End of Year

It has been a few months since I have updated the blog and with the blog address going in the Christmas card, I thought I should update it with the running around we did over the last few months.

In October, Payton was off track so we took a trip to San Antonio, TX.  My friend, Grace, lives close to my sister, Amy so we decided to go for two weeks.  Michael was in Canada on a work trip for 10 days so it was not like he would be around anyway.

When we travel we like to find Hard Rock Cafes to eat at - not because the food is great but it is the atmosphere of music memorabilia that we like to look at.  We always get a shot glass before we leave too. So our first full day in San Antonio, Grace and her husband, Jason, took us to downtown San Antonio.  We started at the Alamo.  I have been here before when we lived in Texas but Payton had not and they have learned about the Alamo in school so he was pretty excited to see it in person.

He was excited to touch the cannon.  He walked all around it examining.

We noticed that this squirrel/chipmunk was thirsty and was not very afraid of us standing so close.

This Live Oak tree is over 100 years old and was transported from another place in San Antonio in 1914.

We made our way across the street to the Ripley's Museum.  Payton loves to read these books so he thought it even cooler to get to see some of the things up close. 

Payton was kind of creeped out by this wax man sitting on this couch.  He is a replica of a large eyed man.

Getting brave to actually touch him!

This is the Eiffel Tower made out of tooth picks.   It looks pretty close to the real thing.

 When we were done at Ripley's, we ventured down the road to the Wax Museum.  Look at all the celebrities we got to meet.

Johnny Cash

Denzel Washington and Eddie Murphy in the background

The cast of Twilight.  Payton was not down with this so he showed it with a thumbs down.

Lance Armstrong

The 3 Stooges.

Robert DeNiro

Laurel and Hardy

Payton jamming with young Michael Jackson

Payton having thriller time with Michael Jackson

And not too sure about moon walk Michael Jackson

Payton wanted no part of Madonna either.

Harry Potter

Batman and Catwoman and Joker's knees. (it was too tight to back up and get the whole scene in the photo)

Whoopie Goldberg

Johnny Deep

Payton chatting up Oprah

Payton doing the monologue with Jay Leno

Payton looking at the Top Ten with David Letterman

Beam Me Up! Captain Pacard

Payton with Indy

Payton trying to be Secret Service detail

It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's Superman!

Let me tell you a story about a man named Jed.

 Grace lives on a lot of land and Payton enjoyed playing outside.  They own a lot of guns and Payton has not shot a gun before.  He was all over the opportunity to learn.

We went to Cave Without a Name and were the only ones on the tour so we were able to actually here all that was being said.  I had my iPad on me and the tour guide said that since I had such a nice camera that I should take lots of pictures.  I did not want to tell him that the camera on the iPad is not that great of a camera compared to my actual camera that I had left at home so I started snapping pictures.  We have been in other caves in Tucson but have not been as close to some of the points of interest as we were here. 

Jason pulled out the big gun for us to shoot. 

I even took a turn! 

It was fun to spend some time with an old friend - we met Grace and family when they moved in on our street in Eagle Mountain and we have kept in touch when we both moved away.

Then it was time to move on to Amy's house.

Yes, Amy owns a pet deer.  They call it Smashly. Payton was excited to feed the deer its breakfast the first morning we were there.

My nephew, Dallin. playing on my iPad.

 Amy and Brady have purchased land that has a hunting lodge.  We spent a night there and Payton liked all the stuffed animals he could touch.

Uncle Brady was pretty cool - he let Payton drive around the grounds.

We went all the way to Africa.

This pond has a crocodile in it.  We stopped to look at it and it started to move closer to us so we ran back to the truck.

This is a buffalo that is fairly close to the front door of the lodge.

Our main reason for going to visit was for the baptism of Amy's boy. So we got to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Adams and Great Grandpa Ambler.  Scott and his family also live in the same town so we also got to spend time with them.  We flew back home on the same flight as Grandma and Grandpa and then said good-bye to them in Denver as we caught our connecting flight on home.