SPL finishes his 3 state winter tour
SPL’s 3 state winter tour culminated in a trip to Texas to visit his grandparents and some old friends of the family. This was SPL and mom’s first trip without dad — he was off to Tokyo the same day for a week-long trip. It was hard to say goodbye but thankfully we both had our iSight cameras so were able to video conference throughout the week.
The toughest part of the trip was getting through security at the airport. Thankfully we had dad’s help on the outbound leg and a kind TSA officer on the San Antonio side.
We also were grateful for the help of strangers we met on the airplane who helped us get settled and didn’t mind SPL’s curiosity and gentle kicks :-). SPL did great on the airplane — he loved all the faces and opportunities to flirt. He did fine with the altitude and slept half of the trip to San Antonio and most of the way home (his mom was very grateful for this :-).
In addtion to some quality time with his grandparents, SPL met some old family friends: Lodis Rhodes and Mrs. Munguia (“Aunt Martha” :-). Lodis is a friend from Austin who made the trip to San Antonio especially to meet SPL. Lodis runs an inspirational program called the Austin Learning Academy and is a professor at the LBJ School at UT Austin.
SPL and Uncle Lodis
Ruben and Martha Munguia have been family friends for many years too. One of my favorite things growing up was to visit “the print shop” (Munguia Printers) and get a tour from Uncle Ruben. During one memorable tour, he helped me create my own lineotype cast with my name. Uncle Ruben has since sadly passed away, but Aunt Martha is doing well and it was good to have a chance to visit with her and to introduce her to SPL.
SPL Meets Mrs. Munguia
We also had the opportunity to catch up with a few of mommy’s old buddies from high school and Camp CAMP: Beth Bailey and Cara Gloor.
Beth and her husband Jeff Allen are two of our friends from high school. Jeff and his 5 brothers and sisters grew up next door to us in San Antonio and is the person I’ve been friends with for the longest period — almost 30 years now (yikes!). He and Beth are foreign service officers in Lima Peru (they are also 2 people that I live vicariously through) and have two daughters, MMA and the newly arrived, CEA. Beth was in San Antonio staying with her folks after CEA’s birth (December 9, 2005) so we got to catch up with them for a brief visit before they returned to Peru.
is a friend of mine and Beth’s (my sister Beth this time 🙂 from our girl scout, KIDS Camp, and Camp CAMP days. She’s now a counselor at a junior high school in San Antonio. I hadn’t seen her in many years so it was great to catch up and introduce her to Sam.
Rounding out this post — what would a visit with the grandparents be without some photos. Here are some of SPL playing with his grandparents and some obligatory 🙂
Stay tuned for SPL’s 6 month photos and update on what else he’s accomplished this month 🙂