Spring Break Part 2

Rain loomed in the forecast most of the day at Sea World, but to our advantage it only rained for about an hour mid-day and the rain prediction kept the crowds at a minimum!  There was plenty of seating at the shows and the lines for the rides were practically non-existent (big difference from Six Flags!!!!!!)

They have a great kid's section of the park with a roller coaster and other rides and playgrounds.

We went to four different shows...2 with information about orcas, dolphins, and beluga whales and 2 more entertaining shows. 

Luke loved alligator alley although none of the alligators even moved. 

A beluga whale...

Dolphin show!

Penguins

Both girls were tall enough to ride the Steel Eel...this was Kai's first huge roller coaster (she's done a few wooden ones, but hasn't been tall enough for a big steel one)

It took her awhile to build up the courage, but she was super happy that she did!!!!

We were practically the only ones at the dolphin tank!

Inside the aquarium

Our favorite show was with dolphins, beluga whales and acrobats who did high dives and crazy flips!!!

The roller coaster in the background

We left Sea World at closing time and headed to the famous Riverwalk in downtown San Antonio for dinner. Luke called this man Spiderman.

We all LOVED San Antonio and wished we had more time to explore!!!  We left the next morning and headed further south to the beach at Corpus Christi/Padre Island....to be continued!

 

Spring Break Part 1



We had an amazing spring break with quite an ambitious schedule.  I was perfectly content with relaxing at home all of spring break doing small day trips, but Leevi had the travel bug and once we started planning it out, it turned into a fun trip.  We know our kids are ridiculous travelers, but a 30+ hour trip over a week still seemed daunting!  The longest stretches were the 8hrs down and back from Missouri to Dallas.  They rocked it though!  

 A finger-knitted necklace for Honey Bear.

We arrived around 10pm in Dallas at Leevi's brother's house and the cousins picked up right where they left off back in August. 

We all went to Six Flags over Arlington the next day and while the lines were crazy long, we all had fun!

The dads spent wayyy too much money playing the arcade games! :)

 Uncle Londale and Kailee waited TWO HOURS to ride this ride, sigh...

More arcade games, ha!

The next morning the dads went golfing and the kids played outside!

We left Dallas and headed to Austin to see Leevi's dad and Pat (and the 2.5hr drive became 3.5 because of traffic).  Pat and I went shopping the next morning and to lunch and the guys did some car repairs and took the kids to a park. 

We left Austin and headed to San Antonio (only 2hrs, woohoo!)

We went off a friends' recommendation and headed to Mi Tierra for dinner, YUM!!!

It was an hour wait for the table, but worth it!!!

We stayed two nights in San Antonio because we were heading to Sea World with free tickets from the "Here's to the Heroes" military program!  The girls were super excited to have waffles for breakfast each morning!  To be continued....



Frozen on Ice

One of the girls' Christmas presents this year was tickets to Frozen on Ice.  While they were intrigued by the gift they weren't overly excited because they didn't know what to expect.  I did, and I was excited! :)  We skipped school on Friday and headed to St. Louis (2hr drive) for the show at the Scottsdale Arena. 

 

Our seats were pretty decent, but the whole venue was outrageously priced!  We paid $150 for our 3 seats and the front row seats were going for $400-$1000 each FOR A KID SHOW!  Sad!!!  We bought our tickets back in the fall and I'm glad I did because our seats were double the price the week of the show.  We had friends that were going to the Sunday show and that's when the snow hit and they couldn't make the drive :(  Thankfully, they didn't lose their $$ and can use their tickets on the circus or another event.  

Kailee got hit with a virus the Thursday before the show.  I picked her up from school with a fever and when she saw me tears immediately hit her eyes because she thought she'd have to miss Frozen. She came home and napped and rested and her fever spiked to 102, sigh, and she napped again.  When she woke up around 7 after the second nap, she was a new kid and I told her we'd just drug her up for the show if we needed to!  She was a trooper and felt a little crummy for the next few days, but her fever was gone.  She's sold now on understanding that the best thing for your body is SLEEP!!

 The show really was awesome!!!!  And of course it helped that the girls knew the entire storyline!

A ton of extra Disney characters came out at the beginning and ending. 

February Fun!

A pipe sprung a leak in the basement utility closet for the 2nd time in the short 7 months that we've lived in this house!  This one was way worse and the water spread into both the office and the bar area in addition to the closet that was packed with army gear and Rubbermaid tubs!!!!  It was a solid 6 days of having the basement torn apart while we made sure the carpets got dried!!!  

 The kids made an obstacle course with Leevi's gear bags!

And a funny story:  the girls were trying on Leevi's bullet proof vest and Kailee got stuck inside of it, trapped with her arms and legs tucked in!!!  I was trying to shake her out and in the process, her tooth got snagged and it ripped out...it was loose but it probably needed another week of wiggling!!!!  She's lost 3 teeth so far and they each have come with a crazy story!!!

Showing off her toothless smile at basketball!

 After nap cuddles!!!

A bowling party with a friend from church!

Dreamy!

My favorite part of the day is deciphering Kailee's morning work sentence from school.  "she is a h-y-in dog" (a Hawaiian dog...I love it!!!!!!)

Hailey has been having stomach issues that we are trying to figure out...she's had an xray, an ultrasound, and some blood work.  The blood work has been troublesome because she almost passed out after her first experience.  She had to go back for a 2nd draw after fasting because the test showed some low levels and they weren't able to get her blood...they tried three times and blew her vein twice!  Sigh, we try again on Monday...I'm making Leevi take her this time!

She's so crazy!!!

He LOVES to flip!!!!!!!!!!!!