The Kitchen Family

1st FaMiLy VaCaTiOn EVER
{July 10 - July 14}
  Cont.

Day 5 - Missions & the journey HOME

 We slept in this morning and took our time packing our bags.

Cohen was sad to leave the hotel, I would guess mostly because we would no longer all be sleeping in the same room AND he would no longer be allowed to jump on all the beds.

This day was the hottest, or maybe it just felt that way since we were walking outside to see these two missions of San Antonio:

First up - Mission San Jose

This is the best known mission, and was the model mission organization and a major social center. The people that lived here in the 1700's learned how to fight and use weapons to defend themselves from the Apache Indians.

top left - front of the church in the center of the community.

top right - front of a long row of "houses".

bottom left - courtyard type place.

 top right - living room of a house.

bottom left - the kitchen of a house.

bottom right - the Mill, where the people would grind wheat for the whole community.

And second - Mission Concepcion

This one was beautiful, and still today 

people hold services in the church inside.

 This church looks almost exactly as it did in the 1700's.

Here missionaries worked to replace Indian ritual with religious festivals teaching Christian beliefs.

A quote that I found humorous from the brochure from this mission...."Missionaries recognized conversions when Indians took the sacraments. While some of these conversions were temporary, the combined religious training and pageantry were largely successful."

 I didn't know at first that services were still being held there today, and Brock and I walked through this separately since the boys were sleeping in the car....I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty creepy walking through by myself. You could hear a pin drop so I didn't think anyone was in there. When I finally got to the big chapel area there were a few people sitting on the benches, meditating.

Sort of creepy.

But very fascinating building.

  And that's all folks.

To put our first family vaca in a nutshell.....

WE SET THE BAR HIGH.

It went so so well. Of course there were things we would have done differently, like stayed at a more family friendly hotel and maybe not right on the Riverwalk with kids, but we did a pretty good job! I was so impressed with the boys the whole week. Cohen was just happy the whole time to be on an "adventure all together". And he really loved "SanEtonio".

The drive went slower than the drive there, as always.

But I think I was the most antsy one in the car.

I'm dreaming of the day when our next vaca is already.

San Antonio treated us WELL, to say the least.

Two things I don't want to forget....

Cohen was very proud of a trick that he did in our hotel room - he would stand on the arm of a wing-back chair and jump onto his roll-away bed and tuck and roll onto Brock and I's bed. I lost count how many times he did this. 50 + I'm sure. :)

One time on our way to Sea World, we were stopped at a light and there was a homeless man close to Brock's window. We didn't have cash, but Brock rolled down his window and handed him a bottle of water. After that all sorts of questions came from Cohen. After simply explaining why the man looked the way he did and was standing on the corner, as sweet and innocently as possible Cohen said "Oh! So Dad, we just need to buy him a house!"

That was one conversation I never want to forget. :)