Today is Nathan's birthday!!! I am so thankful for his eight years of life. Here are eight things that I love about Nathan:
1. His sense of humor cracks me up every day.
2. He loves playing card games with me.
3. He is a super great big brother!
4. When Steve is gone, Nathan is always quick to help out.
5. Nathan has a huge heart.
6. He is a mad-phat drummer.
7. I love how much energy Nathan has!
8. Nathan is amazing, wonderful, funny, 90% head and hair- 10% arms and legs and I am so glad and happy that he is mine.
I remember being 8 once. When I was 8, we had to write a story about going on an adventure. Although I was a decent writer, I was overcome with an insurmountable amount of writers block. Out of time and ideas, I quickly jotted down an old camp song. In the way things go with me, it turned out that it wasn't a normal writing assignment, but a city-wide writing contest. A few weeks later I was somewhat shocked to find that I had won first place in the city of Arlington for my wonderful jotting down of a camp song. Go figure!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Two
It didn't take long for Steve to convince me to go on a second vacation. (I felt like we were really pressing our luck as far as the kiddos go.) Our Texas vacation, as it was quickly dubbed, really snuck up on us. I was standing in a sea of laundry when it hit me that the very next day I was going from a training to Austin to San Antonio. We packed our few remaining clean items and off we went. We spent our first night in Austin with Steve's sister. The kids were HORRIBLE. Kalea threw the world's largest fit in the restaurant. Her first in a few years. We tucked those bad, wiggly things in bed early and hoped that the next day would be better.
Day 2 of vacation was much better. We visited the San Antonio Zoo, rode the train to the Witte Museum, and then loaded the car for our hotel. Hotels.com gave us a free night, so we hunted out the most expensive hotel on the Riverwalk and booked two nights for the price of one. When we pulled into the parking garage, the Valet man greeted our hot and sweaty kids with gift bags full of toys. Seeing....or perhaps smelling our two children, the booking man offered us a room that opened up to the pool. Within an hour, we walked about two feet from our room into a large alcove-like area that housed a pool full of water and swim noodles. Kalea was quick to learn how to swim the entire length of the pool with the help of a swim noodle. After a supper of PB&J sandwiches, we walked the Riverwalk, ate ice cream sundaes and put two very warn out babies to bed.
We greeted Day 3 with an early breakfast of blueberry poptarts and a trip to Fiesta Texas. I was finishing my breakfast in the line waiting to get inside the park when a girl not far from us tossed her cookies (or should I say breakfast....and last night's supper) on all of her friends. Then she proceeded to barf circles around us. Breakfast done! Once inside the park, Steve took Nathan to ride all of the big kid rides while Kalea and I rode the smaller kid things. (The Log Ride was super fun.) After a morning of coaster riding, we met up, ate lunch, and went to the water park. This was Kalea's first trip to a water park so we let her pick her first slide. The slide she picked was about three stories high. It took us about 30 minutes of line waiting to get to the top. We were about five people back when Kalea realized that she was going to actually ride the three story slide down. The poor kid nearly popped with fear. The explosion came in the form of a cartoon-like "NOOOOOooooooo!" After Steve and Nathan went down, I positioned Kalea between my feet in our two person raft. She was squirmy with fear but agreed to go down after she saw Nathan disappear into the dark tube. Looking like a turtle with her small head tucked into her life jacket, Kalea bravely led the way down the tall slide. I am not so sure she liked it, but she survived it and said that she would think about doing it again. After a brief adventure to the children's part of the park, a wild rainstorm flew in and we were herded out of the water along with about a million other wet, soggy and now cold park visitors. It was a race back to the car, kids and cats were blowing past us in the crazy gusts of wind. After a short visit to the hotel to freshen up, we headed out to the San Antonio Children's Museum. The kids had a blast there, but hunger beat out curiosity and after an hour of playing, we left to find some food on the Riverwalk. It was raining so we found a nice Mexican food restaurant tucked away under a bridge. As our food was served, the ducks crawled out of the river, and Kalea not only named them, but tried to feed them her dinner as well. I think that she would have taken them home with her if they had listened to her better.
Day 4 was a much drier and consequently a hotter day. We visited the Alamo, Mercado, a dirty Burger King, the San Marcos outlets and then we were off to Austin. Steve's sister, Kaela, took the kids to a movies while Steve and I went on a much needed date. It was the perfect night and the end of a good vacation.
Day 2 of vacation was much better. We visited the San Antonio Zoo, rode the train to the Witte Museum, and then loaded the car for our hotel. Hotels.com gave us a free night, so we hunted out the most expensive hotel on the Riverwalk and booked two nights for the price of one. When we pulled into the parking garage, the Valet man greeted our hot and sweaty kids with gift bags full of toys. Seeing....or perhaps smelling our two children, the booking man offered us a room that opened up to the pool. Within an hour, we walked about two feet from our room into a large alcove-like area that housed a pool full of water and swim noodles. Kalea was quick to learn how to swim the entire length of the pool with the help of a swim noodle. After a supper of PB&J sandwiches, we walked the Riverwalk, ate ice cream sundaes and put two very warn out babies to bed.
We greeted Day 3 with an early breakfast of blueberry poptarts and a trip to Fiesta Texas. I was finishing my breakfast in the line waiting to get inside the park when a girl not far from us tossed her cookies (or should I say breakfast....and last night's supper) on all of her friends. Then she proceeded to barf circles around us. Breakfast done! Once inside the park, Steve took Nathan to ride all of the big kid rides while Kalea and I rode the smaller kid things. (The Log Ride was super fun.) After a morning of coaster riding, we met up, ate lunch, and went to the water park. This was Kalea's first trip to a water park so we let her pick her first slide. The slide she picked was about three stories high. It took us about 30 minutes of line waiting to get to the top. We were about five people back when Kalea realized that she was going to actually ride the three story slide down. The poor kid nearly popped with fear. The explosion came in the form of a cartoon-like "NOOOOOooooooo!" After Steve and Nathan went down, I positioned Kalea between my feet in our two person raft. She was squirmy with fear but agreed to go down after she saw Nathan disappear into the dark tube. Looking like a turtle with her small head tucked into her life jacket, Kalea bravely led the way down the tall slide. I am not so sure she liked it, but she survived it and said that she would think about doing it again. After a brief adventure to the children's part of the park, a wild rainstorm flew in and we were herded out of the water along with about a million other wet, soggy and now cold park visitors. It was a race back to the car, kids and cats were blowing past us in the crazy gusts of wind. After a short visit to the hotel to freshen up, we headed out to the San Antonio Children's Museum. The kids had a blast there, but hunger beat out curiosity and after an hour of playing, we left to find some food on the Riverwalk. It was raining so we found a nice Mexican food restaurant tucked away under a bridge. As our food was served, the ducks crawled out of the river, and Kalea not only named them, but tried to feed them her dinner as well. I think that she would have taken them home with her if they had listened to her better.
Day 4 was a much drier and consequently a hotter day. We visited the Alamo, Mercado, a dirty Burger King, the San Marcos outlets and then we were off to Austin. Steve's sister, Kaela, took the kids to a movies while Steve and I went on a much needed date. It was the perfect night and the end of a good vacation.
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