Thanksgiving Trip 2013 Part 2 - The Visit

So we got to San Antonio around 7pm, and after fighting rush hour in Austin, we were beat. This was not good since:

1. We had some stuff we were supposed to bring that we elected to wait until we got to SAT buy.
2. Mom finally got fed up with her old HTC Thunderbolt, especially when she found out she could get a Samsung Galaxy S4 for free from BestBuy online for their Black Friday online special. She ordered one and it was available for pickup in SAT.

We volunteered to take care of the boys if M&V would go get the stuff. We just decided to wait until Friday to go get the phone. We hadn't eaten (the McD's we stopped at was awful so we skipped it.) M&V picked up some pizza while they were out.

Thanksgiving day was great. Vanessa's parents were there. We got to know them better while Shannon was in rehab in Rock Hill the month before, so we really enjoyed their visit.  I will let Vanessa tell the details of the day at http://thesctureks.blogspot.com/2013/12/thanksgiving.html. We did take care of the boys so she and Matt could go play tackle/touch football in which they were apparently the stars of the team. I will second Vanessa's motion that the food was great and I thought the tablecloth idea was pretty cool. Joshua kept both grandmas busy playing Candyland. Sadly we didn't get any cameras out to take many pictures. We did get a laugh at Joshua. We served sparkling cranberry juice to drink. He tried it, got this perplexed look on his face, then exclaimed, "This makes my tongue silly!"

Vanessa didn't mention the circus around the turkey. Matt turned on the oven before going to play football, but didn't put the turkey in. JoAnne saw the oven on and Turkey on the table and put the turkey in the oven but managed to turn the oven off. It wasn't until M&V got home that we got the turkey into a working oven.

Friday, despite being told if he worked one last case on Wednesday they would not have to come in on Friday, Matt had to go into work on Friday. He hoped to be home by noon. We just puttered around the house and played with the boys. Adam and Janie Goodwin were in town and dropped by for a short visit. While they were there, Matt came home, so we all went to Panera for lunch.

(Here is where the movie review starts!)

After lunch A&J headed back home, while the rest of us went to see Frozen. I really enjoyed the movie, but I always was a sucker for an animated musical. I would compare it to Lion King or Beauty and the Beast. Casting was great. Kristen Bell nails the "Miss Feisty Pants" Princess Anna with both the acting and singing. Josh Gad's snowman is hilarious. And then there is Idena Menzel's Let It Go accompanying the animators spectacular visuals of Princess/Queen Elsa building her Ice Palace (Upper case intentional. This palace is not a lowercase type of place.) Think Defying Gravity. Demi Lovato's cover of the song over the end credits is pleasant enough, but you believe Idena when she sings "Cold never bothered me anyway!"

 The whole soundtrack is pretty good. In addition to the usual Broadway style songs, I also like the song Vuelie used to open the film. Sung by a Norwegian female choir a cappella, the song  is "inspired by indigenous Saami and Norwegian culture and was written and composed by Norwegian composer Frode Fjellheim. It is a combination of Saami yoiking and the Danish Christmas hymn "Dejlig er jorden"/"Fairest Lord Jesus"." (according to Disney.wikia.com) The song is used again at the end of the film, this time with full orchestra.

The audience applauded at the end of the show. I would go see it again, but would try the 3-D version if I could.

After the movie, we asked Joshua if he liked it and he shook his head, "no." But by the next morning it was his favorite movie (until he watches something else!) JoAnne missed half the movie as she volunteered to take Nathan out.

After the movie we went over to BestBuy to try to get JoAnne's new phone. Bad news, the carriers were so backed up (Verizon in our case) that they had stopped doing any more activations. We would have to come back in the morning. We swung through Target and then went home.

Then JoAnne set me up. She asked if I would mind watching the boys while she went shopping with M&V. I said the only thing I was worried about was Nathan. Not so good with babies. No problem, we will feed him and he will go to sleep the whole time. And I believed them! They were gone less than 15 minutes when Nathan started to holler. I tried holding him, swinging him, rocking him. We even went up to Joshua who was also in bed but not asleep. Nothing worked and it was too early to feed him. I called and asked what to do. Let him holler! and by the way we are going to the BX at Randolph now. Finally it got late enough I could feed him and we had a great time. This kid will laugh and smile at anything as long as his tummy is full.

When the shoppers got home, they brought me a CD soundtrack and I will let you guess what it was. JoAnne also bought Joshua a battery powered car. Matt put it together so it was at the bottom of the stairs when Joshua got up in the morning.

Saturday morning started with Joshua coming downstairs and seeing the car. We quickly discovered that

hardwood floors and toy cars with one-wheel drive don't get along well. Alot of wheel spinning and not much moving. Think running dog trying to change directions on waxed floor and  you get the idea. We went back over to BestBuy pretty much about the time they opened. There was still an hour wait to get the phone activated so we went back to Panera to get something to eat. The salesperson at BB took moms phone number and said he would call when it was her turn. After eating we went back and the salesperson was getting ready to go to Target to look for her (He thought that was where we went). Seems someone had deleted mom's phone number from the computer. Soon she was in business on her new phone. (While we were waiting around, Matt showed me the TV he had ordered and a Sony tablet he had looked at which was pretty cool)  I must say that the staff at BestBuy in SAT was about as helpful and friendly as I have ever seen, even with a Black Friday crowd to deal with.

We went back home, and gave Matt the option of getting his big Christmas present early or not. He elected to get it early, so we gave him his new iPad Air. Then JoAnne and Vanessa went to get a pedicure and spend some big girl time together while Joshua drove his car around the driveway and Matt set up his iPad. 

Too soon, JoAnne and Vanessa were back and it was time to pack up and get on the road. There is never enough time to spend like we would like to, but it must be worth it because we keep coming back.

Next - Thanksgiving Trip Part 3 - Going Home