The Alamo. Remember?

Truman has been obsessed with the Alamo lately, so we decided to take a family trip to San Antonio. Who knew it would also be the hottest day of the year (so far) in Texas?! Still, we had a great time walking through the Mission and around the grounds.

Truman especially liked the various cannons. He was thrilled to notice that one even had a cannonball still in it!

 

Did you know that there are huge koi at the Alamo? The story we heard was that Davy Crockett had brought along a pet goldfish hidden under his coonskin cap....

We discovered this detailed miniature of the battle in the Visitors Center right across the street from the Alamo. Truman loved it, especially the cotton "smoke" coming out of the teeny tiny rifles.

We had lunch on the Riverwalk, then headed to the Tower of the Americas. We took the elevator to the top, 750 ft up! We had a great 360-degree view of the city.

Truman's takeaway from this historic trip? Remember the Alamo....gift shop! He's counting the days until he can go back to purchase cannons for his soldiers. (We'll see.)

Ho Ho Ho

We're so behind on our posts and have lots of photos to share (NJ! Ice skating!), but here's a place holder to get us started. Our neighborhood bank branch hosted a meet-and-greet with Santa yesterday. What a deal! Free professional photos taken and produced on the spot, PLUS facetime with Santa w/o having to go to the mall and wait in a super-long line. AND, cookies and candy canes. Wow. (Guess we'll keep our account there.)

So, here's Truman's holiday photo with Santa. Because nothing says Christmas like a Darth Vader t-shirt.

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone is having a great Halloween! Here's Spiderman posing with his trusty sidekick, Luther.


We call this shot "the haul." Truman made out pretty well for going to only a few houses.



The counting begins.



Had to document this treat. A gentleman up the street opened the door and offered the kids full-sized candy bars! Who does that any more?! The kids were in shock. (Truman claims Milky Ways are his favorite even though he's never had one before.)

Unfortunately, we didn't time things well, so we missed most of the kids while we were out trick or treating. We had exactly two children stop by after 7 pm. Now we're sitting here with a full bowl of candy and two unopened bags. I guess that's what they call a "good" problem. Next year, we'll know better.

Halloween Sneak Peek

Truman modeling his new Spiderman costume!


The half mask's a little problematic (although more safe than the full face-covering one they show with the older boy costume). Get a load of the "muscles"...


Spinning his web!

OMG

Finally! We have such a backlog (we're talking MONTHS) of photos, but let's start small. Truman recently acquired a knight costume (not to be confused with his Halloween costume, which has yet to arrive). We've had a lot of "fun" playing Knight, Knight-girl, and Bad Guy. We'll let you figure out who gets to play which character.

Spring Break!

We had a busy spring break, spending the first weekend in NJ with family and the second back in Austin enjoying SXSW. Enjoy the pics!



Truman serenading the Groupps with someone's (Phoebe? Eli?) harmonica.



Dad and Truman down the shore. (Thank you, Reillys!)



Mom and T at the beach.


Cousins!


Aunt Alison and Uncle Paul enjoying quality time with their godson, Eli.


The country cousin on his way back to the Lone Star state (taking the airtrain from the rental car stop to Terminal C at Newark). Goodbye, NJ! We'll miss you.



Back in Austin, we enjoyed a visit from Grandmommy and Granddad.


Truman and Dad hanging out at the Peelander-Z kids' show during SXSW. (The snacks were Truman's. The beer belonged to Dad.)



Rocking out!



A surprise tour of the neighborhood fire station on the way back to the car, courtesy of Mr. Hunt. That's Truman with friend Tiernan Hunt. (Thanks, John!)

Snow Day

Daycare was closed today because of the "snow." Very little accumulation, but we went out for a short while this morning.


We *thought* Truman owned mittens. Instead, we had to improvise with saran wrap covered by socks. Kind of sad, really.



The world's tiniest snowman.


Truman surveying our handiwork.