SeaWorld 2016

Three days at Sea World.  My favorite memories:

*Cooper entertaining Camden by making him laugh, or feeding him, or playing with him.

*Allison and Beckett building sand castles, or when Allison took B on rides and slides.

*Waking up to grab a whining Camden and us snuggling for about half an hour until everyone else woke up.

*Riding the Sting Ray ride with the three older kids.  Its a water raft ride that takes you down a slide then through a surrounding glass tunnel with a sting ray exhibit.  Beckett was tall enough to go and he squealed the whole ride we all had a great laugh.

*Watching Allison do the dolphin experience was another highlight from our trip.  Allison had a smile from ear to ear, she was so eager and not afraid.  For Allison to make the choice to cancel her party and do this instead showed a lot of maturity on her part.  Allison got to swim, feed, kiss, and participate in tricks with the dolphin.  It was a once in a life time experience we both will never forget.

*We started a family tradition at Disney Land about 10 years ago with Allison where we collect the imprinted pennies.  Now we do it at any place that has the penny machine and all the kids participate. 

*Beckett insisted we do a Shamu Show!  Its a must at SeaWorld he did it twice.  The second time he begged to get wet the lil stinker sat in the splash area and poor Richard and Cam ended up getting soak and would you believe B didn't get a single drop of water on him.

*Cooper didn't want to leave the wave pool.  Alli and B got bored and road slides and built sand castles.

*Cooper rode his first legit roller coaster the steel eel.  Richard is such a good sport taking the kids to do rides with such a weak stomach.  I got to hang out with Cam and Beckett at the park and Sesame Street town.

San Antonio River Walk

We managed some time at the River Walk during our long weekend in San Antonio.  My in laws wanted to go to a restaurant on the River Walk called Laundry's, the had eaten there 15 years ago and wanted to go back.  We were able to get seat pretty quick and enjoyed a delicious meal all together.  Afterwards we caught a picture of my lil family at our spot.  A spot we took our first picture as a married couple on our honeymoon.  It was dark and the waterfalls weren't on but hey it has a special memory for us.  Then we got in line to take the boat tour around the river walk.  Cooper was begging to do this and we ALL enjoyed it.  We had the best tour guide!  Next we went to the Alamo and grabbed a quick photo because we were beat it was 11pm!  So glad my in laws were able to tag along with my crazy crew, loved our little big outing.

San Antonio Soccer Tournament

Allison club team had a soccer tournament in San Antonio memorial weekend.  It was decided last fall so we had made plans for our whole family to go.  We also wanted to take the kids to SeaWorld and stay a few extra days.  Weather was looking bad with storms around the whole weekend.  We got an amazing hotel with the largest room we've ever had.  Perfect for our large family.  My in laws also came to the tournament!  The first day our games were perfect weather the second day of games we had a hour delay due to the morning storms.  It was a tough tournament we lost all of our games.  Our team has a mix of girls from 2003/2004 and two girls including Allison in 2005 age groups.  These girls with different ages and having never played together created a interesting dynamic for a year of growth.  I feel that Allison has learned so much this year and has pushed through her pain/hesitation created by her severs disease.  I hope Allison continues to grow and learn as she plays soccer.  There were a lot of tears at our last game because our team is splitting up.  The club is having to inforce new age requirement rules.  It will be interesting to see where Allison ends up this next year as try outs are this next week.  Allison has truly bonded with her teammates as they enjoyed running around the hotel and chatting at team meals.  Can't wait to see what Allison's soccer career has in store for her.

carlsbad cavers

My sweet friend Dana's birthday was last week and I drove to Hobbs and packed up our crew and drove to Carlsbad to walk the caverns.  I left Camden with Richard who ended up dropping off Cam with his mom to go to Allison's field day.  I had a blast with Beckett on our lil adventure through the caverns.  It was fun to chat with Dana and catch up on day to day life.  I love doing destination birthdays and want to make it a yearly thing!

Girls weekened

My sister Jamie had training in Houston in May so we decided it would be fun to plan a girls weekend at my moms no kids or husbands!  It was hard to get all our schedules to work but we managed 3 full days together.  I drove to Tahoka and picked up my sister Courtney and we drove to Fort Worth to my moms.  I was a fun rode trip we chatted and snacked the whole way there it was fabulous!!!!!  It was so care free spending time with everyone.  We got pedicures and went for a walk around a lake the first night.  The second day we did a lil makeover on Courtney and then went to see the play Wicked, and it was amazing!  I sung the songs from the play for days!  Afterwards we ate dinner at this amazing Mexican restaurant and then went out for more shopping and ended our evening eating ice cream. Both nights we stayed up late snacking and playing cards.  The next morning we went to this private airport where they serve breakfast on the runway and you get to watch planes come and go.  After breakfast we went to church with my mom, its not often she has all her girls together!  We ate lunch after church and then Courtney and I hit the road.  It was bittersweet being all together.  It just made me crave more time together with my sisters.  We also planned a complete family get together for next summer!  I miss my sisters and mom living close but I definitely appreciate it more when were all together.  Also a HUGE shout out to my sweet hubby for watching all 4 kids and enjoying it.