Cheers to 50 Years

On October 19th my sweet in-laws celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.  50 YEARS!!!  Holy cow!  About 6 months before I asked them what they wanted for their anniversary.  A party, a special gift, a trip?  I mean, 50 years needs to be celebrated.  Very few see that milestone these days.  Without hesitation they nixed a party.  ha! ha!  What they really wanted was a fun trip, and they wanted us to go with them.  How sweet is that?  So they started looking and decided on the kids fall break in October and San Antonio, Texas at the J.W. Marriott.  They wanted warm, golf and something fun for the kids and it did not disappoint. 

A few days before we left, I decided we all needed t shirts.  The rush was on.  My sweet cousin, Carrie, came through with these...

We met super early in the morning at the Chattanooga airport and gave them their shirts.  They happily obliged and off we went.  We had a connection in Atlanta but we were in San Antonio mid morning, it was SO easy and nice flying out of Chattanooga.  The pilot even gave a shout out to them on the plane.  The shirts got a lot of attention (which is something the Cofer gene is known to hate :)

Our flight attendant followed us off the plane and wanted to get a picture.  Then took our picture as we walked down the hallway of our backs.  She was so sweet!

We got checked into the JW before lunch and hit the pools.  It was absolutely beautiful there!

We snuck into their room and decorated a little.  The hotel had champagne and strawberries for them.

We went to dinner that night at the coolest restaurant I've ever seen, Mi Tierra.  It was in downtown San Antonio in the authentic Latino community. I had just gotten back from Mexico with my girlfriends and it felt like I had gone right back to Playa del Carmen.  So much fun!

By this point, we had been up since about 4 a.m. and were wiped out.

This hotel was gorgeous.  The grounds, the waterpark, the lazy river.  Everywhere you looked... beauty.

One of the last nights we were there, we ate at TPC golf course restaurant on property.  It was an amazing meal for an amazing celebration.

We loved the waterpark and lazy river.  Many hours logged there on this trip.  There were 2 waterslides that Keatyn just never worked up the nerve to do, despite a lot of time spent at the top, looking down and contemplating.  But she sure did love the tube ones.

One night we went to the Riverwalk along the San Antonio River and of course, had to go see the Alamo.  Not nearly what I had in my mind.  It's crazy how little it is, but a must see!  Poor Jimmy never got to get out of the car because he kept circling it looking for a parking spot.  lol!

The Riverwalk is so pretty with shops and restaurants all along the river.  Boats ride up and down taking people on tours and it's all lit up at night.  My phone was dead by this point so my pictures were limited.

Ironically, all that walking didn't land us dinner.  Instead we loaded back up and headed for home to find somewhere to eat when we came upon this HUGE tower.  Turns out it was the Tower of the Americas, a tourist attraction in San Antonio we had never heard of.  It's 750 feet tall with a rotating restaurant at the top.  Sisty was just going to wait for us down below while we ran up to look.  She is NOT a fan of heights, nor elevators that get you to those heights.  But apparently her hunger and persuasive grandchildren gave her the courage to go.  She may have stared at the back wall all the way up instead of the skyline of the city but she made it!

While we waited for our food, we went out to the deck and the wind was unbelieveable.  So was the view!

When I first heard we were going to San Antonio, my next thought was... how far is Waco?  I've been a Fixer Upper fan since day 1.  I've seen every episode of Chip and Jojo multiple times.  I knew it took me 44 years to get to Texas, and may never be back so I had planned on Keatyn and I taking a little day trip to the Magnolia Market the last day we were there.  It turns out, Waco is 3 hours away from San Antonio, through Austin.  Jimmy wasn't really comfortable with me taking a rental van I wasn't used to driving and traveling with her by myself through the capital of Texas that far away.  He didn't tell me I couldn't but I could tell I was VERY outnumbered.  So I went to bed, honestly, very disappointed and kinda sulky.  Lol!  Imagine my surprise when he shakes me away at 6 a.m. and said... "Get up, I'm driving you to Waco".  I argued for a minute but he was persistent.  Turns out, Keatyn never really wanted to go (she just didn't want me to go by myself) and opted to stay with the grands and Trace for one final, fun day at the pool.  How sweet is my hubby?  He's seen plenty of clips of Fixer Upper over the years but I knew he had NO desire to make a 6 hour trek to see the silos.  But away we went...

We drove through Baylor University and to Joanna's first little Magnolia shop on Bosque Avenue before going to the silos...

I did some damage in Magnolia Market...

Love him.  It was a lot of #miles to magnolia.

We stopped at the bakery to get cupcakes to take back.  That entire place is run like a well oiled machine.  We didn't eat at the food trucks because we wanted to get back on the road, but it was such a wonderful day and I'll always appreciate him doing that!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

If you're wandering if Trace was there, he was, but spent much of his last day staring at his phone.  Ugh... constant battle.

Before we knew it, it was time to head home.  It was such a fantastic trip that we will always cherish!!  We appreciate Granddaddy and Sisty letting us be apart of it and celebrating with them!