Spring Vacation: Day 3 (April 13, 2012)

If you've sensed the theme of this vacation is no rest for the weary, you'd be right.

We woke up early on Friday and headed down to Sea World!  Unfortunately, it was not a gorgeous day- quite drizzly...but we already bought the tickets and decided to make the best of it.

Now, we had a really nice day, but having been going to Sea World for over 20 years (since it opened!) I have to say: it isn't worth it in the spring.  There were only 3 shows: dolphin, orca, and pinniped.  Contrast to the summer when there is also water skiing, and then all the animals have a second night show, and then there is an "educational" show on the pinnipeds, it just seemed really expensive for a fairly short day.  So for us, a couple who has been there a lot- it was probably the most "meh" visit.  Maybe for kids, they don't see the difference.

It did drizzle all day, but I think that may have been a good thing.  The rain was  never bad- and there was never too much heat.  It was only chilly when we just got there.  So I think overall, a dreary day works for something like Sea World.
The best part of the day was definetly hanging out with C. and R. in a kid friendly place.  C. had a blast- though I'm not sure at the shows.  He loved the rides, and the kids play area.  The kids play area is built for up to 61", so I went up with him!  I'm only 60"!  That was SCARY!  I don't really like heights, and I would have been fine but there were some amazing bottlenecks in some of the hanging climbing elements.  I kept wondering what the max weight load was.  The problem:  there are signs everywhere that say "enter" and "exit".  The kids up there were mostly in the "I can't read yet" age group or the "I don't care to bother reading because I'm 7" age group.  Eek!   That said, it doesn't appear that anyone from Sea World was watching the area, so there weight limit must be massive.   I did have fun running around with C. on the giant Cargo nets too.

Kevin and Jill went on Sea World's two big roller coasters, but I got to go on a coaster too this time!  The Shamu Express with C.  We didn't pick our seats well, as Kevin got this fantastic picture of me on it :)  I promise C. is right next to me having a blast!

Other than playing with the kids, my favorite part of the day was watching the Sea Lions.  At one point, a pacifier got thrown in there, and the sea lion who found it was having a ball!  (They retrieved it pretty quickly- I think a ball can quickly switch to "choking", so they really aren't supposed to have it.)  I can't wait to go to the Galapagos!  My favorite small animal is the otter, and I love this picture.  Kevin took like a thousand pictures last time we went to Sea World, and since it drizzled all day (and he had done it before) he didn't take as many this time.)

The kids (and Kevin's parents) got tuckered out around 4:00, so that is when we headed home.  We caught a Shamu picture opportunity just before we left and then headed home.

That is when we finally got to go and meet V! We headed over to Kevin's brother's house and had a light dinner (thank you! This vacation was non-stop eating) of sandwiches and fruit salad and visited and played with the newest member of our family. She was such a doll, and totally worth 17 hours of driving!

 

  

When we got home for the evening, we packed for the cruise, and Kevin grouted the tiles he had laid, and then finally, after a very long day, we went to sleep!

Spring Vacation: Day 2 (April 12, 2012)

(Sorry no pictures today! There are some in the linked blogpost though.)

On the second day of our trip we started the morning with chores for Kevin.  His parents had asked him to tile a small area in front of their backdoor.  I suggested we take the kids (my SIL's kids stay with her parents for "daycare" each day she is at school or work) to the children's museum to keep them out of the way, but I don't know if the suggestion was misunderstood (that we do it later when Kevin could go?) or just ignored.  Either way, it worked out fine, because once told, the kids stayed out of the way. 

At some point, Nan had come over- and brought donuts :)  I didn't get to visit too much, as I was on kid duty.

So Kevin tiled, and I played.  C. and R. showed me their toys and we played music- LOUD.  C. likes to turn his music machine up HIGH, and I kept turning it down. The toy drum set we were playing on was loud enough, I didn't need the radio too!  Luckily it was a nice day so we went outside in the backyard.  They have spray bottles and we all sprayed each other.  R. (who is not quite 2) was really cute, as she couldn't get the strength to push the sprayer unless it was facing her!  We all got quite wet!  I was really impressed with C.  He is the only boy I've ever played with (he's 4.5) who didn't turn it into a gun!  I know he plays with guns (and lightsabers) so it was fantastic that we were able to have a water fight without it being a violent thing! 

Now that Kevin was done, we blocked off the tile area and played with play-doh until Jill stopped by from school.  Then we went out for my favorite lunch: Freebirds!

Unfortunately we were not able to stop by to see V. (the new baby) as her other grandmother was in town too, so we spent the rest of the afternoon at Kevin's parents, and then headed out in the early afternoon for our next event.

First, we stopped by our old high school and man has that place changed!  We visited an old teacher both Kevin and I had, and he told her about his PhD. (This was our chemistry teacher- without her, he probably wouldn't have gotten into chemistry- she was fabulous.)  Sadly, the theatre teacher was not there.

Then we made the treck up to Northcross mall (seriously Austin, you have too much traffic! It was only 3:30!) and met up with my Dad for a public skate.  I posted about that here: http://skittles-skates.blogspot.com/2012/04/vacation-skating.html

After skating, we stopped by the Bernina store on Anderson lane and my Dad bought me a rolled hem foot.  Dad and Kevin also waited while I got a 5-minute demo on some machine, so I could get a free Craftsy class.  I have to tell you- I got a good deal on my machine.  This one was clearly lower end, not nearly the same function and no embroidery, and it costs the same as mine did.  Wow. 

Then we went over to The Hills to meet my Mom and went out for sushi.  The dinner was good, but the best part was the appetizer: Kobe Beef Gyoza with goat cheese and a blueberry sauce.  OMG- amazing.  I could have licked the plate.  Afterwards, we headed out for my Dad's favorite: frozen yogurt!

Spring Vacation: Day 1 (April 11, 2012)

Day 1 started at 4:00 a.m. with the alarm singing.  The car was packed up the night before, so I had hoped to be out of the house at 4:15, but we didn't get out until 4:30.  My plan is always to hop up and brush my teeth and go, but Kevin is a little slower in the mornings, and there is always something last minute to be done.

I usually drive first, but I had slept horribly that night, so Kevin thankfully was up for it.  I did my best to sleep in the car (didn't work) and Kevin drove most of the 17 hours to Austin.  I did drive the Kansas turnpike, while Kevin "rested" in the passenger seat.  Kevin tells me he can't sleep in the car, but when I turned to him to ask for $6 to pay the toll, he was pretty shocked we were already to the end of the toll road!
The road trip is long, but we did pretty well this time.  We didn't resort to any car games like billboard ABCs.  This is one thing that is really great about Kevin and I: we drive in the car together really well.
Elsa does well in the car too.  She just sleeps and looks at us expectantly anytime we open up the snacks. (I usually let her have some.)  She loves getting out to walk at gas stations!  I love getting Subway in Emporia- woo BLT! (That is usually dinner too, we get a footlong and save it.)  We didn't have Sirius this time but Kevin put our entire computer onto a USB port.  I think on the ride down we listened (in alphabetical order) to the As, Bs, and maybe some Cs.  There is a lot of music on that thing!  While he slept, I listened to Roger Creager- so that slowed the progress through the USB down a bit.

This is our second road trip in the Escape and it is definetly more comfortable than the Civic was, but I don't like driving it as much- especially through Kansas where the speed limit is 75!  Of course, I always drive it in Kansas.  Usually I end up having to drive through Oklahoma City, and I hate driving the SUV in the city!  Luckily, due to my inability to not be tired, Kevin drove there too.  He was really the hero of the trip.  We don't get fantastic gas mileage on highway driving, as the hybrid engine mostly works under 40.  BUT it does one great thing for road rage: while sitting in traffic that just doesn't go anywhere, you get to watch the MPG gauge keep on going up.  This gauge is an average, not what we were getting at that moment- I think it got up to 36.  Very nice, FTW traffic, very nice.

We kept the camera in the front seat and took some picture along the way.  In Denton there was something going on (and I think there was a sign saying "Medal of Honor City"- so I think it had something to do with that.)  Every overpass had people with flags, and often fire trucks set up on them.  And then a parade of policemen, and then what has to be every area biker came through.  Thankfully, on the other side of the highway!  No delay for us.



We've always wanted to get a picture of this church in Fort Worth area.  Do they not see what everyone I've ever driven by with sees?  I don't think its members would like the nickname we gave to this church.

Finally- we reach Austin. We've given up on taking I-35 all the way to Ben White.  I-35 in Austin is possibly the scariest place in the world to drive (Kevin's driven in Los Angeles, I've driven in Houston and Chicago, and we've both been in cars in NYC.)  So we exit early and take Mopac.  You can tell we aren't Austinites anymore, because despite doing this over Christmas, Kevin takes a different route and it takes us a while to figure out how to get to Mopac (he did do it eventually).  We get to his parents house just about 9:30, the last hour or so listening to a live Roger Creager (my favorite!) concert courtesy of KVET, and are thankful we started so early.  Finishing the drive early definetly makes the early wake up call worth it. I hated when we used to drive until midnight or so.  Kevin visited for a bit, but I went to sleep!

Spring Vacation: Planning

The plan: Kevin and I have a new niece in our family and we wanted to be able to visit her before she was grown.  I still feel so badly we didn't see the twins for so long- we missed the newborn stage completely.  So Kevin and I decided we would go see our new niece ASAP.  Kevin was checking dates and found that flying in March or April is extremely expensive- I pointed out to him, that is prime spring break season, so a road trip was hatched.  We found a date that would work, and planned a trip.  I would still be in school, but I've been in school over visits before and can find the time for the work.

Unfortunately a road trip to Texas is a pretty long ordeal.  A long weekend to see the family is too short for the long amount of driving.  Since we were just down for Christmas, we decided to plan a secondary vacation as well and booked a cruise.  We've never booked a cruise on such short notice and final payment was due less than a week from when we booked.  We got it all paid for, booked parking online, I researched excursions on CruiseCritic.com  and we were ready to go.

That's when I remembered I'd still be in school (something we had already discussed going into the vacation...)  Oops.  I emailed the professor (the class had not started) asking if we could work around it, or if I should drop the class, and she said we could work around it.  Whew!  Thankfully the cruise came back on Thursday, which gave me 1 day to finish up the work on the Friday (this is the last week of class.)  The week before the cruise was a slew of planning and homework.  I had to do all of Week 7's homework, and turn in every possible assignment I could early for Week 8.  Thankfully, there was no group work on Week 8, and my Week 7 group were early birds- since we left on vacation during Week 7, and I didn't really want to do much checking in.

And so, the trip began.

Mmmm...yummy

We just got back from a week long trip to Texas (17 hour in the car yesterday!) It is SO nice to be home. The quilt store called and my embroidery module is ready to be picked up, so I need to finish all my homework so I can get into the car again and drive to Cedar Rapids. But first, I am enjoying one of my favorite Texas treats: New Caanan Farms Jelly (and mustard!) on crackers. We bought 6 jars (3 for me, 3 for Kevin, but I bet he eats my mustard too) and in my opinion, that wasn't enough! Yum, yum, yum!

Our trip was more than just jelly though. We spent a few days in Fort Worth with my sister. I am so thankful for that time. Her kids are growing SO fast. Getting to hang out and play with C., B., and L. was just fantastic. C. is in Kindergarten now and is a baseball champion. I already can't keep up with him. (Quote of the week "Get under the ball, Aunt Jessi! Move your feet!") B. and L. are almost 2 years old now and just adorable. Chasing them around was the highlight of my week.

In Austin, we got to visit with my parents, including a day of wine tasting (not my thing: but it is Kevin's thing: he picked up 4 bottles!) and we got to see Kevin's family. Michael and Rachel, who went on the cruise with us, are now pregnant (mostly just Rachel), and Jill's and Kelly's children C. and R. are growing up fast too (though we just saw them for graduation). This C. also loves baseball, and R. just loves everything: she is smiley and expressive (oh but if you tell her "no" she has an amazing glare.) We played lots of games together, one of our favorite family traditions. We didn't get to see much extended family, but thankfully, we got to see Nan (she stopped by the bowling alley, and also brought us some pie before we left). Oh- and at the bowling alley, C. managed to get both a spare and a gutter ball: behind the bumpers. What a feat! (I think he did about as well as I did- I play with bumpers too :) Funny though, I found that when the ball hits the bumpers, I pretty much never hit a pin. Might as well get the gutter balls, as my good throws never need the bumpers.)