Goodwill stores in San Antonio, he said we had to hit up at least a couple, so we went to the three in the immediate vicinity of the Medical Center Area.

William in his natural habitat. 

When I sent them a rough itinerary on Facebook, Gini said I had packed too much in. She said she fully expected to sit in my pool, with a margarita in her hand, for a week. 

So we've been doing quite a bit of that, as well.

Now that's what a vacation is supposed to look like.

Of course there is the obligatory food: Mexican and BBQ. I didn't get any photos when we were at Chacho's (Gini did, they're on Facebook), but I did get a couple pictures at The Bar-B-Q Station.

I made the mistake of describing a Dos-Rita, and from there on out there was no other option: we HAD to go. And so we did.

William approves.

That's a happy Gini if I ever saw one.

...We were caught off guard.

On my brother's blog, he always shows a photo of the menu when he reviews a restaurant. I think that's what Brandon was going for here, but unfortunately for him I photo-bombed it.

Even I'm willing to admit that's a little terrifying.

I had to include the silly face one.

Today, while Brandon was at work, we did the obligatory downtown stuff. 

Remember the Alamo!

Gini is a botanist, so we spent a great deal of time in the courtyard of the Alamo, checking out all the plants that had been donated. She was really impressed by the size of the palm trees, so she asked for a photo.

And then, of course, the obligatory Riverwalk visit. We didn't eat anywhere on the Riverwalk, just hung out and enjoyed the shade.

This is the Riverwalk entrance across from the Alamo.

We grabbed dinner at The Cove on the way home. I don't think I've reviewed The Cove before, so consider this my official review: it rocks. You should go. (They don't really need my help, they've been on the Food Network.)

It's a restaurant, a laundromat and a car wash. I'm not kidding.

Texas burger (burger with nacho toppings) with sweet potato fries.

I believe Gini had some sort of vegetarian quesadilla.

Will got a sampler with the fish tacos and the shrimp tacos.

We're only halfway through their visit, so there will be more to report on Monday!

Lizard Bro

I promise, I'll get photos up of my vacation soon. There are just so many to comb through...
In the meantime, here's a hilarious story about what Brandon did while I was away.


In Texas, we see lizards a lot. Brandon and I can't seem to get over them: they're so goofy looking! Every time we're walking outside and we see a lizard, we always stop to check it out or take pictures of it. No, seriously:

I saw this little dude when I went to grab the mail.

Well, apparently while I was away, a gecko got into the house. Brandon moved his messenger bag and saw the little guy scoot across the rug under the couch. So, naturally, he caught him, put him in one of the rats' travel containers and gave him a little habitat to live in. 

Because the natural response to finding a pest in your home is to keep it.

What's hilarious is the way Brandon chose to tell me: "I found a gecko in the living room, and so now he and I are just hanging out."
Wait... what?

Anyway, once it was explained to me that the gecko was contained, and not just chillin' on our carpet, I was fine with it. I encouraged Brandon to go to the pet store and get some crickets for him to eat.

 

His name became Lizard Bro. Because Brandon is creative like that. 

The crickets came with a piece of cardboard from an egg carton. Lizard Bro loved to hang onto the underside of it and just chill. 

I told Brandon he was perfectly allowed to keep a pet, but he said no, Lizard Bro belongs outside. The adorable part is that Brandon was actually REALLY TORN about whether or not to let him go. It was clear that he enjoyed having him around, but felt bad keeping him when he could be outside, running around. But he couldn't stand the idea of going to the pet store once a week and spending $2 on crickets. So, we enjoyed the little gecko's company for a few days, before setting him free on Brandon's birthday.

Brandon has the weirdest adventures while I'm gone.

Brandon is 26!

Brandon turns 26 today (Saturday - it's technically after midnight!) so I baked him a cherry pie.

Getting my hands dirty.

I'm getting way better at sliding the bottom crust in without any cracks.

I've never attempted a lattice before.

Ta-daaa!

I insisted on putting candles in the pie and singing Happy Birthday. We had to move quickly, however, because apparently candles and pie don't mix. Also, Brandon railroaded over me by shouting "PPPIIIIIIIIIEEEEE!!!!!!" while I was trying to sing to him:

I also got Brandon a level and an angle. He's using them to help him build our new coffee table. It sounds boring, but he was ridiculously excited when I gave them to him. He's a huge dork. ^_^

In the morning, we're getting up and buying donuts, because he's super craving on donuts. 
Happy Birthday, Brandon!