Visiting the San Antonio Missions

Here in Texas they have a historical site called San Antonio Missions National Park which are Spanish frontier missions. We were able to visit 2 of these sights this past weekend.  There are 5 in total with the Alamo being one and the most famous.  These outposts were established by Catholic Religious orders to spread Christianity among the local natives. These missions formed part of a colonization system that stretched across the Spanish Southwest in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Mission San Juan

This is the beautiful chapel that is on the premises and below is what it looked like inside.  

People can still get married in the chapel and they continue to have services throughout the year.

A look at some of the remnants of the outer walls.

After we walked around and toured Mission San Juan we headed to Mission San Jose.  This structure was absolutely beautiful.  We were fortunate to catch a film on the making and history of the missions.  If I were to be honest, it was actually more sad and depressing than what I was expecting.  I didn't realize that the missions were set up so that they could help the Indians conform to Christianity. They thought of Indian tribal dances and traditions as "devils work". 

They had a visitor center where we were able to watch the movie and check out a small museum of artifacts.

LOVE

Such a cutie.  He likes the red light that flashes before the camera takes the pic.  He's always surprised haha.

So pretty.  It really was magnificent.

We were able to look inside the little apartments that were living quarters for those that were there.  It was extremely tiny.  Each one had 2 rooms. One for kitchen area and another for sleeping.

I tried to get the building in the back as well but it's harder when you have to take it yourself :)

Love this shot.  I couldn't get over the arches.  It was so beautiful.  

Another shot of the architecture.  I felt like I was back in high school on an art tour, it was so fun.

Another shot of an arch and the well.

Preston pushing Jackson around.

Inside the chapel.  The colors were so vibrant and beautiful.  Loved the blue.

The ceiling.  

The famous "rose" window.  They aren't sure what purpose it served back then, but it sure was pretty.

 

You can see the original painting on the bottom of the bell tower.  Very cool.  

After we spent time at the missions we headed to a park for a picnic lunch.

This was at the park.  Thought this old bridge was really cool.

Pres showing Jackson the birds in the trees.

   

     Yea, all the white in the tree is actually birds!! There were hundreds, it was unbelievable!

Absolutely adore this little boy.

It was a great day full of fun and learning.  We had such a great time. 

Texas Safari

We were blessed to have Rich and Kayoko Greissmeyer come to town this past weekend. They are friends of our parents and now friends of ours :) from Illinois. We had so much fun and are grateful for this wonderful couple.  There was much spoiling and lots of laughter.  It was such a pleasure to get to know them both and spend time with them.

On top of the list was going to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch which is a Safari Texas style.  They have a ton of animals.  As you drive through the park you can feed them alfalfa pellets.  It was so much fun and we left the park with several stories and TONS of laughs.  Preston had school so it was just the 4 of us.

Rich, Kayoko, and Jackson with a hanging monkey in the back :)

We had quite the run in with this guy.  Kayoko was feeding a bunch of other rams and we had decided to move on when this guy came up to her window.  As we were starting to pull away he head-butted the car right below the window on the passenger side so Kayoko yelled, "Go Rich, Go!"  I was laughing so hard because we could only go 5 mph in the park and there were other rams in the way. We could not believe that had happened but found amusement in the frustration of the ram who didn't receive any food from us.  Luckily he only hit the car once. When the horns hit, it echoed throughout the car and left 2 little dents right where he hit.  It was crazy.

As you can see the rams were everywhere and very used to cars coming through.

Wildebeest 

Jack and I hanging out in the back 

Super cool animal.  I'll have to ask my brother-in-law Corey what the name of it is.

Zebra - They had a big sign that said to be careful because the zebra bite.

These guys were so cool too, with the random stripes.

Apparently there were twin giraffes born last year which is extremely rare but they grow so fast we couldn't really tell which ones were the twins haha.  I think one is on the left.

Feeding the donkey.  There were signs saying not to feed any of the animals by hand but I guess everyone does because that is what the animals expected.  This is Kayoko trying to toss food into the donkeys mouth haha.  

I can't help but think of donkey on "Shrek" when I see this pic because it looks like he's trying to say something to us.

Not too sure on how that is comfortable but he stayed like that for a long time.

Feeding the goats.

When I was petting the goats, Jack would put his face forward as if he wanted to chew on the horns so we had to keep our distance.  He loved watching them.

As you can tell, they eat A LOT of pellets in the petting zoo.  I thought they were all pregnant haha.

Baby goats.

We had so much fun!! Jackson really enjoyed it and slept so good that night :)  Thank you Kai and Rich for such a great time!! Come again!

Family Pictures

While we were in Zion National Park last month we had our brother-in-law Ammon Williamson take a few family pictures for us, and they turned out AMAZING!! We couldn't have been happier with them.  Ammon is very talented.  Hope you enjoy!!

Our family of 3!

Jackson in all of his cuteness. 

Me and my Man

Oh so sweet.

Me and my "other" man.

Thank you so much Ammon Williamson Photography!

I also took a few photos recently of Jackson that I thought I would share.  We did a little photo shoot at his 5 month mark.  I am a little late in sharing since he'll be 6 months in 11 days :) 

Our sweet sweet boy.  He now has 2 teeth and continues to grow so fast.  We are so grateful for this little man.  He has brought so much happiness and joy into our lives. 

It's all about Preston!

HAPPY 1st FATHER'S DAY to the man I LOVE! I am so thankful to have Preston in my life. He is the greatest dad to Jackson.  He absolutely adores him and I think the feeling is very mutual. They laugh, play, watch sports and just enjoy being with each other.  Preston truly has his little buddy.

I absolutely LOVE this pic.  Thank you Ammon Williamson for capturing this moment.

We are also happy to announce that Preston has signed an offer with Tenet Healthcare for his residency next year. Our family will be moving to El Paso, TX in December. We are really excited about this great opportunity for Preston; he has worked so hard for it.  We are so blessed.

A special Happy Fathers Day wish to Papa Spung and Papa Clark.  Thank you both so much for being such great examples to us.  We are so grateful to have you in our lives and thank the Lord for such amazing Dads. Jackson is a lucky little boy to have Grandpas like you.  We LOVE you very much and hope your day finds you with great joy and happiness!

Scott, Jackson, and Preston

Dad, Jackson, and Lydia Freeze

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there, we hope you have a great day.