San Antonio ...continued

This picture was just too cute for me not to put on here. Right before we left our hotel, Amelia came over to say bye to us! She was such a ham, as soon as she saw my camera she said "Cheese"

ALAMO

Ricky looking over one of the walls.

Before we left San Antonio we took the kids down to the Alamo to learn about some Texas History... Eevie liked looking at some of the artifacts, but other than that they weren't too into it yet. Maybe when they get a little older.

Sea World San Antonio

For our 3 day weekend we decided to go to Sea World with our good friends the Dodsons. All of our kids get along with their kids, the husbands click, and of course Suzanna & I are Amigas, so what better group to go with?!

We left on Friday Morning so that we could beat the Austin Rush Hour which is brutal. We got there, checked into our awesome hotel suite, and decided to grab some dinner.

(Ricky decided to take off all his clothes in the car about 2 hrs into our 5 hour car ride.)

(Hotel Photos)

Stuffed ourselves @ TX Roadhouse

The next day we were off to Sea World...

We had fun Riding Kiddie rides, watching shows, and Suzanna & I got to leave the kids with the dads to go ride some pretty cool rollercoasters!

The guys were busy checking out the TX vs OU game most of the time to make sure the Longhorns were winning. (As you can see who Rick is supporting) They ended up winning! 45-35 TX! GOOOO LONGHORNS!!!!!

Then it was off to the bird feeding. Basically you hold a cup of sap out and all these birds land on you and drink the sap out of the cup. Boy were my kids excited!!!... Before they actually got into the cages! LOL. Ricky freaked out, Eevies was a tad bit nervous and even I was a little intimidated.

(Everyone's face in these pictures look so funny!)

We watched this really great Sea Lion show. They take so much time training those animals to do such amazing tricks. Unfortunetly the show took a turn for the worst when the sea lions started pooping in the water! It was so disgusting! Right after the thing pooped the actors jumped into the water. The whole crowd was disgusted! Ricky, Eevie, Sydney, and Mauren all sat in the splash zone at this show wanting to get splashed, Ricky was not happy when he did get splashed! (I had to share that picture, it was just too funny) That was a pre-poopy water splash.(Meaning he got splashed B-4 the seal pooped) After he got dried off and changed into new clothes he was MUCH happier! (See Picture)

The dad's had fun with the kids while we were gone riding roller coasters! Here are a few pictures that they took.(Above) The older girls were with them too, who knows what they were doing?!

(Pic #1)

Even though we had 4 adults to 5 children, it still wasn't enough to rangle all of them all the time. Just trying to get a picture took work from every parent.

(pic #2)

As you can see still having problems getting everone together...But Suzanna is ready and posing! LOL

(Pic #6)

Finally a decent one!

It was a great Weekend with our good friends!!!

Award's Assembly

Eevie is the third from the end (right) wearing the denim dress. Today was Eevie's 6 weeks award assembly. Eevie was recognized for Perfect Attendance (which at her school means, you have no absences or tardees), Perfect Conduct (she hasn't had any warnings or reprimands), and Meeting or Exceeding her reading goal. I am so proud of her and so happy that she is having such a wonderful school experience. I feel like she is getting a great foundation started at Elizabeth Smith!

P.S. I know this picture is crummy, but my battery was on empty so it wouldn't focus correctly.

This Weekend

This weekend Rick planned a day out for the fam since he was off from work. I think the original idea was to go to the state fair, but it was the big Prairie view & Grambling game so it was going to be really crowded, PLUS it is super expensive. So since Ricky is absolutely fascinated with trains we went to ride the Trinity Railroad Express. We took a nice long ride from Fort Worth to Dallas. While we were there we saw the Amtrak train.

After our train ride, we decided to go to the water gardens in Fort Worth and walk around. It is a really neat place, where they have all sorts of really cool fountains. Last year there were 4 people who drowned when a little girl fell into the large fountain. She got suctioned down and couldn't get out. The other people died while trying to save her. The water gardens were closed for a long time after that accident and just recently reopened. It is a really beautiful and serene place. It is not for swimming or splashing. No one is supposed to even be in the water, but some people still take that risk.

Here is the latest cake I have made. I made this one for my friend's daughter's birthday party. I didn't like the way it turned out, but everyone seemed to love it! Working with Fondant to make the flowers really rocked! The plan is with practice, my cakes will look better and better!

Parker Ride for Wellness and Bike Rally '08

On Saturday I did about a 30 mile bike ride in arlington. It was so fun, and even a bit exhausting. It was definiatly challenging with all the large hills to climb in that area. What was really cool though was that there were 2 somewhat celebrities amongst us. Jeff Spencer- Olympic cycling medalist and also Lance Armstrongs personal chiropractor, who also by the way has rode with Lance on many occasions. Lead/started our ride. I wish I would've gotten a picture with him! But here he is with his like $5000 bike. :) LOL, I am not sure how much it cost, but he was a really cool dude!

And many of you may or may not know who Jack Lalanne is but he is a an amazingly fit man! He just celebrated his 94th birthday on Friday and when he jumped out of his limo on Sat. morning at 7:30am he acted like his was 21! He is still in great shape and right before he blew the airhorn to get us started he said "What all of you are doing this morning is great, you are taking care of the most important person by excersising." He went on to say more, but his words that morning got me through, hill after tremendously tough hill. Oh, and his wife who looked great as well, is like 80 something.

Here I am right before my ride at about 7:15 in the morning. My feet were killing me while standing on the ground in cycling shoes. And it was pretty chilly that morning. While we were going down hill the wind was whipping my shoulders and I thought I would turn into an icicle. I had the option to do another lap which was about 14 miles, but I decided to stop after 2. By 9:15 my tummy was rumbling and I barely had the energy to go on. Even though I scarfed down a couple pretzals and bananas. I made so many new friends while on this ride. I guess I have some partners for the next ride/race I do.

We all got some pretty cool goody bags with Hats, T-shirts, waterbottles, energy bars, etc. And the best part of all was the yummy oatmeal pancakes at the end (All of our bodies needed it after hours of energy burning bicycling.) There was a live band, tons of people cheering us on it was Amazing! And fun! I can't wait until the next one. Me and Rose

It is amazing how many old-er people ride! Some of them are well into their 60's. But don't under estimate them! I had a few speed past me and I was averaging about 20 miles per hour my whole ride. There were even times I went faster then that. (28-32 mph) This lady ended up being in my group about the whole time. We were in the top middle group. But all in all it was a great ride, and a fun time.

Library Time

Ricky enjoying some computer time at the library.

Ricky has been doing really well at his Friday Library group and story time! It is so fun to watch the little kids dance and sing and do crafts. He really has a lot of fun.