The River House

Back in July we had the last minute opportunity to go on vacation with the Matheny’s.  Sara’s dad has a rental house in New Braunfels, and it was free from Sunday afternoon-Wednesday.  We rearranged some plans and were on our way!
After dinner at Cici’s Pizza (oh, how they loved the endless choices!), the kids stayed up late playing endless board games.

They loved that they got to stay up late with their friends!  Emily and Reef played countless rounds of Yahtzee.  To this day, he won’t play with anyone else because it’s not as fun as with Emily.

The first night was rough for Poppy.  It was our first vacay without her being contained in a crib.  Her “room” was in the laundry room/bathroom, but she frequently visited us in our bed.  Lachlan loved sleeping on the top bunk, and Reef and Jonas loved the sleepover room with Titus.
We kicked off the next day with breakfast at Naeglin’s Bakery.

There were choices aplenty, and they all had a great time picking their favorite!


We headed to Landa Park to play on the playgrounds and feed the ducks.  The playground was damp, but that didn’t stop the kids.  They enjoyed feeding the ducks even though there were a few that tried to eat the smaller kids!



We headed back to the house for lunch and rest.  Phillip and Troy took the big kids to tube the river while everyone else napped.  My boys had a blast on their first tubing adventure!

After naps, we attempted the springfed pool.  Just as we paid and got our wristbands a HUGE storm rolled in.  We headed to the train in hopes the storm would pass quickly…

That storm didn’t pass quickly, so we grabbed some rainchecks to come back another time.  Instead we headed back to the house for dinner and more board games.
The next day dawned with slightly better weather, so we jumped in the river right after breakfast.  It turned out to be a good decision since the rain started minutes after we got out.

The guys were stuck with me for the first part.  After the first tube chute, we rearranged.

Daniel loved the tubing and the swimming.

The “big” tube chute.

Since the lifeguards weren’t set up yet, the moms got to take a turn.

Probably the only family picture that includes all of us this whole year!

Oh, I love this one!

After tubing, we ate lunch and rested.  The afternoon was still rainy so we headed to Burger King for an ice cream cone and a dry place to run around.
After dinner, the sun (finally) went down, and we busted out the sparklers.

This was a whole new experience for my kids, and most of them loved it!


After the sparklers, the Gibbins fam headed home.  Troy had to work the next day and also had a doctor appointment.  How nice was it that the trip home was only 30 minutes!  the kids were in bed by 10 and slept in till 8:30!  What a great mini-vacation we had!  Hope to do it again soon; maybe before y’all leave for Africa?