Lake Palestine

I am still playing catch up on the blog. In mid-July, we headed to Lake Palestine in Texas to meet my parents and my brother and his family for our annual get together. We stayed in a lake house with a great shaded backyard and a nice covered dock. We did a lot of fishing, a lot of lake swimming and a lot of playing. We always look forward to this time when all the cousins can be together.

Branson

We started our summer with a quick trip to Branson for three nights. We rented a little house that had a pool within walking distance. We spent everyday swimming since the temps were pretty high that week. Both kids are doing great in the water. Laura is a good swimmer and really enjoys being in the water. Grant is fearless. He jumps, dunks, blows bubbles and paddles pretty well (all with his floaties on). I'm so glad both of the kids love swimming so much!

One night we went into town to ride go-karts and they had little rides the kids enjoyed. Since it was the last week of school for most of Missouri schools, there were no crowds. It was great!
Grant was pretty serious about driving his car. I was right beside him and we were dead last to pass the finish line. People were flying by us, but I was scared Grant was gonna fall out. He had a blast!Some sweet man offered to take this picture when we were at Bass Pro.
One morning, we went to Tablerock State Park for a hike. It was hot and Grant needed a lift at the end. We enjoyed looking at the lake. The lake was really high, so were had to stay on the paved path. All of the hiking trails were actually closed.



After our trip to Branson, Jim and I went to Malibu, California. He presented at the Christian Scholars Conference at Pepperdine, and while he was busy with work, I ventured around town in our Grand Marque rental car. I am cheap-just trying to save Harding a few dollars and get the deal which happened to be a very large Grand Marque! I met up with a couple friends some of the days and it was overall a nice relaxing time. I could definitely see myself living in California--the weather is fabulous. This was our view everyday--it can't get much better!

Family Vacation-The end

We headed back to Lakeway, TX, to finish up our trip. My brother and family live in Austin, so they took day trips out to the "lakehouse". (It isn't really a house on the lake--it is a near a lake.) It has a great pool where much time was spent! Actually Laura spent so much time in the pool, that the week we got home she had a bad case of swimmer's ear!

One day we took a pontoon boat on the lake to enjoy jumping from the side, a picnic lunch and seeing the sights.
And this is how my children travel on LONG car trips--Laura is totally in tune with her movies and Grant has to have every single car/train/toy in his lap!!

Family Vacation-Day 1-3

On the first part of our big family trip, we met my parents and my brother and his family in Glen Rose, Texas. Heard of it? I doubt it. It has a population of about 6,000. It does however offer two neat attractions.

The first place we visited was the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. You can either drive in your car or take a guided tour in an open-air safari truck to see all kinds of animals-giraffes, zebras, emus, deer and much more. We opted to drive our own car since it was a pretty hot day and it was cheaper!! You are able to feed the animals that come up to your car and there were plenty that wanted to eat. You could even feed the giraffe out of your hand since they don't have teeth. It was a pretty cool experience.
The second place we toured was called Dinosaur World. There are 100 life-size dinosaur, a fossil dig and museum. It was a super hot day, so we walked quickly through the dinosaur area. I mean if you've seen one dinosaur you've seen them all, right!
After our weekend in Glen Rose, we all packed up to head to Austin for more fun in the pool and on the lake!

Vacation Highlights

A couple weeks ago, we headed to Houston and Austin, Texas, to visit with the family. We spent 4 nights in Austin where we saw my brother and his family. It was a fun time having all the cousins together! My parents rented a "lake" house meaning it was near Lake Travis not on the lake. Instead of the lake, it did have a fantastic pool which we used everyday all day long!

My brother and his daughter Reve' share the same birthday, so we celebrated that occasion together.

The cousins playing duck duck goose.

A picture of ALL the cousins! We LOVED that Joe (the oldest one) joined us in Austin for the fun. He is a blast to be around. We teased him that his was the "manny" for the kiddos.

Lots and Lots of swimming

Laura absolutely loves to swim. And after this second round of swim lessons, she is officially swimming using her arms and everything. I think swim team is in our future.....

Grant on the other hand is still not sure of the water. He likes it, but he prefers to be like his sister and not use floaties.

Amazing Vegas

Two weeks ago, Jim and I boarded a plane to head to Vegas without our kids. Jim had a journalism conference he was attending and presenting at, so I went along for the ride. I was a bit nervous on how I would handle the whole separation from the kids (especially Grant since it was my first time away from him), but I really didn't miss them too much. I think I really really needed a break and I was completely confident in Jim's parents taking care of them!

Our flight to Vegas was something I haven't experienced in awhile...restful. I read a book, listened to my Ipod and graded papers. We stayed at the Trump Hotel (thanks to Priceline) and attempted to act like we fit in at a 5 star hotel. It was a really awesome place to stay. Our room overlooked the Vegas strip which was a sight to see at night. This room was a studio complete with a mini-kitchen, flat screen tv, two phones (one in the toilet room), jacuzzi tub, walk-in shower and tv in the bathroom. It was posh!
The pool was pretty nice too with big lounge beds. It was super windy the day we were out there so we didn't stay too long.While we were there, we walked the strip a lot and toured and shopped in the huge hotels. Once while Jim was in meetings, I treated myself to a massage, manicure and pedicure. It was great!!!!!! At night, we ate at some great restaurants and viewed the sights. Thanks to www.restaurant.com, I purchased $25 gift certificates for $3! If you haven't checked out this website, you must do it. We ate at Enoteca San Marco in the Venetian and RM Seafood in Mandalay Bay as well as the Cheesecake Factory.

On our last night, we went to the Blue Man Group. It was totally entertaining. During the entire show, I kept thinking to myself that I am watching bald men with their heads painted blue do some really bizarre activities! I do recommend it though.
The BEST part of the trip was being alone with Jim. It was soooo wonderful to have meaningful conversations, stay up late, sleep in, and just enjoy quiet together. It was really really nice and also much needed for the both of us. It had been two years since we'd been on a vacation alone and I won't let that much time go in between a vacation again. Granted I didn't have much control over it with being pregnant and nursing. But, we both realized it is important to our relationship to spend time together without the kids. Honestly we didn't even hardly talk about Laura or Grant the entire time we were gone. We called them several times a day though.

Speaking of Laura and Grant, they had the best time with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm pretty sure they were spoiled the entire time. Everyone took naps good, went to bed easily and of course obeyed all the time. Grandma even had to take Grant to the doctor for a rash! Grandpa was so concerned over Grant's medicine that he called a personal friend who is a pharmacist to double-check the prescription dosage. I just don't worry when they take care of the kids.
All in all, we had a great trip and are already brainstorming our next vacation together!

The Beach

We just returned from a fun-filled trip to Galveston, Texas, with my parents. My brother and his family were also there at the same time, so we got to spend some time with them as well. It is always fun to get all the cousins together and watch them interact.

We ate good seafood, stayed up late, went swimming in the pool, built sandcastles and slept really hard at night! Today Laura told me she was ready to go back to the beach house with Meme and Don-Don. I can ditto that thought! Vacations are nice!

Our Cruise

We learned a lot on our Carnival cruise to Mexico. We had a great time together and enjoyed beautiful weather and sites.

I learned....
*go to the Doctor beforehand to get a motion sickness patch. The biggest surprise to me and Jim was the rocking of the ship!!! I spent the first day at sea in bed seasick. I was not impressed with the cruise experience on this day. Thank goodness I had brought Dramamine with me.

*to bring more money. Yikes...everything costs on the ship. Jim and I both won spa services in a raffle, so we both enjoyed discounted prices for a facial and massage. The spa is fabulous, but pricey. It was totally worth it though.

*the water in Cozumel is amazing. We spent our day at Chankanaab National Park snorkeling and soaking in the sun. It was a fun day.

*the merchants in Mexico are pushy. We did have fun bartering with them in Progreso. I bought some neat silver jewelry and Jim purchased a handmade hamock.

*beware of the 21 and older sun deck on the ship. Jim and I assumed that meant a quiet place for adults. Not this deck....it was a topless sunbathing deck. That was interesting!

All in all, we had a great experience. I learned a lot, so our next cruise will be even better. More than anything, it was nice just to have fun with Jim with no distractions, to be able to experience a full dining experience, and to just spoil ourselves.

pic. 1- sunset on the ship
pic. 2- Laura having a blast without us
pic. 3 - Progreso
pic. 4- boarding ship in Progreso
pic. 5- Cozumel
pic. 6- Chankanaab
pic. 7- formal night