Have I mentioned our whirlwind trip to San Antonio?

Do y’all remember that movie Notting Hill?  Remember how Julia Robert’s character is a big, famous actress and then she falls in love with an average guy in London?  I love that movie.  One of my favorite lines from that movie is when Mr. Average’s sister meets Julia Robert’s character for the first time and gushes this whole long thing about how wonderful and beautiful she is, and then ends her soliloquy with “I genuinely believe and have believed for some time now that we can be best friends.”

Someone please tell me that I’m not the only one who reads other people’s blogs and thinks “I would totally be friends with that person in real life.”

I can’t even remember exactly when I found Erin Cobb’s blog, but I do remember that it quickly became one of my favorites.  Not only does she write a great blog, but she is an amazing photographer.  During one of our trips to Arlington, I even told Derek all about her.  It’s really not that unusual for me to talk about the blogs I read and/or the people who write them…maybe that’s weird, but whatever.  I’ve met some really great friends though blogs/online message boards, and I really think that is just one of the neatest things about the times we live in.  Anyway, I told Derek that if Erin Cobb ever came to Texas I was going to want to schedule a photo session with her.  She lives in Alabama, and honestly, I never thought it would happen.

Also, when telling Derek about Erin, I may or may not have quoted that movie about how I was sure Erin would be my new best friend if we ever got to meet in real life.

A few weeks ago, she posted on her facebook page that she was going to be traveling to San Antonio and was going to schedule a few sessions.  I jumped at the opportunity and emailed her right away.  After working out the logistics of us going to San Antonio, we officially booked our session.  We have not done a  real family photo shoot in over 4 years, so it was definitely time to do something about that!

So last weekend was the big weekend.  It just so happens that Derek’s aunt and uncle, Kathy and Steve, live just outside San Antonio, and they were such gracious hosts as our crazy family basically took over their home.  We missed getting to see Kathy (she was out of town) but we enjoyed catching up with Steve and their youngest son, Chris.

Then, in what I think is such a crazy coincidence, my sister and her husband were also in San Antonio that weekend!  They live in Kansas, I would have made a special trip to San Antonio just to visit them, but it worked out so perfectly that we already had plans to be there that same weekend.

We arrived pretty late on Saturday afternoon to yucky, gray skies and rain.  But that sure didn’t stop us!  Connor, our little history buff, wanted to go to the Alamo.  We met Kristin and Kevin there for a quick outside tour (the inside was already closed for the day).  Connor was so funny, reading all the plaques, signs, and information he could find.  That kids loves to learn!

My sister and I are making L’s to remind ourselves that we did not win this battle.  We both needed a little history brush up on what happened.

We lost.  Big time.

After our time at the Alamo, we headed down to the Riverwalk.  We found a Mexican food restaurant which was actually really terrible food but the company was great so it didn’t matter.  We finished off our night with some ice cream and a little souvenir shopping.  I wished we could have seen Kristin and Kevin longer, but I am thankful for the few hours we had.  Kansas and Houston are just too dang far apart.

Sunday was a busy day with church and catching up with a college friend of Derek’s, lunch with Steve and Christopher, the photo shoot, and a drive back to Houston.  When we headed down to Erin’s hotel to meet up,  I knew we were already cutting the time a little close, but I sure wasn’t prepared for a huge traffic jam, a lack of parking, and an accidental detour that took us back on the freeway heading away from San Antonio.  By the time we got to Erin’s hotel a half an hour late, to say I was frazzled would be quite the understatement!  I still had to change all the kids clothes, plus it was raining, and I could feel my hair growing outwards, turning into the lion’s mane a la 1995 before Mr. Straighter and I became friends.

But when we met Erin, I instantly felt at ease.  She’s just that kind of person, which is probably one of the huge reasons she is so good at what she does.  And, as a bonus, I don’t even think I said anything embarrassing about what a big fan I am of her blog and her work, although I probably talked way too fast and was just a bit spazzy.  But that’s pretty much me in a nutshell, even with people I’ve known forever.  We walked across the street to this little grassy area and spent the next couple of hours having a great time, laughing, and pretty much letting the kids go nuts.  My three are a pretty crazy crew in general, but add in travel and maybe not quite enough sleep and a bit of rain and new people and something fun and different and you’ve got an all out Thurman Explosion. (wow, have I ever written such an amazingly long run on sentence?!)   I never doubted for a second that she would come away with anything less than amazing, fun pictures that captured our family perfectly.  Well, maybe I doubted for a split second when Connor would not stop tackling Logan and needed to run a few sets of wind sprints during the middle of the shoot  Or when all three of the kids (yes, including Camryn) were trying to impress Erin with their ability to armpit fart.

But somehow, she was able to wrangle them all together.

And get some great pictures like this:

And this.

And this.

And this.

I haven’t seen the rest yet, and I can hardly stand it.  I just can’t wait to see what else she captured!

We finished our time in San Antonio with a promised boat tour of the river (which you can read about here if you want to hear about one of the rudest people I’ve ever encountered.  Ever.)  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and hit the road.  We arrived home at 10:00 with a van full of sleeping children.

And I had a heart full of love for this little family of mine and our weekend adventure.