I am visiting England for one week with my mother and grandmother. My grandmother, whom I call “Nan,” was born and raised in England before leaving as a young woman to marry an American (my “Papa”).
An adventure at SeaWorld, and visiting family
Our girls are growing so fast. Jadzia starts kindergarten and Ludi begins preschool this year. So while we were in San Antonio, it seemed about time to introduce them to SeaWorld.
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San Antonio: Like a second home
San Antonio is in many ways like a second home to me (says the guy whose family is living in a temporary second home in Woodson Terrace).
My mom and dad met and married in San Antonio. Both sets of my grandparents were there, as well as several aunts and uncles. It’s just always been the go-to place for me my whole life.
Sick in San Antonio
As I mentioned in the previous entry, from the beginning of our Second Great Road Trip, I had been suffering a bit in my sinuses and chest. I chalked it up to allergies.
But the evening we got back to my Nan’s after visiting the ranch, I developed a high fever.
The ranch
Last year my aunt Joyce invited us to visit the ranch she shares with her husband Ted and my cousin Dion. I have never really visited a ranch in Texas, so I thought this would be a cool opportunity, especially for the girls.
We made the pretty drive into the hill country to a little town called Kendalia. Uncle Ted and aunt Joyce met us there on their motorcycle and guided us the rest of the way to the ranch.
2nd Great Road Trip: Houston
Driving to San Antonio from St. Louis is a 16-17 hour affair. Our strategy for this trip was much the same as when we traveled out to Washington. We would visit various friends/places along the way to break up the trip and make it easier. As mentioned in our previous blog post the first day of traveling took us to Texarkana. On the second day, we drove south through Tyler to visit Bullard, my old hometown.
After Bullard, we kept going south to Houston, where we stayed with one of Yoli’s American friends from Bolivia (yes, you read that sentence right), Sonja. Sonja and her husband Jody have three kids, close in age with our kids.
(Keep reading for photos and video)
Back in Bullard
The Renaud traveling imperial caravan is on its way through Texas. Our final destination is San Antonio by way of Houston.
We started Monday off in Texarkana, Texas, where we had stayed the night before in a hotel. Before we took off on the rest of our trip, we wanted to get a quick photo in front of the town’s famous post office which straddles the Texas-Arkansas border.
Then it was time to head down to my old hometown Bullard, which is a small town south of Tylerin northeast Texas. I lived there in the mid 1980s when I was in kindergarten, first grade, and part of second grade. I have a lot of memories from that time and since it was on our way to Houston, i thought it would be fun to stop by and show the girls our old house.
Here’s the house. The subsequent owners made some changes, the most notable of which is a second story above the garage. Otherwise the house looks much like I remember it, though the yard seems a little more wild.
Once upon a time, my dad built us a treehouse in the backyard. It no longer exists, but I looked for it just in case.
This sandy spot is the remains of a place in the yard I always called “the beach.”
The best part of our stop was dropping in on one of our neighbors from the old days (and surprising him). We had a great time swapping stories and visiting.
Visiting London (…the baby)
On Tuesday, The Renaud Empire visited our fellow Renaud realm in Rolla, to see our new niece/cousin London Olivia. What a cute girl! Justin was out when we first arrived and Becca was dealing with London, so Hayden and Keaton showed us their bedroom and their playroom in the basement.
Justin’s house is pretty nice. They bought it, gutted it, and built the inside anew. They have a great basement, and we spent some time playing Wii games. We also played outside, and I got to enjoy his portable disc golf basket. Justin also took me to their church (where he works) and took me on a tour of the new sanctuary and other stuff they are nearly finished building.
All in all, it was a fun day. Here are some photos to enjoy:
Caught a catfish, got caught by a thunderstorm
Clearwater Lake is a place we don’t visit often enough. But we did get a chance to go down for a day and a half over Tuesday and Wednesday. We swam in the Black River, caught a catfish on a trot line, and got caught in a thunderstorm.
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Two adults and four kids walk onto a plane…
We now has passports in hand for Josie and Joseph. I was surprised how fast they processed the applications. In fact, they did it so quickly, we may have enough time to apply for Bolivia visas for them.
So now my attention turns to other things, like how the heck we are going to survive travel in a plane with four children, two of whom will be on our laps.
Yeah, we are taking them as lap kids. I mean, there’s really no way around it. The tickets are going to run about $1,100-1,200 apiece, and I am willing to endure 8 hours of insanity on a plane to save a couple grand.
Plus, there is a decent chance they will put us at the back of the plane with some empty seats, at least on the flight to Bolivia. If that happens, BONUS.
I came across a cool blog entry today about a clip toy a mom made for her toddler. This looks like something that’s right up Josie’s alley:
I think I’ll try to make one myself.