Tuesday after Christmas, we headed to San Antonio! We love San Antonio. Chris has an aunt & uncle who live there, and a cousin with a baby we hadn't met yet, so we contacted them about coming to visit. We ended up staying with Karla & T.O. (Chris' aunt & uncle) and having dinner with them and Vince, Ashley (Chris' cousin), & Connor. Gramps & Gramme had dinner with us, too. Connor is such a sweetie, so it was really great getting to meet him and letting the girls have a chance to meet him as well.
Wednesday, Gramps & Gramme headed back to New Mexico while our little family headed to Uvalde. Chris & I lived in Uvalde from July 1997-April 2001. Gracie was 9 months old when we moved to SC from Uvalde. The 3 of us went back to visit in December 2001, and Chris went back one other time. Uvalde was where I taught for 3 years, and there are some people there who are really special to us, so we took the opportunity to go back to visit.
It's always kind of funny to go back to a place where we once lived. Kind of bitter sweet in a way. One of the main couples we wanted to see, Ron & Kay Royal, weren't there, and we were really looking forward to seeing them. Another couple that is really special to us is Bob & Kathy Lester, and we were able to have dinner & go to church with them.
Both of these couples were 'surrogate grandparents' to Gracie for the first 9 months of her life. We joked with Kathy & Gracie last night that Kathy held Gracie in church for those first 9 months, not us! :) Bob prayed at church and said something about being thankful that we were there and how it helps him to remember that we have people all over that will one day (in Heaven) all be together. There were a couple of other specific ones I wish we'd been able to see, specifically Steve & Linda Forehand.
Chris & I have been blessed to make special friends in each place we've lived: Abilene, Lubbock, Uvalde, Aiken, and now Houston. I'm thankful for the path God leads us on throughout life.
Another special person we were able to see was Letty! She & I taught next door to each other for the 3 years I taught 2nd grade at Anthon. She is a great teacher. She & I have very different backgrounds, and I loved being friends with her and learning from her. I wanted to see her since we were there, but I didn't have her phone number, but I vaguely remembered where she lived. So...we drove to her house, and I knocked on the door, and she opened it, knowing immediately who I was even though she didn't know I was coming and it had probably been 9 years since we'd seen each other! I am blessed to know her.
This is a distant picture of my old classroom. I taught in the 3rd door, the yellow one. It seems like a lifetime ago.
The hospital where Gracie was born was very, very, very small. Here it is! She started out her life in this world at 5 lbs. 11 oz. in this hospital.
Wow...I drove through this place morning after morning to pick up my Dr. Pepper or diet Coke on the way to teach for the day. I almost expected someone to recognize when we drove in today. ha!
When we first moved to Uvalde, we rented a house which was located behind this gate.
This gate brought me frustration many times because the man who owned the land also owned some horses & donkeys who liked to stand right next to the gate. When I'd open it (with a remote opener) and it would open & close slowly, those stupid donkeys would walk right on out. Oh my goodness! I hated it! Those things wouldn't listen to me. Anyway....it probably wasn't near as bad as I remembered, and 9 times out of 10, they probably didn't get out, but the few times they DID, I hated it! I felt so much responsibility because I knew our landlord would be pretty mad if one of his donkeys got hit by a car because I let them out! I always liked it if his worker guy was out because they would listen to him and not get out!We also owned our first house in Uvalde. We loved that house and were anxious to drive by and see it again. Wow...we were disappointed. It didn't look good at all. I don't think it has been taken care of very well. Very disappointing because we really loved that house. It had such character.
Uvalde is quite the small town, which has grown some over the years. It has a cute little square that has a lot of charm.
This morning, before we left, we enjoyed going to the little gas station cafe and getting a breakfast taco. Yum! Seriously, I know it sounds weird, but there's a gas station that has a little restaurant attached that sells breakfast tacos that are really good!
When we left Uvalde this morning, we headed to San Antonio. We hoped to meet up with LeAnna, another friend from Uvalde who now lives there, but it didn't work out. Mark Hale was our preacher in Uvalde when we were there, and LeAnna was his wife. Sadly, Mark died a few years ago of cancer. He was a great preacher! We keep in touch with LeAnna through Facebook, etc., so we'll keep trying to get together with her. She also spent her fair share of time loving on Gracie for those first 9 months of her life!
We went down to the Riverwalk, one of our favorite places to be! We went through the Alamo
and walked around the mall then went to eat at Casa Rio, our most frequented Riverwalk restaurant. 
Katie & her daddy are dancing to the mariachi players in the background.
Katie & Ellie were dying to ride the Riverboat once they saw them floating down the river, so we did. It's always fun to ride them and listen to the San Antonio history.
Chris & I stayed in this hotel for an anniversary once, so it's special to us.
After we left the river, we went back to Karla's because Trey, Chris' cousin, had just gotten to town. We hadn't seen him years, but we love him and didn't want to pass up an opportunity to see him. He has traveled the world as part of the Army, and we're thankful he's returned safely from many stays in Iraq. He was stationed in Augusta, which is near Aiken, for awhile while we lived there, and we enjoyed being close to him during that time. He even babysat Gracie & Katie for us a couple of times years ago. Katie was probably about Ellie's age at the time!
We enjoyed our short trip; it was fun! I'm a sentimental fool, so it was neat to see things that made us think of times past. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve....a new year will soon begin. Prayerfully, we'll bless others and be blessed by others in this new year and will grow closer to God.
