Weekend in San Antonio

Last weekend, we made a roadtrip to San Antonio. We left after work/school on Friday and returned home on Sunday evening. Our reason for the trip was to watch the San Antonio Silver Stars play against the Detroit Shock, and mostly so Leslie could watch her favorite WNBA player in action, Katie Smith.

We spent Saturday morning lounging around the pool at the hotel. It was a nice pool, and for the majority of the time that we were there, we had the place to ourselves. It even had a swim-up bar. After it opened, we had to be their first customers of the day, of course. Henry enjoyed a strawberry smoothie, while Leslie and I enjoyed more "adult" concoctions. Henry thought the whole concept was pretty cool.

There was a water area for kids. In true Star Wars fashion, this particular feature got named the "deflector shield".

After a few hours of playing in the pool, it was time to head off to the basketball game. Here are a few pictures of Henry at the game.

I thought I was going to have to separate them!

Gotta love those eyes!

Just too cute!

An interesting way to eat gummi live savers, for sure.

And the funny thing is, at the last minute, they decided Katie was injured and she didn't get to play!

That night, we found a local Mexican restaurant (since we didn't get to eat at Gringo's on Friday night). On the way in, I got Henry some facial hair in the gumball machines in the entrance.

Sunday was dedicated to Sea World. It was a bit warm, but there was a nice breeze blowing. The park was rather empty meaning we didn't have to wait long for the rides and we had prime seating for the shows we attended.

Us on the Texas Splashdown

Henry with Shamu and Mrs. Shamu?

Feeding the dolphins

Posing with the scuba diver

Just looking cuter than cute should look

Nose-to-nose with a green tree frog

Family photo

Henry on the Shamu Coaster, posing for the camera that snaps your picture during the ride

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

If it's Thanksgiving, we must be at Sea World

We made our annual visit to Sea World during our days off this week. We love this little ritual of ours. It was only marred by the fact that Sea World chose to drag out all of the Christmas decorations early, and even changed some of the shows to have a Christmas theme. I'm not sure why they decided to mess with something that was already perfect the way it was, but we didn't allow it to dampen our enjoyment.

We had perfect weather...in the 70's and slightly overcast. It did rain briefly, but were enjoying the dolphin/beluga whale show at the time and didn't even realize it had rained until we returned to our wagon and found it was wet.

Henry continues to favor the dolphin/beluga whale show (called Viva), and I am pretty sure this is because the pre-show has what he calls a "silly guy" that does a funny and silly routine. He also loves the performers that fall from the top of the stadium into the tank, and when they swing and fly into the water.

This year, he was tall enough to ride two new rides. We had ridden the Texas Splashdown last year, which is similar to a log ride. We got a little wet, but not too bad last year. The same held true this year. But this year, we also rode the Rio Loco, another water ride. This one drenched me as our round boat navigated the rapids and the water splashed over the side with me as it's target. We rode it three times in a row due to the fact that there was no one in line behind us.

From there, we went on to Journey to Atlantis (which Henry decided to call Journey to the Mist, and of course, we all followed suit). This ride involved a boat, but there was no water until the end. You board the boat...5 rows of seats, 4 seats across...and head up a hill. At the top of the hill, the boat spins until you are facing the next part of the ride backwards. You go down a dip and up a hill (backwards) and then spin again until you are facing forward for the final part of the ride. For the final part of the ride, it is a drop straight down into a lake of water. For this ride, the water targeted Leslie. After riding this ride three times in a row, she was totally drenched.

After changing into dry clothes, we went down to the River Walk in San Antonio to see what might be open on Thanksgiving night so that we could grab some dinner. Fortunately, many places were open and the River Walk was humming with activity. We decided to eat at The Republic of Texas (Tex-Mex, of course).

Friday, we returned to Sea World, where we finished off the things we hadn't done the day before, and revisited some of our favorite activities. It was nice having Nana and Papa along this year (even if we did totally wear them out!!). Below are some pictures of the highlights.

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Zebras and Llamas and Caves...Oh My!

We are home from our wonderful weekend in San Antonio. Saturday was an easy day where we slept in and had a wonderful homemade breakfast made by our host. We went downtown to catch "Alice", a play Aunt Leslie had frequented back in her glory days. It was a great trip down memory lane for her, and Henry enjoyed the music and costumes.

From there, we headed to the River Walk. Henry and I took the boat tour, while the rest of the adults reminisced over adult beverages. Dinner on the River Walk capped off the day.

The highlight of our trip was Sunday, when we visited Natural Bridge Caverns.

Henry was a little leery about going in the cave, but he was very brave and at the end, announced it was the 'coolest thing he'd ever seen'. While we were waiting for our turn to go down to the cave, he took his hand at mining and found a mini-treasure of precious gems.

After we finished at the cave, we headed over to the Wildlife Park. We circled through here twice, and saw everything from Wildebeests to Rhinoceros. We fed several animals from our hands, including zebras and llamas.

Enjoy some pictures of our weekend:

I have not checked in for a while so let me just catch you up real quick. Ashley had her baby in February – little David Leigh. You really love him– it is cute and you are so sweet with him. We just went out to eat with them and David Leigh was smiling at you and you were saying he likes me. So sweet. Also, Lucy died in February. You weren’t as sad about it as we thought you might be. Your Mom and I are both very sad – she might have been a grumpy dog but we loved her and she was so protective of you. You still mention her in your prayers. We took her to be cremated and you stayed at the house with Nana and Papa – when we came home we all sat down and told you what had happened not knowing what kind of response we would get. You laid your head down on your Mom’s shoulder for just a bit and then you raised your head up and said “so are we getting another dog”…guess you were over it.
I had to have surgery in April and we told you that I had a boo-boo in my tummy so to be careful. You asked me for a long time if my boo-boo was better. It worked out just perfect that you were in Chicago during my surgery and hospital stay – so it was all over by the time you came home. But since I was scared, it was really hard talking to you on the Sunday before the surgery but you did talk to me. Thanks.
Also, I got laid off in February and for a while it was a sore subject – bad thing was you had just learned the Legend Logo – so every time we drove past a sign or a billboard you would say “you don’t work at Legend Homes anymore…do you?” yeah, thanks there Henry.
You have had a nice summer – you were such a good boy at the District Convention and have really gotten into helping with the volunteer work. We were assisting with cleaning one of the restrooms and you were such a big help and really tried to do what you could. Then for the whole month of July, you and your Mom were in Chicago. Mom said you did great on your road trip. When you came home, I asked you how your trip was and you told me “I drank root beer floats and watched too much TV”…well, sounds like vacation to me. I think you went fishing, swimming, you played basketball a lot. You also started watching a lot of Cubs games with Papa.
Over Memorial Day, we went to the Yellow beach house and this time Jack came and stayed. You guys had a lot of fun playing in the water. You also played lots with your boogie board and would try to body surf. I had brought a game called the “ladder game” kind of a version of horse shoes but different – well, you loved it and wanted to play whenever we were playing. We will be going to the Yellow house again at the end of this month with Aunt Nada over Labor Day.
We are going to San Antonio this weekend and you are going to see a play I saw about 20 years ago – “Alice, A rock Opera” I am so excited about you seeing it. We will be with my friend Katrina and maybe Brent, Hannah, John and Skylar were supposed to come but John is very sick and they can’t make it. If the weather is nice, we are taking you to Schlitterbaun on Sunday – but we haven’t told you yet. You have been asking to go so hopefully it will work out.
You are now 5 and really have a little boy look about you – not looking like a toddler at all. You can almost read. Also, Mom is going to be redoing your room and she is probably going to let me arrange everything. So we have been looking at furniture. I am going to give you 5 choices for your theme and see what you pick. You have an interest in just so many things I think you will have a hard time.
The Olympics are on right now and you are “strung out”. You don’t care what is on – you want to watch it and ask which color we want to win. Last night you and Papa went swimming and you pretended to have an Olympic swimming match.
OK, back to work – will write more later.

Are we staying at the fancy Marriott?

December 19, 2007
I have gotten behind – so just a short synopsis. We went to Sea World over Thanksgiving and had a blast. It was really cold and you were tall enough to ride a water ride – the log ride and you loved it and we rode it 3 times in a row. Your Mom was soaked at the end but we had so much fun. We stayed at the Marriott with the courtyard and the peacocks and you kept calling it the fancy Marriott. We thought that was cute. Also, right now you say “No Ploblem” – when you mean no problem – you have a pretty laid back attitude. You still love football and play all the time but you are always getting tackled and break your leg. Lane Sutton just hurt his hip and was on crutches and you call them crunches. Since it is so cute we don’t correct you. Yesterday at school you had a pajama party and wore your pajamas to school. You just couldn’t figure out why you would wear your pajamas on the playground. You just tell us you love us all the time and it is so nice to hear. You are having a little trouble with the holidays this year. This is the first year you have understood them some. So last night when we went to Allison’s, you asked us if they celebrate Christmas. You will get the swing of it. Your Nana and Papa are coming down this week for their winter visit. You love their visit and they do also. Today, they had their Christmas party at school so Mom kept you home. You are having lunch with Sara, Samuel and Linda at James Coney Island and going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Skylar Scheffer is coming to the movie also. You had your first kid party at jumpin jacks. It was so much fun. You wanted to have a Nascar theme. About 15 kids came and then we had cake and did crafts. This Saturday we are going to a Hockey game, we are also taking Megan, Lane and Jack. Hopefully Nana and Papa will come too. Jack might spend the night.

I slept like a cucumber

August 13,2007
So we went to San Antonio for the weekend. We went to the splash park at Sea World and to a Comets game (vs. San Antonio of course) we had a good time and you really said a couple of funny cute things. So we get to the hotel very late on Friday night. You had fallen asleep in the car but wake up some when we get to our room. We had a 2 bed/2bath suite. You are so excited because every room has a TV (so we had 3 TVs). On Saturday night you slept with me and when you woke up Sunday morning, you point to the TV and say “Turn that on” I thought that was funny. Then your mom comes in and says “I slept like a rock” and you say “I slept like a cucumber”…we just laughed and laughed. I can really see you growing up. On Saturday at the water park, we are in this kiddie pool that has a small water slide and we are letting you float around by yourself. Next thing we know you are making a beeline towards something. So I go over to where you are and ask you where you are going. You point to the water slide and say “how do I get to that”. I thought that was so grown up. You saw something you wanted to do and you just started working your way over to it. So you and I went down together and then you went down by yourself. You really enjoyed it. I think you are going to like roller coasters and stuff.