A LOT of Quality Family Time

Well, we have been some busy little bees around here. The QUEEN busy bee, AKA Brittney, has REALLY had a great summer. I wish I was 8 (almost 9) and still had a summer vacation to just do nothing but be a kid. She has been to a week long YMCA Camp (and did absolutely GREAT and was ready to stay another week....maybe next year), we just got back from Sea World in San Antonio EVERYone went...whew!), and she's about to leave for cheerleader camp this coming week. But before, during and after all of that she has managed to squeeze in a few friends to spend the night, gone swimming enough times to attain a tan that's absolutely beautiful, and had more phone calls and emails than me and my husband put together. That girl is one social child. When we got home and had 5 messages on the machine...4 of them were for her. It's hard for me to remember that when she was a baby she was SUCH a momma's girl and was SO attached to me....now she's just so grown up and so independent. But wait.....I have TWO more little guys to take her place. Yes, that's right. Jace and Cade are quite the little clingy guys lately. But that's why when you decide to go on vacation, you ask the grandparents to come along AND you invite a friend to come along with your oldest b/c you know she'll get bored of dealing with the babies all day.


You'll have to forgive me because I didn't take a lot a pictures at our destination for the day....Sea World....because we were quite busy just manuevering around all the people (first of all) and also trying to keep the toddlers in the stroller and happy (that's a task in itself no matter where we are these days). Anyway, let me just sum up the day for you....hot, crowded and really really HOT. I think next year would have been a little better for Jace and Cade but oh well. I will say that a 30 minute Shamu show is just a little too long for their attention span. Although Cade's face was PRICELESS and I would still give more money for the expression he had when he first saw Shamu jump out of the water. He was in disbelief that that "fish" was jumping up...I mean jaw down, mouth open and in a dead stare for quite some time. Jace on the other hand was more fascinated with the softserve ice cream we bought him (just to shut him up). He kept feeding himself, feeding me and really liked to watch it drip off of the spoon b/c it was melting in the sweltering heat. Brittney and Cassie (her friend) were entertained but were upset that they didn't get wet even though they were in the "splash zone". Oh fun times.

I think the boys would have had more fun to just hang out at the pool at our AWESOME hotel ... La Cantera. Their pool is top notch. I mean it has something for every age. Only thing is, Jace and Cade are getting more and more comfortable in the pool. It's a good thing but it makes keeping up with them even harder. There's no way I can go in the two different directions that they like to go in by myself. Me, my mom and mother-in-law were on alternating "watch" duty for the boys and also making sure the girls stayed safe. PLUS the fact that the boys both still have their ear tubes in...we're like crazy hovering people trying to make sure that they don't go under water too much and also, you know, make sure they don't DROWN!!! Cade's favorite thing about swimming is the snacks though. He's the easy one to watch while at the pool. He swims a little and then has a snack for a long time...then maybe he'll get in the water again. Jace was really fascinated with the stairs...I guess because we don't have any at our house. He loved to go up and down and would throw miniature tantrums when we tried to hold his hand. He wanted to be a "big" boy and do it all by himself.

All in all the trip was lots of fun. It was exhausting for everyone...especially the adults. As you can tell from this picture of Jacey Poo though, he finally gave up and fell asleep while my dad pushed him in the stroller. I agree!!!!!!!!!