weekend getaway

last weekend for our 7-year anniversary, we took a little family vacation to san antonio. it was such a gift of family time where we were ALL together. with both eric and me working and in grad school, our days are divided - while one cares for ezra, the other is studying. so it was such a treat for all THREE of us to be foot loose and fancy free! we stayed at a great bed & breakfast right on the river called Inn on the Riverwalk. our room was cozy and quaint, and ms. betty's breakfasts in the am consisted of huge spreads of fresh fruit, heart-shaped waffles, or syrup-drizzled french toast. friday night we walked the entire riverwalk and had dinner at a fun place called zuni's. eric had quail with chocolate drizzled all over the top - totally unique and delicious! i ate a fun pesto/pine nuts dish.

saturday was a full day. after morning breakfast and nap, we headed off back to the riverwalk around noon. we ate a picnic lunch along the way - cucs & lemon & pepper, cheese and crackers, grapes and such. we went to the mall, road the boats around the river, and had a to-die for cookie dough waffle cone from marble slab while listening to the live music on the riverwalk. (did i mention it was like 107 this day? eee gadz.)
listening to the peruvian wind instruments on the riverwalk. ezra sort of just stood on the steps in total amazement taking it all in - in classic introvert fashion. :)

for dinner, we walked really far to a recommended restaurant, only to discover it closed at 4:00pm!

but there was also a fun museum at the restaurant with lots of big stuffed animals - which ezra totally ate up as you can see here! we ended up walking BACK to the riverwalk (sheesh) eating at a fun texas saloon place that had fans that sprayed water on you to keep you cool. our view was of the passing boats along the riverwalk, so it was great - but the food was NOT. i would imagine that fresh road kill would not taste that different from what we had that evening.

i hate that this picture is blurry because i think it is soo cute! this daddy sure does love his boy! after dinner, we headed back around 7:00pm for ezra's bedtime. eric and i stayed up late reading and watching movies in bed. so fun and such a treat!

on sunday morning, we woke up, had a fabulous breakfast again, and then went on a walk to feed the ducks with leftover bread from breakfast . there were some little ducklings that came out from hiding among the reeds that were wee babies! ezra kept chirping "peep! peep!" because of all the birds we were attracting. eric thought it was fun to induce duck fights by strategically tossing crumbs into the throngs of ducks - which we have none pictured since they were far below us in the river. watching the duckies
walking back to the b&b after feeding the "peep peeps" - with a great view of downtown

after ezra's am nap, we made another picnic walking lunch back to downtown. we headed to the san antonio children's museum - a great place for our boy! there was a fun toddler room where two of the walls were made of fish tanks! ezra was waving to eric on the other side who was trying to capture his reaction on our camera.

eric gave ezra a puppet show - which he thought was a real hoot!
entranced by his new puppet beaver friend.

wanted to make grandpa proud! i taught ezra how to brush his teeth AND gave him his first dental exam! :)

i bet grandpa could do it better - poor kid. i love how he is holding onto the arms for dear life.

in the basement of the children's museum, they had a mini HEB - complete with checkout stations with REAL scanners! it was unbelievable! ezra had tons of fun shopping and pushing his own cart. when he picked up the broccoli, he tried to eat it since it's one of his favorite vegetables!

after the children's museum, we toured the alamo - which in all honesty, seemed kind of lame. does that make us terrible people?

after the alamo, we headed home to check out of the b&B. as you can tell, ezra was totally worn out. he is probably thinking "sheesh, mom! all this walking is just killing me!" actually, this was the little booster seat that johanna, the innkeeper kept out in the lobby for ezra to play with. he hauled it all over the property!

after checking out we went downtown to a famous restaurant called "mi tierra." it was located in the heart of el mercado, a fun outdoor market. there were several dance teams that were performing - i would run outside between bites to catch some of the action. i don't have a picture of us but i do of their really cool ceilings @ mi tierra!
we drove home late that evening. after putting ezra down, eric and i unpacked and got settled in for the week. we didn't want our mini vacation to end, so we stayed up til 1:30am watching lord of the rings III. it was totally worth it!