Caleidoscope Crandalls

Monday, July 20, 2009

...Roadtrip Continued in San Antonio

We decided to make our long road trip with two cars and only two drivers a bit more bare able by stopping at some fun places along the way. I have always wanted to go back to San Antonio ever since Dan graduated from Basic at Lackland AFB. I had gone with my parents to his graduation but we never really had any time to sight see and I have been waiting for the chance ever since.

So we booked a night at Embassy Suites and had planned to just spend the remainder of the day there and leave the next morning. After arriving we realized there was so much we wanted to see and do that we decided to stay one extra night, which I am glad we did!

This is a picture from the balcony by our room looking down into the Lobby. It was really neat because the hotel was all decorated San Antonio style. The real reason we stayed there was for their great Continental breakfast...which is another story within itself!

After driving all morning and into the afternoon we were ready to walk around so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to go the Riverwalk.

We took a boat trip along the river. One of my favorite things we saw was this restaurant with all the pretty umbrellas along the river.

We also liked this neat mosaic they had on an office building.

Me standing on the road above the Riverwalk. You can see the boat ride we took below.

We were also able to see parts of the Alamo while at the Riverwalk. By this point I was dead tired so I just sat on a bench and relaxed while Dan withstood the heat and read all about the Alamo. Dan loved all he learned about the Alamo and we both would like to learn more about the history of it.

Us in front of the Alamo.

We decided to eat dinner at the restaurant with the umbrellas. I loved the scenery but the food...well...not so much. We were hoping for some really good Mexican but oh well! It was still worth the view!

Enjoying the atmosphere.

I think the ducks and pigeons liked the food more than we did. They were everywhere begging for food and even tried to get on our table a few times.

...and the Roadtrip Begins!

We began our move on a Wednesday morning...

with one quick stop to say "see you later" to Jenni

I promised her a picture of each place we stopped at along the way and a picture of every state we drove threw. I didn't entirely succeed but I got quite a few!

We stopped first in Lafayette to say "See you Later" to Donna as well. It was nice to visit and we were able to go to dinner with her and all her kids to our usual place, Deanos pizza. We even brought her a frog for her garden to remember us by since we won't get to see her as often anymore.

The next morning we left bright and early to head to San Antonio for our next stop. Stopping to take a picture at the Texas State Line was a great break for us to stretch and wake up a little. We had to drive two cars across the country which was quite a challenge, especially with how early we left that morning!

To be continued....

Saturday, July 11, 2009

YW Memories

After finishing my post about the Young Women farewell party I remembered that my friend, Sabette, was able to get me copies of some of the pictures of the yw that I didn't have before we moved. So in tribute to the YW whom I love and miss dearly.... here are some of my favorite memories with you!

In January or February we had New Beginnings/YW in Excellence combined. I had wanted to blog about it at the time but my camera died and I never got pictures. So thanks Sabette for your help so I could add this to my blog!

We did a whole Hollywood themed night for the activity and called it "A Nite Amongst the Stars". All the yw were our stars and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I was in charge of decorations and all the girls helped me make them. We had a red carpet for the girls to walk down when they got their awards from the previous year.

The biggest award of the night was when our sweet Jean received her YW medallion. Way to go Jean!

All the parents were invited for the special night. All the girls and leaders dressed up in Hollywood attire and we ate dinner of china and drank out of crystal glasses. It was lots of fun but definitely WAY too many dishes to wash by hand afterwards! The girls were worth it though.

Each of the YW had a table set up specifically for them to display their accomplishments from the last year on.

Kaitlin

Heather D.

Kali

Madison

Emma

Amber

Racheal (she forgot her display so we let her borrow our party favors so her table wasn't empty!)

Jean

Kayla

Maitlin

Mariah

Jaclyn

Sarah

The Laurels

The Miamaids

The Beehives (and soon to be beehives!)

Us Leaders

Everyone showing off their bling!

One of my favorite activities with the YW was when we got to go to the Lake! We went boating several times last summer and always had a blast.

The Loftins, a family in our ward, let us use their backyard and dock for our boating activities. This picture is of some of the YW before we started boating.

The YW were obviously a lot more talented than me at boating!!!

YW Goodbye Party

A week or two before we moved the yw had a huge goodbye party. There were about 4 or 5 military families that moved into the ward at the same time as us and we all moved out within a month or two of each other. Anyway, the yw's presidency had to be re-arranged as well as one of our girls was moving. So the yw president decided to throw a party for us all:) I had a really good time. It was nice to be able to visit and joke around with the girls on a Wednesday one last time. I miss them!:)