San Antonio Hill Country Getaway

Jason and I spent last Wednesday-Sunday in the hill country up near San Antonio with his work's annual conference they do for manager and spouses. We look forward to these fun events each year because we get to see so many of the friends we have made and spend time together in all different locations - with no kids!! Mia and Lily were in good hands with meemaw and pop-pop - getting spoiled and eating every meal out. The first few days are spent doing group activities and a few meetings. The highlight was on the last night we got to go to Sea World for a private dolphin/whale show, dinner, and the night ended with a private nighttime Shamu show set to rock music.

We stayed an extra few days, and took the weekend to explore the hill country with our friends Mike and Nikki from SLC. We started in Boerne, TX and went shopping and then took an adventure tour into some old caves. Then we went to Gruene, TX for more shopping and eating. These old towns were so neat. We loved finding spots in Texas that we had not see before. We drove home Sunday just in time for a great Father's Day dinner with my parents and the girls.

The Shamu show - "Shamu Rocks"

 

Jason and Mike - in Boerne, TX.

 

Jason, me and Mike - ready to go cave exploring.

 

Jason and me inside the caves.

 

The Missing Tooth

Mia has been dying to loose her first tooth - and it finally happened this week! The tooth was loose forever, and one bite of a chick-fil-a sandwich is all it took to finally get it out. My favorite thing was how she wrote a note to the tooth fairy to ask her to "please leave a lot of money," and placed it under her pillow with her tooth.

How cute is she with the missing tooth?? :)

 

Dolphins Swim Season 2010

I cannot believe we only have one more swim meet this season! It may be hot going to practice every day and sitting through the long meets each Saturday, but I just love being a part of our swim team. The girls are so much fun to watch at each meet. Mia is our swimming champion!! She races in a relay, freestyle, backstroke and butterfly - and she doesn't like to get anything other than 1st of 2nd place. She is a quite competitive when she hits the water. And Lily, youngest on the team this year, has done an amazing job. From barely putting her head under to swim on the first day of practice to learning to swim the whole lenghth of the pool without touching the lane ropes, and now racing in a relay, freestyle and backstroke in each meet - she has come so far. We are going to miss cheering on our Dolphin swimmers, and being with all of our friends every day. Go Dolphins!!

Lily - racing in backstroke.

 

Mia - ready for her backstroke race to start.

 

Mia - displaying all her race numbers.

 

SURPRISE - We're going to DISNEY

 

 

 

Out of character for me and Jason, we decided to plan a last minute trip to Disney World. We figured now was the time since I have been feeling much better (and I am not too big yet), the weather isn't too hot and we had heard the lines aren't bad in May. And somewhere in the planning we decided not to tell the kids we were going. It was a rough 2 weeks of hiding emails (Mia can read everything now, and likes to read my emails over my shoulder), packing the luggage and hiding it in my closet, getting in touch with Mia's teacher and getting her school work without her knowing, etc. But it was so worth it when we saw the looks on their faces when the night before we left we surprised them with new Minnie and Daisy shirts and said we were getting on a plane the next morning to go to see them in Orlando. That wasn't great planning on our part, because they were too excited to go to sleep. But we boarded the plane the next morning with 2 very excited children, and headed to Orlando. We stayed at a fantastic hotel out by the parks. It had a water slide that Mia liked all most as much as Disney. We spent one full day at the Magic Kingdom - and it was perfect!! Most rides had no line. We walked right onto Pirates of the Carribean and Haunted Mansion. Mia got to ride Splash Mountain 4 times, and Thunder Mountain twice. Lily discovered her love of roller coasters on Goofy's coaster in Toontown, and the girls (and Jason) did that ride at least 10 times. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The next day we headed to Blizzard Beach - one of Disney's water parks. That was a blast!! There was so much for the kids to do and we loved the big slides. To relax while on vacation, we spent a day just playing in the hotel pool, and then met up with meemaw and pop-pop for a few days at the beach. Disney was fun and exciting, but nothing compares to a few days of laying on the beach and playing in the waves. I am just so grateful to be feeling better and so I was able to spend this vacation playing and having fun with the girls. We made lots of memories, and look forward to going back in a few years to introduce another little one to the magic of Disney.

Here are some more photos from our great trip!!

Houston Astros Game

We are not much of a baseball family, but we decided to go experience the fun of the Astros! We loaded up on lots of junk food and once they were completely stuffed - pizza, hamburgers, french fries, cotton candy and ice cream - the girls actually really got into the baseball game. It was a great night out. The highlight was getting new pink hats so Mia and Lily can now show off that they are big Astros fans...even though they didn't win!

 

 

 

 

New Baby Ray

Big news in our house this month - Mia and Lily are finally going to have a little brother or sister!! I am 10 weeks along and soooo sick, but I keep reminding myself that it will all be worth it in the end. The baby is due on Thanksgiving Day, but with my c-sections the doctor has assured me I will be home long before the holiday. November will be a busy month for us, with Jason and Lily's birthdays on the 6th, and a new baby a few weeks later.

Mia is super excited - she was the one to spread the word, quickly, to all our friends and neighbors. Mia is always telling me all the things she is going to do to help with the baby. It will be nice having another little mommy in the house. Lily isn't sure what is going on, all she knows is that mom is no fun these days since all I do is lay on the couch. Lily has told me she thinks the baby is a girl and she wants to name her Sparkles...hopefully it's a boy so she won't be too disappointed. :)

Swim Team

So, another season of swim team has begun, and this year we have 2 swimmers. Lily decided the first day of practice that she wanted to jump in and swim with the big kids, and she did it!! One issue we had was trying to convince Lily that she needed to wear her swim goggles each day so that her eyes wouldn't hurt. She is a little stubborn (I have no idea where she gets that trait), but we finally got her to try them. Now she loves them. The other day she wanted to sleep in them, but we settled for leaving them on her nightstand while she slept. And then when she got home from school, she wore them until time for practice. I had to take a picture it was so darn cute!!

Lily and her goggles.