HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

to the only girl that can make us smile this much!

we love you

cooper and chris

(it's early 'cause we love you that much, and you were away :) )

Bow Organizers

I saw some of these hair bow organizers in a catalog & knew my nieces needed them! They were not available in colors they would like, however. So, I decided to try and make them myself. You clip bows & barrettes onto the ribbons!

The result:

First Family Vacation!

Guess where we went!

To Sea World!

We loaded up the car on a Monday morning, fired up the portable DVD player, and hit the road with breakfast in hand headed to San Antonio!
This picture was taken while we were waiting...and waiting...and waiting (an hour and a half!) in line to get our FREE Fun Cards. Thank you, Sea World, for your appreciation of teachers! With copies of our teaching certificates, both Chris and I qualified for a free Fun Card (basically a season pass). So, we only had to pay for Cooper's Fun Card (now we have the option of going back all year!).

Another reason to support Sea World--they also have a military appreciation program, "Here's to the Heroes" (or something like that), in which military personnel and their families get in free. Awesome! (Another reason why we waited in such a long line. But, glad to do it on that account!)




Armed with cold water and donning our swim suits,
we were ready for a fun day!

This spring, Sea World opened a new area called the Sesame Street Bay of Play. The rides and water areas were just right for little kiddos.
It was super cool--what kid wouldn't have fun when seeing his Sesame Street pals' faces on everything in sight?


One of the first things Cooper saw and wanted to do--the Shamu roller coaster!

He loved it, and ended up riding with Daddy on both days.



The obligatory carousel ride.

Too cute!

BIG fun--This reminded me of the Playscape at our church. Basically a huge climbing area for kids. Coop hit the ropes, started climbing, and never looked back. Well, except when his crocs fell off a time or two!

You can barely see him, but that's Cooper standing up on the pink platform about to enter the tunnel on the right.

Daddy had to climb part of the way up to check it out.

He's such a big kid!




Big Bird ferris wheel ride

We all crammed in, but were still smilin'!

Had to stop and do this a lot.

Can't go to Sea World without seeing Shamu!

Coop talked about Shamu for days.

Woo-hoo!

Ta-da!

This "splash pad" area was quite a hit. He ran around in circles squealing for awhile before settling in and trying everything out.

Love that smile...

Figuring it out...

I lost count how many times he crawled through that tunnel.

Meeting Rosita (from Sesame Street).

Then we were really hot..so we headed to the waterpark!

After relaxing in the big wave pool, we went to a smaller pool that had a slide...

Coop rode this slide twice--with Daddy and with Mommy, too!

Just finished relaxing at the waterpark area...

About to head to the hotel after a long, hot, FUN day at Sea World.

Our extra-large, extra-cheap hotel room--complete with 2 queen-sized beds, a sitting area and 2 bathrooms. Yes, you read that right--2 bathrooms!

We made our reservation via priceline.com, named our price, and ended up staying at the St. Anthony Wyndham in downtown San Antonio.

All for $50!

"It's sooo big!"

Coop is standing in the dressing area adjacent to one of the two bathrooms.

Ready to go eat dinner...waiting for Mommy to finish taking pictures.


We started out Day 2 at the Dolphin Cove. This was the scene of our first (and really our only) major meltdown! We made it in time to get in line to buy a tray of fish to feed to the dolphins. I insisted that we do this, but Coop was so excited to see the dolphins that he kept trying to rush ahead of the line and didn't want to listen to any kind of explanation. Chris finally got him settled down enough to understand why we were waiting in the longer line, then we were okay.

Finally feeding the dolphins..with a little help from Daddy.

(Didn't really want to hold the dead fish, and I think he was a little scared of that dolphin's big mouth.) They were so beautiful!

Then we headed to the Coral Reef/Shark area.

Coop didn't quite understand the concept of an aquarium, and was full of questions as we walked. He didn't hesitate to go in though.

We heard, "Wow! Look at that!" several times!

(My personal favorite of God's marine creations--the stingray.)

Sharks!

Coop loved the aquarium!

Later we went to the Penguin Encounter. Kind of hard to take pictures due to the darkness. None of mine turned out very good. It was hard for Coop to see them, too. He was a little disappointed; he'd see them on the Sea World website and was really looking forwars to seeing them in person.

We also went to a Sesame Street "4-D" movie. Coop will tell you that the next time he goes to Sea World he doesn't want to see that movie again. The 3D glasses were uncomfortable and the "4D" experience was a bit too much of a surprise for him. For example, Grover was wielding a fire hose that not only looked like it was coming right at you, but it sprayed you as well (sprayers hidden in the back of the seat in front of you). I think in a different setting he wouldn't have minded, but he did NOT like it at all!

We stuck to the animals after that...

Mother & baby sea lions.

All in all, we are very grateful for a fun, successful and

affordable first family vacation!

Super Hero Night at Chick-Fil-A

Last week, the Chick-Fil-A in Rosenberg had a Super Hero Night, which would be attended by Batman and Spiderman. We talked about it for a few days, and Coop finally decided (the day of) that he'd like to go.

He had LOTS of questions on the way there...

"Will Batman and Spiderman be wearing masks?"

"Will they take off their masks to eat?" "What if there's not room for them?"

(at our table--he assumed they would be sitting down to eat with us.)

I was hoping he would want to wear his Batman PJ's--would make for a cute picture, I thought. But no. PJ's are for bedtime, not Chick-Fil-A. :)

When we arrived, we read on the sign on the door that "Super Cow" would be making an appearance also. Hmmm...We weren't sure what to tell him about this one. (Turned out to be the CFA Cow donning a cape and Lone Ranger type mask.)

We got there before their arrival...ordered our food...sat down and began eating.

He was excited/anxious for them to arrive. When Chris pointed out that they were walking in, he was just plain scared. He calmed pretty quickly, though.

They remained a safe distance away, taking pictures with kids. We talked some more...he was okay, but didn't want to go meet them or take a picture.

Since there were no other activities going on (unless you count the kids' play area, which is one of Coop's favorite reasons to go to CFA),

I was very hopeful he'd change his mind.

Coop finally took Chris up on his offer to go over with him...

with Coop riding on his shoulders, of course.

See how much smaller they look from this perspective? Much less intimidating! (Actually, they were both pretty small guys. Batman's suit was hanging off him!)

Coop managed to get the courage up for high-fives to both superheroes.

He was still a little leary of them when it came to picture time, though.

He pulled the casual, "Oh, my shoulder itches, so I'll have to lean over here to reach it better" move. With that victory under his belt, we went back to eating. Then he got to go in the play area with lots of other rowdy boys. Heaven!

Later though, Super Cow arrived. Notice I have no pictures of him.

That's because Cooper was climbing onto my lap in terror when the huge, upright, masked cow entered the restaurant! That one was a little tough to explain. We tried to remind him of the cows on their commercials/signs.

But, all he could say was, "That's not like Gran & Pop's cows."

Mother's Day

We had an extended Mother's Day celebration that lasted the whole weekend! That's what it takes when you have fabulous mothers in your life. :)

We began by treating Chris' mom to dinner

with the whole family at Outback Steakhouse--a rare occurence!

Crazy cousins!

Coop went on to spend the night at the Chaddricks' that night because Chris and I had to get up and gone early the next morning to proctor the SAT. Not exactly part of the celebration, but when you consider the $$ we earned, it's worth noting!

Sunday morning we were off-duty. That means they gave the choir & orchestra the week off and we didn't have to be there nearly as early. Hallelujah! That was a gift in itself!

Sunday evening we took my mom out to eat at... Outback Steakhouse! It wasn't exactly planned that way...it just happened. Good thing we are a real meat & potatoes kind of bunch. I just love steak! (For the record, I had a filet w/a side of shrimp scampi for the first round, and a good 'ol chicken fried steak with garlic mashed potatoes for round 2.)

An attempt at a nice Mother's Day picture.

See Coop's foot poised above my hand?

This is just before he stomped. :}

Coop and his Gran.

What a cutie!

Suspicious look...perhaps he's up to something.

Yes, that's Daddy, trying not to laugh as his son screams

and cries because his head is stuck between the rails.

Told you he was up to something!

Silly attempts at a picture with Mommy.

Forgot to take a pic of this at the restaurant. There was a guy making balloon animals going table to table. Coop chose a T-Rex. (Shock!) Turns out the guy was just in the country visiting his sister; he is a missionary in the Philippines. The restaurant allowed him to do this for donations toward his mission work! Don't you know his mother, back in Spain, is proud?

(Please express your appreciation at the Outback Steakhouse on I-10 in Katy.) Now you appreciate that T-Rex a little more, huh? I think he cost us around $25 after we all pitched in around the table!

I just couldn't be more blessed.