San Antonio - Day 2

We got up and got ready and our friends met us in the parking lot of our hotel. After a quick review of our directions we got on the road to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch and Caverns. It was about a 30 minute drive and we were pulling into the Wildlife Ranch.

The Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch is dubbed "African Safari - Texas Style". As you enter the park they give you a bag of food and they tell you to drop the food outside of your car as you drive through the ranch. It was amazing, the animals were right there!!! I think the pictures speak for themselves. My favorite part was when the Zebra stuck his head in our car. I have never seen a zebra so close and I never dreamt of feeding a zebra out of my hand!!!

After the drive through we parked and went in to have lunch in the cafe. After a quick lunch we went outside to the petting zoo area to see some more animals and take some pictures.

Right next to the gate for the Wildlife Ranch is the gate for the Natural Bridge Caverns so we went there next. We took a guided tour of the caverns and saw some spectacular rock formations. The path takes you down about 200 feet into the ground and some parts were very steep and very slippery. I was worried that Grace wouldn't be able to walk it and that we would have to carry her, but it turns out that I had nothing to worry about. Our little girl was a trooper, she walked almost the entire way herself!

It was a long day and we were all exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel so we all took naps. After nap time we grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed to the pool to cool off. The perfect end to a fun day


Look for the continuation of our trip soon!

We're Back Ya'All

We went on vacation to San Antonio, Texas last week and we had a blast!

We arrived in San Antonio around 6:45 pm on Sunday 6/9. We stepped out of the airport into stifling heat. It was 98 degrees with 82% humidity, yuck! After getting our rental car we made our way out to our hotel. We checked in and got settled then went down to the resaurant in the hotel. After a quick bite to eat we decided to take a walk around and check it out before heading back upstairs. We walked out in the courtyard by the pool and found a movie playing on the wall, fire pits blazing and the smell of roasting marshmellows in the air. It was really neat! We stopped by the playground and Grace played for a little while then we headed up to our room for a good night sleep.

Bright and early the next morning I opened the door to Grace's room and she rolled over and smiled and said, "See Shamu now?" Yep, we headed out to Sea World on the shuttle and were there before they opened. Some of you are probably thinking ... "You live and San Diego and have a Sea World there ..." Well, I heard this Sea World has some different stuff and we were meeting our friends there so it was a great opportunity to compare the two parks.

We met up with our friends at the dolphin feeding. It was so great to see them! After spending a small fortune in fish for the dolphins, we stopped by the shark exhibit then went over to Shamu's Happy Harbor where there was a cute little roller coaster. Unfortunately Grace was about a half of an inch too short and they wouldn't let her ride. She was so upset. Across from the roller coaster was a water play area, so while our friends rode the roller coaster I took Grace to the bathroom to change into her swim suit. It was only 10:00 am and it was really starting to heat up so the water was a nice cool down for the kids.

Next on the agenda was to check out the water area of the park called Lost Lagoon. I didn't know what to expect, but our friends planned on spending the rest of the day there. As we approached the entrance to the Lost Lagoon we saw a huge crowd of people waiting to get in, apparently that area doesn't open till 11:00. After walking down a long path it opened up to a giant waterpark. It was like you were in a whole different park. There was a lazy river, wave pool, toddler area, tons of water slides and a giant play area with water cannons, buckets toppling over, and water shooting out of various valves. It was really neat! I think our Sea World needs something like this! We spent the rest of the afternoon there and we had a blast. At one point we got seperated from our friends and while strolling around we heard our names being called. We looked up and above us, waiting in line for a huge water slide, were our friends. They called for us to come up there and ride with them. They said that they check the height and Grace could ride too! On this slide you rode down the chutes in a raft of 4 people. I was a bit nervous about how Grace would do, but she was excited to go on. Of course she had a blast and giggled the whole way down! I am sorry to say that I didn't get any pictures while we were in the water park because we were having just oo much fun!

It was getting to be pretty late in the afternoon and I knew if I didn't get Grace down for a nap the evening would not be fun. We gathered our stuff and headed back to the hotel for some rest.

After a nap for Grace and showers for Mom and Dad we were ready to meet our friends for dinner. There was a BBQ place on the corner by our hotel and we asked the shuttle driver who took us over to Sea Worl if that BBQ place was good. He said it is probably the best around so we thought we would give it a try. Rudy's is a country store, gas station and BBQ (very interesting). The food was yummy!!!

After dinner we caught a shuttle from our hotel over to Sea World for the Shamu Rocks show. I really liked the Shamu stadium here. It was completely covered offering nice shade from the sun. It was still unbearably hot because there was no breeze, but at least the sun wasn't beating down on us. The Shamu show was good. It was to all country music, which I loved!

That pretty much sums up day 1. Day 2 of our trip report to come soon!

First Roller Coaster

Roller coasters have been a part of my life since I rode my first one before I could speak full sentances. I LOVE roller coasters! I remember going to Kennywood Park when I was little and begging to go on the roller coasters. The Little Dipper was the first one I rode. I needed and wanted more after that first ride ... The next one was the Jack Rabbit. I was so little that my mom had to wrap her arms around me to hold me in my seat on the killer double hill ... all the while I laughed like crazy! Roller coasters hold a lot of special momories for me. I got to go off with my mom, grandma, and pappy and ride the roller coasters while my dad stayed with my little brother and sister. My brother and sister never grew to like roller coasters until they were adults so it was always a special time that I got to spend with the adults.

Yesterday we took the day off and took Grace to Disneyland. Our annual passes are about to expire at the beginning of June so we wanted to get one more trip in. It's so crowded and hot in the summer so we probably won't renew our passes until the fall.

The day was beautiful. We got on the road at about 6:30 and after a stop at Starbuck's we headed north on the 5 freeway. We walked up to the front gates just after the park opened at 9:15 am. Our plan was to head straight to Nemo. The lines had been so long all of the other times we were there. We waited 45 minutes to ride it and it was ok. Next we headed to Mickey's Toontown where we went straight to the Go Coaster. I couldn't wait to take Grace on her first roller coaster. I was hoping she would love it ... I was not disappointed. She smiled and laughed during the whole ride. As soon as we got off she wanted to ride again. It made me so HAPPY!

We are in the front car, I will try to edit the picture for a close up.

Mother's Day

I hope all of the Mother's had a wonderful day!

I had a day that could not get more perfect! We had a nice brunch at the Omni Hotel, downtown. After brunch we went to the New Children's Museum.

Castle Park

When I was 13 we moved from Pennsylvania to California. My parents were just learning the area and they would always try to find fun stuff for us to do. I have no idea how they came to find Castle Park, but it became a place where we made tons of fun memories. Castle Park is a little amusement park/arcade/miniature golf course. The mini golf course is like no other that I have ever been to in my life, even now. There are 4 courses that weive in and out of each other. All of them are beautifully landscaped and they have really fun obstacles to get through. They have a lot of holes where you hit the ball into a hole and it comes out down on a different level and you don't know where it is going to come out. The arcade was always great for a competive game of air hockey and I could always be found at the Pac Man machine. We would collect endless amounts of tickets from the skee ball machines, hoping for a great prize but always ended up going home with a rubber ball or something just as lame. As I got older Castle Park became a fun place to "hang out". My frinds and I would ride the "big" rides, most of which spin you until your brain felt like scrambled eggs and later we would over dose on cotton candy. We would always scope out the place for cute boys, I think I even had a crush on a boy working at one of the carnival games.
I tell you all of this because a couple of weekends ago I went to Castle Park for the first time in almost 15 years! I wasn't sure what to expect ... was it going to be the same as I remeber it in all of my fun memories? Had the place gotten run down over the years? Had they completely changed the place? Well ... it was everything i remembered it to be and more. Being a mom I saw the park through a whole new set of eyes. I didn't realize they had so many cute kiddie rides! The park had been kept up and barely changed at all in 15 years. We had a really great time. I can't wait until Grace is big enough to play mini golf. I know that we will create so many fun new memories there.

Mother's Day Project

For my mom's first Mother's Day as a Grandma I made her a stepping stone for her garden. Grace was just 10 months and we made an imprint of her hand and decorated it with colored glass. My mom LOVED it! She asked that we make one every year on Mother's Day. My dad also loved the stones and asked that we make him one for Father's day too. When they moved into their new house, my parents planned a place for the stones with room to grow over the years. It is a special tradition that we always have fun doing. So here are a couple of pictures of us making my mom's stone this year.

Legoland

Since Tim and I work during the week we really try to make the most of the time we have as a family on the weekends, especially on Saturdays that Tim does not have to work or coach Little League. Last week we were trying to figure out what to do on Saturday. We really wanted to use our Disney annual passes again before it really starts to get crowded, but we realized that Saturday was one of our blackout dates. I've had a coupon for Legoland sitting on my dining room table for weeks now, so I mentioned it to Tim. He thought it was a good idea. We haven't been to Legoland since we met up there with some friends who were down on vacation. At the time Grace was a little over a year old and really couldn't ride anything. So Saturday we headed out to Legoland.

It was such a fun day. Grace was tall enough to ride a majority of the rides. There was one ride that she had her own seat and Daddy sat behind her and there was even one ride that she had to ride alone! She is such a daredevil. She loved everything! She was such a good girl too. She is a pro at standing in lines now, since we have been taking her to amusement parks and stuff. She even did great at telling me she had to go potty, holding it until we could find a restroom and going potty in the public restrooms. She is getting so BIG!

Wild Animal Park

We are so lucky to live in San Diego! There are so many fun things to do. A couple of weeks ago we decided to venture north to the Wild Animal Park. We go to the zoo all of the time, so we thought it would be a nice change to check out the Wild Animal Park. We had fun taking the safari ride and seeing all of the animals roaming around. Here are some great pictures, ENJOY!

Heat Wave

We had a heat wave this weekend, with temperatures in the high 90's.We took full advantage of the hot wether and did lots of fun stuff. On Saturday we packed a lunch and head for the beach. A lot of people had the same idea, the beaches were packed! We found a nice shady spot next to a playground at Mission Bay. We had lunch, played in the sand and splashed in the water. It was a blast! Grace fell asleep on the way home and ended up sleeping for 3 hours so I took that opportunity to take a nap myself, it was glorious! When she got up we filled up her little pool in the backyard and tried to stay cool by splashing around out there. After dinner we finished off our hot day by going out for ice cream. It was such a great day!


On Sunday after church we decided to go to Victoria's gardens to pick strawberries. Grace was being a little prissy, she didn't want to pick the strawberries herself, but she gladly pointed them out to Daddy and made him pick them. It was funny.

It was such a great weekend. My life is so blessed!

The Wiggles

I am a little behind on my posts, sorry.

A couple of weeks ago we went with Kelly, my mom, Tristan and Hailey to see The Wiggles. I don't particularly care for them and Grace has only seen them on TV a couple of times, but Kelly got some great seats to the show in Los Angeles so we went. The kids were mesmerized by it all and they had a great time. Here are some cute pictures.