San Antonio

Warning: This is going to be a long post, so you may want to come back when you have more time to read :)

After Jody got back from his trip to Denver on Monday, the 21st, I had planned a spur of the moment family trip to San Antonio. The company I work for is really great - very laid back and casual. The president of the company I work for lives and has another company in San Antonio and every Wednesday he flies the company plane in to our local airport and then flies back on Friday afternoons, so we caught a ride when the plane would be empty (I didn't want the kids to be bothering my boss). It was the greatest thing - a trip that would have taken us 5 hours driving only took 1 hour. We took off around 6:50 am and landed in SA at around 8:00 am with the rental car waiting for us to load up our stuff. The only problem with our trip was that Dolly (the storm) was on its way. The pilot asked after we landed if we could see Dolly off to the left and I said, "Dolly Parton?!" - Oh my, I am so stupid sometimes - Jody had a good laugh with that one.

Anyway, we got out our trusty maps and followed the signs to the zoo. On the way, we stopped to eat breakfast and at the end of that I was changing Shane's clothes because he spilt chocolate milk all over them - oh well, we just go with the flow. The weather was perfect for the zoo - cloudy and breezy. I highly recommend the San Antonio Zoo. The animals are so close and the kids loved it. Outside of the zoo is a great park (I think it's called Brackenridge Park ??) and they have a train ride that runs through it, so we rode on it - it was fun. After that we checked into our room and rested a while and then got dressed and went down to the riverwalk. Of course when the kids saw the tour boats floating down the river, they wanted to go. So... we did. It was very interesting to hear about the history of the riverwalk and all the old buildings that surround it. Jody and I were in awe about how much we were able to do in one day and joked about how we rode in a plane, train, and automobile AND a boat. :)

Now Thursday was a different day. I am going to try and stay positive, but Hello Dolly - Goodbye Sea World. Thursday was going to be our Sea World day, but God had a different plan. It started out good - it was sprinkling when we entered the park and all the reports we heard said that it would clear out by lunch time. So we hit the indoor shows until it did. We saw the 4-D pirate show which the kids did NOT like and the wonderful Shamu show, and then the bottom fell out. After that, it would come and go - heavy rain, light rain, heavy rain, light rain. The only good thing about the rain was that the park was not crowded at all. We were the only dummies that would not give it up. Finally they closed the park down around 1:30 and then we stood in line the rest of the time trying to get our money back because we didn't want to take a rain check ticket and come back on Friday since we couldn't be there all day. So, after they asked what shows we were able to see, they prorated it and gave us 87% of our money back - yeah! After we got back in the car, I noticed I had missed a call from my mom, so I called her back and she said that my cousin Carla was in San Antonio with her family. They were at a gun shooting contest for her boys, so we went out to visit them since I hadn't seen them in so long. The boys had really grown!

Friday was a much, much better day. We went back down to the downtown area and riverwalk. We went to a children's museum that Savanna and Shane just had a blast playing in. They had all kinds of educational and fun things for them to do. I think they could have stayed there all day, but we headed on over to the Alamo. What a great history lesson there. Savanna was actually interested in learning about what happened there and we tried to explain it to her in a way that she would understand. Then we went over to the Buckhorn Museum and restaurant and spent the rest of the aftenoon there (until 2:30 - our flight left at 3:00) eating lunch and going to the two museums they had inside. I can honestly say that I have never seen so many stuffed animals and fish in one building - Jody just ate it up. The Texas Ranger Museum was interesting too. I didn't get to read about all the stuff like I wanted to because I was chasing kids, but we had a good time. On this day I didn't get any digital photos because my camera's battery went dead. So we purchased a throw away camera while we were there. It was funny because after I take a picture on my digital camera the kids always want to see what the picture looks like right after it flashes, so when the throw away camera flashed, Shane came running up saying "I wanna see, I wanna see" but I had nothing to show. Ah, the good ol' days of having to wait until a ROLL gets DEVELOPED before you could see what the picture looks like are over. LOL - no more suspense. Anyway, here is just some of the stack of digital photos I took of our wonderful, rained out, quick vacation to San Antonio. Enjoy.

Anderson Family Reunion

July continued..... On the 16th, Jody went out of town for a sale so we spent the weekend with Mom & Dad. On Friday, Aunt Debbie (my dad's sister) and Uncle Richard came for our annual Anderson family reunion. It was her birthday that day, so we all celebrated with her.


Before their arrival on Friday, Mom & Dad's neighbors had a couple of new baby donkeys, so we went down to see them.

My grandfather (my dad's dad) was one of 13 children (10 boys & 3 girls) The ones seated are the only ones left. Uncle Kenneth, Aunt Dorothy, Uncle Arlon, Uncle Avon.

Todd and Penni catered our lunch. Todd is so talented - he loves to cook and really needs to open his own restaurant. He fixed brisket & sausage with all the trimmings. Everyone else brought desserts. It was so good!

The picture above shows all the first generation cousins and the picture below shows all the second generation cousins. Since the original 13 where so spread out in age (my dad actually played more with his uncles) we are natually all spread out in ages. I remember going to these when I was younger and there was always so many people there, but over time it seems as though the numbers in attendance keep decreasing. I find it sad, but in a way I can understand - there is just so much distance between everyone and it's hard to keep up the tradition, but as long as it keeps going, I will be there.

Texas Rangers

That Saturday after Splash Kingdom on Friday (Man, I was so tired that weekend), Jody's Granny (Martha) got 6 tickets to the Ranger game through Dairy Max. It was Jody, Savanna, Martha, Gene, Sherry, and me that went. It was so HOT (and no breeze where we sat), but we all had a great time. I also ran into some people that I knew which was so neat and weird since the ballpark is so huge. Dairy Max is a sponsor of the Rangers so Martha got the tickets for free and we were able to attend a picnic before the game that the ball club has for members of Dairy Max. They had hot dogs, hamburgers, cole slaw, beans, ice cream and drinks.

My baby girl and me. She did so good throughout the game.

Jody, his Granny, and Savanna.

Gene and Sherry. I am so glad they were able to go with us on such short notice. We always have a great time with them.

The White Sox warming up.

This is where they had the picnic.

The pictures above and below were taken from our seats. The couple in front of us were definately in L-O-V-E. Oh, to be young and show PDA.

Savanna really wanting this fan with a spray bottle and since we hadn't spent a dime on anything, we broke down and bought it for her.

I love the expression on Gene's face when he poked his head around as Jody was taking the picture.

We sat behind where the pitchers warm up if they have to relieve someone so I thought I'd get a shot of them. They looked bored most of the time.

This video shows off Jody's goofy side and it shows the two love birds in front of us.

Splash Kingdom

For the summer at work I have the wonderful opportunity to work extra hours for 4 days to get my work done in order to have Fridays off. It's tiring with the extra hours but so worth having my Fridays off to spend with the kids. The Friday after the 4th, Pam had Ashlyn's friend birthday party at Splash Kingdom in Canton. We had a blast!!! It was my first trip there and everything was so nice and clean with a lot of lifeguards. It is also a faith based waterpark so they had some great Christian music playing over the speakers. I went with Pam to help with keeping an eye on the kids and we were there when the doors opened and found a great spot by the small kids area. Mom, Dad, Penni, and Shane came later in the day after Penni got off work.

Where Oh Where ....

has July gone! I just can't get over how fast the month of July has gone by for me. I got on here to catch up and I couldn't believe I hadn't posted since the 8th. Anyway, where do I begin? I believe I am going to post each activity we've had with separate posts (I think maybe it will download my pictures faster if I do it this way - we'll see), so bear with me.

The 4th, The Water Slide, & The Progress

It seems I can't post unless I have pictures. I don't know - I just love looking at pictures on other blogs so I hope everyone likes looking at mine. I will have to work at having a non-picture post. Anyway, I ended up spending the arm & leg on a great water slide for the kids. We received our government stimulus check and I just felt like I should spend some of it on the kiddos. Plus, I did my part in stimulating the economy, right? I must say it is probably one of the best purchases I have ever made. It came in at our local Wal-mart on Thursaday the 3rd so I took it out to Mom & Dad's and left it there for my Dad to set up (he is so good at that stuff) since we would be back there on the 4th to celebrate with the family. I also picked up Elli Kate to spend the night since Penni & Todd & Hayden were still on their trip. Savanna, Shane, & Elli Kate played all day on the 4th until we left for Mom & Dad's. We cooked hot dogs, watched the kids slide on the slide, made smores, ate watermelon, and then later popped fireworks.




All the girls getting their sparlers lit.

Savanna Jo waving that sparkler.

Shane wasn't to sure about his sparkler so he was trying to give it back to me.

Watching the fireworks show.

Elli Kate

Avery

Ashlyn

On Saturday, I was so proud of myself .... I set up the water slide all by myself at our house. It was really pretty easy. We invited Rody over and they spent the whole afternoon on the water slide. Later that evening, Jody and I went to a beautiful wedding of a friend while Sherry and Gene (our good friends) kept Savanna and Shane. We later met up with them and the kids at Lake Cypress for their wonderful fireworks show. I had a video of it, but can't get it to download.

Our house and yard are always such a work in progress. A little history - Before we got married, Jody bought our house in bad shape and had to do a lot of work to it. Then we added a metal roof, back porch and carport. Next came the addition of our bedroom, bathroom, and office with the arrival of Shane. Jody and I have always had plans and visions of how we want our place to be but for me I always get impatient and want it to instantly be the way we want it. But Jody has a way of balancing and calming me down and saying that it will all come together one project at a time. Well, our backyard is finally coming together. They have been working so hard this summer to get in a playground for the kids and a backyard fence put up.


This is the slide that Jody bought at an auction LAST year. It came with two swings that are going up beside it.



And this is the beginning of the fence.