weekend trip

Bright and early Friday morning, we hit the road.

Everyone was all smiles even though it was 6:30 and no one had been fed.

Our first stop was for donuts. We all enjoyed smelling the chocolate iced donuts we'd enjoy eating once we got to Nana and Poppa's house. Well, all except for the boys. They ate bananas instead. Levi would probably prefer a banana to anything else and Bryan was still attempting to eat healthy...he was successful through lunch, but those puffy tacos got to him at dinner.

We're still smiling even though mom and dad are making us wait to eat our breakfasts.


Levi received Nana's full attention while he ate. (I have a feeling he got that pretty much his entire stay!)

We said goodbye to Poppa and Nana, kissed Levi and loaded back into the van for a 4 hour drive to San Antonio.


Right around Austin, the girls started moaning because I cut off the snacks since we'd be eating lunch in about an hour. Amazingly we made it to the restaurant without anyone dying from starvation. We like to stop at EZ's anytime we're in SA because the one in Dallas disappeared. It was there before we moved to Raleigh, but gone when we returned. Or maybe it just moved locations? Anyone know??

We were a little bored while we waited for our food, so we broke out the camera.

Addi got to take a couple pictures, so, of course, little sister wanted to also. She dropped the camera before she got a chance. My last camera was dropped last summer on the tail-end of a trip to SA and that's when I got this camera. Fortunately, there was no need for a new camera this time, but boy did she pout when I took the camera away to make sure it was still working.



It didn't last long. As soon as I handed it back to her with the strap around her this time, she happily snapped this shot. I was impressed...Libs got us all in and we're even kind of centered.

After lunch, we headed to our friends' home to change into swimsuits and sunscreen up. Joel and Christian came with us to Sea World that afternoon. After a failed attempt to see Diamond (the Budweiser horse my girls have adopted) and a successful dolphin feeding, we spent the rest of the hot afternoon in the water. Joel became King of Entertainment when he invented a game involving knocking the kids off the floating lilypads while Bryan watched from the sidelines and I prayed neither of my girls would have to go to the bathroom again. Our reward was El Chapparal that night and it was worth the 45 minutes we had to wait to sit outside. Yum! Yum!

The next day, Julie was able to join us at Sea World. We left right after we ate Joel's breakfast tacos and watermelon. Bryan's plan to eat healthy while on our trip was completely sabotaged by then!

First stop, after the dolphins, of course, was the Viva show. The girls and I loved this show last time, but Bryan missed it since he was waiting on Levi to finish his nap at the hotel. It was still a great show the second time around.

And, I still got teary watching the baby Beluga whale swim alongside its momma. I think all that started last summer when I had my baby still so close to me with every move I made. The show was closed because the babies were still nursing, as was my baby, but they allowed you to watch the mommas and babies swimming around. A Sea World educator presented some facts about Beluga whales and the one I loved hearing most made me want to fall to my knees and praise God for His awesome creation. The babies are gray while the adults are white. This is so the babies can swim under and to the side of their mothers appearing as her shadow. Cool, huh?! This year the babies are actually involved in the show, but still always close to their mothers.

After the show we headed to cool off in the water. Being a Saturday, the water park was packed, so we only lasted a couple hours before we decided to ride some rides.

After a couple more hours, we left for a treat...fruit cups and corn cups. We'd never had them, but they were tasty! Then it was time to head home for showers and, you guessed it, more eating! We feasted on grilled chicken and steak, potatoes, guacamole and brownies. Basically my stomach hurt the entire weekend from being stuffed to its limits.


The girls enjoyed playing basketball, or football, or soccer, depending on who was talking, with Christian. It was fun for me to see what my kids might play like in the next couple years when Levi's a little older. Christian's a doll and was a good sport about having to watch Cinderella in our car.

The next morning we woke up and loaded the car bound for Austin. My aunt had a delicious brunch waiting on us that we got to enjoy with her, my grandmother, and my 2 cousins. And, because we hadn't had enough of the water already, we went swimming in a chilly spring-fed pool.

About 30 minutes outside of Austin I looked back and saw Addi asleep and Libby barely hanging on.

10 minutes later and both girls were out.

We had such a fun weekend, but it was so good to see Levi walk as fast as his little legs could carry him when he saw us standing at Nana and Poppa's door. He looked like he grew an inch and put on 6 pounds! That couldn't have been from all the homemade chocolate ice cream he ate, could it?!

We're back to swim lessons and organizing this week. Although, I must admit, I've lost some of my fire since I've still got laundry to catch up on and a refrigerator to stock. Am I really expected to wash the clothes, feed the children, and organize our house?

it's better than dirt

We celebrated the 4th with my parents. Their street was blocked off with almost all of their neighbors participating in a party. The girls rode their bikes and raced the other kids. We all got a great view of the fireworks. And, Levi discovered his love of watermelon. I lost count of how many slices he devoured. I do mean devoured! He at it all the way to green! I'm sure there's lots of fiber, or something beneficial, in the white part. :)

27 Day Challenge

A couple Saturdays ago, I opened my mouth before I really thought about the words pouring out.

"Let's see how long we can go without eating at a restaurant! It'll be fun!"

The events leading up to this earth-shattering-great idea included Addi begging to go out to eat at a restaurant almost every day. Once again, on that fateful Saturday, she was suggesting we eat inside a restaurant.

Any of you who've ever had a child know how much fun eating inside a restaurant can be with a baby. Let me tell you, if you don't already know, the more babies you have, the less fun it gets. So, we don't eat in restaurants like Chili's, Outback, or Babe's too often with our family of 5. We're more likely to grab Sonic, Chick Fil A, or McDonald's and eat it at home. What that means is I usually plan to cook 6 nights a week and then plan on pizza or other fast food for Friday nights. That is not close to extravagant, but I never want my children to believe buying yummy, greasy, fattening food is part of life. It is a treat and should, in my opinion, be one of the first treats to go in times of economic crisis. (Not that we personally are, but, if you haven't noticed a lot of other Americans are.) So, eliminating restaurants is easy if you don't eat at them often.

Or so I thought.

We decided, as a family, we would not buy anything from a restaurant for 27 days. NOTHING! That means no Whataburger taquitos for me after I drop Libby off at preschool or Sonic Dr. Pepper during Happy Hour. No treat after school on Fridays. No Freebirds burrito for Bryan if he forgets his sack lunch. No chocolate croissiant or coffee for me at La Madeleine's during my MOPS get together. Nothing!

It is a lot harder than I thought it'd be. Supper is not an issue at all. As I said before, I plan to cook most nights anyway and I really like to cook. The hardest part for me is little snacks while I'm running errands. Not being able to grab a Dr. Pepper and tator tots from Sonic during Happy Hour kills me! It wasn't even something I did that much. It's what I find myself missing the most.

We are not even half-way done with our challenge. Our ability to suceed will come from the accountability we have with each other. Libby isn't too into it and, of course, Levi is oblivious, but Addi is serious. She's a little drill sergeant! I'm sorry to say I've tried to tempt her more than once by pledging her the $1 ice cream sundae from Sonic. She doesn't even hesitate before she gives me a look like she's just caught me coloring on the walls. She's such a rule-follower! :)

We'll let you know if we make it to Day 27 and how yummy our meal in a restaurant is that night!

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