Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Expectations

This year was our first experience watching general conference with a baby.  In the past, we would cozy up with some goodies, blankets, and a little notepad, and comfortably watch every bit of it - soaking it all in. 

This year, to feed Cal I had to shut myself in a completely different room because he thought they were talking to him, and he wanted to make sure they had his full attention!  Then, when I did bring him back, he would beam and coo and do anything to get those small people in the screen to smile back at him.  After getting bored of that, he would need a nap so one of us would take him back and put him down, meanwhile missing yet another talk or two.  So, needless to say, I think I may have got a full two talks in throughout the whole deal.  What a change that was!

It was a struggle for me, the first few months transitioning.  Similar to conference, attending church was usually a spiritually productive experience.  Quiet, reverent sacrament meetings, thoughtful discussion in both Sunday School and Relief Society...now Sundays seem to be a day to keep my head above water, and I only have one baby!  

I vented to some siblings recently about my feelings, how I don't even know why I go to church if all I do is distract a tired baby, or feed a hungry baby during the three hour block.  "What is the dang point??" I would ask them.  Each one looked at their spouse and smiled, saying, "Welcome to the next decade of your life!"  I came to realize, that throughout the different stages of your life, church will mean something different.  In the past, it was to fully exploit all of the wonderful messages and talks and to go home filled.  Now, it is to go to church.  Done.  There you have it!  I was getting down on myself for not getting anything out of church, but, I have a new mindset.  Just get there, with a positive attitude, be somewhat put-together and know that that's enough for now.

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Thursday, October 2, 2014

Everything's Bigger in Texas

Ryan and I got a group of friends together, and went out on an adventure!  We had heard of this place called "Big Lou's" that sold enormous pizzas, and we had to see it to believe it.  Well, we saw it.  WOW.  Huge!  The 42 inch pizza had slices that were bigger than our babies, and eating one piece about did you in.  Although the drive was rainy and traffic was terrible, we all decided it was worth it.  We are brainstorming what the next group food outing will be...giant burgers?  Grande shakes?  




So the next day, our little family went on our own little escapade.  We drove up past Austin to Round Rock - hit traffic on the way and went on a little backroad past the freeway, took way too long going through IKEA, fed a hungry baby in the car (multiple times), ate at a yummy place called Torchy's Taco's, drove on a toll road past the crazy traffic of Austin, stopped at Buc-ees in New Braunfel's, and made it back by dinner time.  Whoa.  I think we will wait a few weekends before we do that again!  It definitely was a very long day in the car, which made for a sad little babe, but we really liked doing something different and exploring the new world around us.  So far we have come to the conclusion that Austin feels familiar - more of a Portland feel (especially since they decided to COPY Portland and have the slogan "Keep Austin Weird" everywhere...) It was surprisingly green and seemed to have all sorts of fun things going on.  We will definitely visit again!




*Buc-ees is the largest Gas Pump Station in the country and largest Convenience store in the world!  It had walls and walls of snacks and drinks, and the nicest bathrooms I'd been in for a long time - so random and SO Texas!

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Zoo

Little by little I have been leaving the 5-mile radius around our new home here in San Antonio, and ventured out near downtown to go to the Zoo with some friends.  It was only my second time ever going to a zoo, so I felt a little embarrassed after realizing I was more excited than the toddlers that were with us...





I am finding that it is really family friendly here.  Lots of indoor/outdoor fun things for families including museums, Seaworld, a rocking YMCA, many parks and pools, botanical gardens, and much much more I have yet to discover.  I look forward to next summer, when little Cal will be old enough to truly enjoy the outing!

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