Aaaaaannnd we're back, folks.

I dunno what it is about being in the Midwest, but for the past 8 months or so, I have been in a funk.  I think I had left my blogging muses somewhere in The South--I failed to make a space for them in the horribly-over-crowded mini-van, and so my blogging inspiration suffered.  But after a fabulous week of lounging on a beautiful Gulf Coast beach and spending a few hours with a few friends from The South, I think my muses found me, hopped into my slightly-less-crowded mini-van, settled comfortably into our home here in the Midwest and returned blogging to my life.  Holla!

Fall Travel Journal: A Perfect Ending.

Sometimes people come into your life that aren't technically related to you, but they might as well be family.

While Dr. C was working on his PhD in Nebraska, we had the privilege of getting to know some these un-related family members.  After we moved to The South, we unfortunately don't get to see them as much, but when we do see them, we pick up right where we left off.

On Wednesday night, before we all left San Antonio and headed home (us to The South, some back to Nebraska, some back to Brazil)--we had a mini-un-related-family-reunion at a fabulous brazilian grill, Fogo de Chao. 

It was a perfectly lovely evening.

These un-related family members are some of my favorite people on the planet.  An evening with them is like being home.

Thank you for the wonderful time; spending the last night of our trip with you all was the perfect ending to a fabulous vacation.

Next time, let's all meet up in Brazil.

Just for Fun.

The Village has zero shopping opportunities (unless you count Wal-Mart, which I do not). 

To make up for all the times that I don't get to go shopping at home, today I ventured out into San Antonio to go shopping for as long as I wanted...no one begging me for a snack, no one needing to use the potty, no one asking me if we were finished yet. 

It was heavenly.

I picked up some cute new scarves...so I thought this video was appropriate.

Enjoy!

Fall Travel Journal: Remember the Alamo.

The thing I love about visiting historical places is trying to envision what things were like "back then". As I was standing in The Alamo this morning, I tried to envision thousands of soliders overrunning the small chapel, the men inside bravely trying to stand their ground, to defend their need for independence. My mind's eye tried to take me back, despite the modern cars and buses and small shops 20 feet away from the iconic spot.

It's hard to imagine...but I always walk away from these places grateful for my blessings; grateful that my family and I are not fighting these types of battles; and most importantly, grateful to the men and women in uniform who DO fight on my behalf so that my life is relatively calm and peaceful.

Thank you.



 My favorite quote of the day came from Davy Crockett--the frontier legend that joined the fight at the Alamo and gave it his all.  "I told the people in my district that [if re-elected] I would serve them faithfully as I had done, but if not...you may all go to h***, I will go to Texas." 

Ha!

Fall Travel Journal: The First Day

Dr. C and I are currently enjoying our vacation (for me) and vacation conference (for him).

Our first night, we left The Village at 9:30PM and didn't get to our hotel until 2:30AM.  When Dr. C was reserving our hotel for the midway-point of our drive, I told him my only requirement was that it needed to be nice enough that I could relax and sleep in it.

No such luck.

The non-smoking room smelled like it had been housing a chain-smoker for years.

The bathroom light/fan sounded like they had a hamster up there, running (and squeaking) it's guts out to make the blades go round.

The shower water smelled disgusting...I literally gagged a few times.  And then, randomly, it started smelling like a perm.  Not much of an improvement.

The toilet made the noise I would imagine a duck being strangled and drowned would sound like.

And let's just say I refused to walk around without my flip-flops on.

I'm beginning to think that the people that write online hotel reviews have a fundamentally different set of standards than I do.

We were too tired when we got in to find something else...and knowing we'd only be there for a few hours, we crashed, woke up 5 hours later, and got the heck outta Dodge.

After another 5 hours of driving (plus a detour in Houston--a city where you can apparently see where you want to go, but there is no way to get there without driving in circles on a zillion one-way streets first.), we arrived at Sea World in San Antonio.

Maybe it's because I'm a beach person, or maybe it's some lingering tween girl thing where you love everything dolphins (or horses or butterflies or whatever-girly-type-animal-you-can-think-of) but I absolutely loved Sea World.

Loved it so much, that I told Dr. C I need to add "marine biologist" to the list of degrees that I need to get.  "Marine Animal Trainer" is currently at the top of my Coolest-Jobs-On-The-Planet list.





And "Swimming With Dolphins" has been added to my bucket list.

I would even settle for "Swimming With Whales", if the dolphin thing didn't work out.  Either way, I'd be a happy, happy lady.

There is just something so graceful and powerful about the dolphins and whales...I could sit there and watch them all day.

Shamu waving goodbye. 
Although as far as I could tell, they call ALL of the killer whales Shamu.  So this could really be Shamu the Third or Baby Shamu or really Shamu's cousin.
Your guess is as good as mine.

It was Fab-U-Lous.

And then, when we checked into our hotel for the rest of the week, we were met with valet parking, a newly renovated room with a giant flat-screen, balcony view of the San Antonio Riverwalk,  granite counter tops, and a big comfy bed with a zillion down pillows that I easily relaxed in. 

Quite the difference from the night before!

Traveling.

Another quick post.

We went to bed at 3AM this morning, got up at 8AM, drove until 3:30PM, then spent 7 hours at Sea World.  (Sorry, pictures aren't uploading right now).

Checked into our hotel at 11PM, ate dinner at midnight...and now I'm exhausted.

Longer post tomorrow and stay tuned for the newest item to be added to my bucket list.

Road Trip.

Quick post--Dr. C and I are about headed out the door for a fun road-trip/vacation without the little ones. 

I sooo need this vacation. 

San Antonio Riverwalk--Picture from Accessiblevans.com

Next time I'll be posting from the Lone Star State!

Summer Travel Journal Part 7: The Great Outdoors

And now we come to the last post in the Summer Travel Journal.

Sad, I know.

I was meant for the beach, but the majestic mountains also speak peace to my soul.  With their mighty peaks and dizzying heights, they humble me; they serve as a reminder that their are many things greater than I.  While at the same time, as I spend time sheltered by the shadows of the mountains, untouched by most of civilization, with clear air and beautiful skies, I can't help but feel that all of the beauty was made just for me;   that I am important enough for God to put wildflowers and hidden lakes and mountain covered horizons on earth simply for my enjoyment.  In the mountains, I can center myself between the two extremes of self-pride and self-deprecation. 

Because we were in this beautiful place, we tried to take advantage of all it had to offer.

My oldest sister brought their canoe, so my family took it out for a spin. 
Miss B cried most of the time. 
That makes for a really peaceful and relaxing canoe ride. 

Ok, so maybe it doesn't.  But the boys loved it anyway.

This lake was supposed to be a good spot for fishing. 

Um, not so much.

 



Poor T-Man, the kid is 7 years old and still hasn't ever caught a fish.  He kept patiently trying and trying to get one, with no luck.  I'm sure there is some sort of life-lesson in patience and "try, try again" in there, but really, if I could have figured out a way to stick a fish on that silly little hook without him knowing, I would have gladly done it.



Um, Miss B?  You've got some dirt on your pants.  Just FYI.

The group sitting five feet away from us kept catching fish after fish with a SpongeBob fishing pole.  Our group didn't have the same luck, despite the fact that we were using the same type of bait.  One of my nieces finally caught this little guy, but that was it for the day.  After the little girl in the next group over did her 12532 "I just caught another fish and I wasn't even paying attention" victory dance and poor T-Man still hadn't caught anything, I really wanted to send SpongeBob to the bottom of the lake. 

Not that I was bitter or anything.

Another day, we went hiking.  It was supposed to be an "easy walk".  Even though I had been training for a half-marathon, at 9000+ ft above sea level, a few crawling-over-rock spots, and with wearing Miss B in the sling, it was less of an "easy walk" and more like a "NEED. MORE. OXYGEN." moment.  

And then when Miss B wanted me to sing the Itsy Bitsy Spider over and over again while hiking down, my little sea-level lungs were only happy when we got back down and I flopped rested gracefully in the car.

Fearless was all about throwing rocks into water.  Didn't matter how big the body of water was or how big the rock was--no puddle too small or rock too big to waste a good rock-splash opportunity.

In the top left, you can see the little mud hole that is now filled with rocks, thanks to Fearless and his cousins.  Sorry about that.

Fearless conquered this big rock.  He was disappointed that we wouldn't all help him push it into the water.

The view at the end of the hike was simply stunning.  Definitely worth the oxygen-free "easy walk". Beautiful.

We all made it!  (We won't be putting this family picture over the fireplace either.)

And now you have made it through our entire Summer Travel Journal.

Thanks for reliving the journey with us.

Summer Travel Journal Part 6: Around the Cabin

I will get to all the Down syndrome related posts in honor of October, but my goal was to finish my Summer Travel Journal...if only because this blog also serves as our family scrapbook of sorts, and I would like our fun trip to all be here.  Please refer to Summer Travel Journal Part 1 where I warned you that my travel journal might be the modern version of the 80s horror of someone inviting you over to dinner and then forcing you to watch hours of slides from their recent vacation; only without the free dinner part.

And so I continue my epic travel journal series with some this-and-that from around the cabin.  And this time I'll let the pictures mostly speak for themselves.
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Hot Dog Roast. 

What good camping trip with kids doesn't include a hot dog roast? 

Miss B loved the fire, the camp chairs, the mountain air...but hot dogs?  Not so much.  She'd rather starve herself than eat them.  Add hot dogs to the long list of foods Miss B finds completely revolting.  Aren't hot dogs supposed to be a standard kid food??  Maybe she just knows how bad they are for you.  Not sure why that knowledge doesn't extend to her love of Cheetos...

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Cousins

Connecting with the cousins was the only item on my kids' agenda for the week.  The boys were busy poking at ant hills, building rock and stick villages, swinging in the hammock, etc.  While I don't put many pics of my nieces and nephews on the blog (their parents should get to decide if they want pictures of their kids online); my kids had a blast.  I'm pretty sure they would have been more than happy to go home with one of my sisters' families.

Miss B and her cousin wearing reverse outfits one day.  Totally unplanned.

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Crafts

The backporch of the cabin was like a mini-HobbyLobby with project room.  There were enough crafting supplies back there to provide Martha Stewart's whole staff a month's worth of projects.  Despite the kids spending hours back there everyday, I think we used 1/3596842 of it.

Rock painting.

The best trivet for your hot pans you could possibly want.  Fearless made this one and we proudly use it just about every night.

Miss B's final product.  Jackson Pollock would be proud.

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Family Pictures

This was the best picture we got of our family.  Yeah, probably not going over the fireplace.

My sisters and I had fun taking "engagement" pictures of each other.  Sadly, we look much older in this picture than we did in our actual engagement pics...but that's what 9 years and 3 kids and graduate school will do to you.

P.S. I did spare you of the picture they took of Dr. C grabbing my bum.

Ever tried to take a picture with 19 kids in it?  Fun stuff.

Love my family!