Riverwalk

Last Saturday we decided that we couldn't leave San Antonio without having a real Riverwalk experience. So we drove downtown and took a boat tour. We got a brief history of the downtown area and the Riverwalk and Ben took some pictures of the surrounding architecture for a presentation that he has at the end of his internship.
We decided that our downtown experience wouldn't be complete without eating lunch along the river, so we stopped at one of my favorite restaurants, Chili's. We got a table outside, next to the river and listened to a live Peruvian band play some awesome music! Here is a short sample of what we heard (note that the quality of the music is diminished when recorded on a point-and-shoot camera...it was much better in person!):

There were a couple of downsides to eating outside:
-Pidgeons everywhere! They were trying to get free hand-outs. A family got up to leave and before the bus boy could get there to clear it off, the pidgeons swarmed the table and started feasting on the leftovers!
-Smokers.

HOWEVER, there were also some great things about our lunch:
-It was nicer to eat outside on a shaded patio than inside with the A/C turned up way too high.
-The live band outside was way cooler than the radio inside.
-The food was awesome. What could be better than a large green salad on a hot day? Yum!
-The dessert made everything worth it! A chocolate chip cookie cake, chocolate fudge, and vanilla ice cream with a chocolately shell all on the same plate? HEAVEN!
I love this picture of us. And I love my husband! We have so much fun together. It is wonderful to be married to my best friend. Thanks for such a fun day, sweetheart!

Six Flags Fun

We decided to get season passes to Six Flags during our stay here. This was a great move, because we can show up at the park around 6 or 7 after Ben gets off work and miss all of the crowds. We can go on a few rides and then go home. I like it because it is usually very hot, and I don't want to be there for more than a couple of hours. We have been averaging trips about once a week, sometimes twice. We have our favorite ride, "The Roadrunner Express", and have a general idea of where all the rides are in the park.


We have also been to the water park for a day. The locker rentals are kind of expensive, but worth it. They put a bracelet on your wrist that has a scanner thingy in it. Anytime you want to open your locker, you put your bracelet in front of a scanner and your locker pops open! We thought it was pretty cool. Our favorite slides were the "Tornado", where you shoot out of a tube and then spin back and forth down a funnel, and the "Toilet Bowl" (as we affectionately called it), where you spin around and around until you come out of a drain at the bottom.


We decided to treat ourselves and get some antique photos. They dressed us up in these fun clothes and we got some cute pictures.

We also had to make sure to see the laser light and fireworks show. Unfortunately, the show was poor quality, but it was still fun. We got a little history of Texas ("Remember the Alamo!") and learned about some of the famous people (mostly country music singers) and sports teams (Cowboys, Spurs, Rockets, etc.) that have come from Texas.

Happy 4th of July!

Chris and Maria invited us to visit their family's lake house for the holiday. It was really fun to get to know their family better and spend some time on the boat.

Ben and I tried tubing our first day there, but after a few minutes I was done. Too much for me...
Chris convinced us to get up at 6am on the 4th to go out on the boat just as the sun was coming up. This was to ensure we could get really calm water and it would not be really crowded. It was so worth it! The lake was beautiful in the early morning and everyone was able to get some good wakeboarding in. Ben rocked it! (The video is a little bumpy... it was hard to hold the camera steady on a speeding boat!)

Ben even got to drive the boat for a little bit so that Maria could get pictures of Chris on the wakeboard.Ben also got to play a lot of tennis with Chris and worked up a sweat. Finally, a challenging opponent! I played games, went for a bike ride, and watched a sappy movie with Maria. :)

For lunch I made some "Fireworks" drinks that were a total hit! I made red and blue Kool-Aid and froze them to make ice cubes. Then we put Sprite in our glasses and watched the colored ice cubes make cool bubbles in our drinks! I also made these really yummy desserts.They are chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese frosting and strawberries and a blueberry: red, white, and blue! Maria made some delicious salmon-burgers. I am considering switching to those anytime I make burgers. They are so good, and so much better for you!

We had an awesome 4th of July and even got to see some fireworks on the lake. Thanks to the Payne family for such a fun time!

Classic Cure for a Sad Day

Baking cookies for my husband and watching a sappy love story like "While You Were Sleeping."



Works every time. :)

Party in Alamo City!

Ben has the awesome opportunity to do an internship with USAA (an insurance company for primarily military personnel), so we packed as much as we could into our car and headed to Texas!

After a very long and eventful drive including crazy gas pumps and retarded police men who pick on out-of-state drivers, we arrived in hot and humid San Antonio. Our apartment complex is nice, but they didn't tell us until we got here that they could not furnish it for us. So we went to Wal-Mart and got a blow-up air mattress and lived without furniture or internet for the first 5 days. It was interesting.

Our first Sunday here, we found out we had moved into Ben's cousin's ward. Ben's dad and Maria's dad are brothers and she recognized him once she found out our last name. Chris and Maria and their kids have adopted us and have been wonderful friends to us. Vanessa was worried that she would be bored all day everyday while Ben was at work, but has found a good friend in Maria and spends almost every day at her house.

We have done a lot of fun things here: season passes to Six Flags Fiesta Texas, our anniversary dinner in a revolving restaurant at the top of a tall space needle, and walks downtown along the Riverwalk. Now that we are approaching the end of our stay, it feels like we don't have enough time to get everything in! But, we know that we have a place to stay anytime we want to come back and visit!

The Henrys

Ben and Vanessa met in their student ward at BYU and quickly became friends. Friendship blossomed into romance, and they were married a year and a half later on June 14, 2008.

Ben is an Information Systems major at BYU, set to graduate next April. He loves to perform and sings bass in BYU's nine-man a'capella group, Vocal Point. He enjoys being able to entertain and share the Gospel at the same time.

Ben also loves sports. He is often found playing basketball, tennis, and sometimes football.

Vanessa graduated from BYU August 2008 in Math Education. She just finished her first year of teaching Alg 1 and Geometry at Timpview High. She is excited to teach Alg 1 and Alg 2 this next year. She is a huge Vocal Point fan and groupie, going to as many performances as she can.

Vanessa likes to watch sports with Ben (especially football), but would rather read a book than play the game herself.