Super Nats, The Colonel, & Dr. Tart: David's Vacation Birthday

Since we were going to be traveling to San Anonio for a non-traditional Thanksgiving we had a Thanksgiving meal with friends before a few days before traveling. David smoked a turkey and pork with pecan wood and both turned out AMAZING!! The turkey was hands down the best turkey I have ever eaten!!

My contribution to David's amazingness with the meats was a great pineapple relish that went SOOO well with the smoked pork....we are all about good tacos around our house and this one was a winner!!

David was a little bummed to have to drive to San Antonio on his actual birthday but we split it up with some breakfast and a trip shopping for the girls and to see a cool cave for the Dads and kids--so I don't think he ended up minding too much.

At one point during the beginning of the drive, David and I looked back and saw Natalie!! A true princess!! And such a funny girl--we had no idea she had packed her sleeping shades.

We have talked about going to see these caves before and never made it, so I was happy the kids got the chance to go. Poor David was such a trooper to go with his bad knee on steep and wet pavement--he really is the best Daddy. From the pictures, it looks like the kids LOVED it.

Stephen adores the chance to climb trees.

Pretty impressive cave!

This might be one of my favorite pictures of the trip...

When we got to our resort, our room was the only one ready, and several of our friends were scheduled to get family pictures done, so they all came to get ready in our room. I just had to snap a picture of the excitement!! I love everyone's playful expressions; and I especially love that Natalie is perfectly posed without any warning. I only snapped this one picture and it was PERFECT to capture the moment. SO FUN!!

Ok, so it was November, but we couldn't resist checking out the pool. Natalie's expression says it all--COLD, COLD, COLD!!! Both kids did get in (Natalie took her time and Stephen plunged in--which is just about right with their personalities) and had a good time but didn't last too long before seeking out the hottub.

My sweet baby!!

He is almost five months old here--where has the time gone??

LOVE!!

This is just up my alley!

Can't get enough of cute hands and feet!

The hot tub was so fun; it was on the top of a hill that overlooked the hill country where we were staying. It was really beautiful!!

It wasn't cold out--just the pool was cold--I promise I wasn't torturing my sweet baby!

Did I mention that the water was VERY, VERY COLD!!

David bet me a good sum of money that I wouldn't jump into the cold water. I think he was pretty surprised when I jumped in without hesitation. He got it on video and it is pretty funny, but I'm not sharing. I think my kiddos got a big kick out of it!!

After a nice birthday dinner and dessert, we settled back in our room to open presents.

This is probably the most ghetto I have ever been for a birthday. I usually try to make it a pretty big deal--but I ran out of time to wrap his gifts--so we improvised with Stephen's t shirt. The kids LOVED their homer bowling ball gifts for Dad and were so excited to share them with him--a stove top popcorn cooker and a BIG cookie skillet like the one at Cheddars. I love how exciting everything is for kids!! I guess we were all about cooking this year--I got David and electric salt and pepper mill--not too exciting but really useful!