Sea World and 11th Anniversary

We love Sea World, we really do.  Between January 2015-December 2016 we went to San Antonio 10 times and visited Sea World.  It's great for our family because it meets the needs/desires for our kids' ages.  The shows are entertaining and the rides are exciting also. 

Sea World decorates for holidays too and Christmas time is really nice because of all the lights and decorations.  We planned a December trip with the Parle family.  We drove to San Antonio Friday after the kids got out of school and spent the night in a hotel.  Sea World didn't open until 1 pm Saturday so we had a lazy morning at the hotel and ate lunch at Canes before going over.  Saturday was December 10th so it was our 11th anniversary.  We were happy to celebrate at Sea World because we knew we would have a date night another time.  Our time together at Sea World was really fun.  The only negative I can really say is that it was really cold.  I mean really cold, so we didn't do any water things. 

Happy Anniversary! 

Anniversary lunch at Canes!

Riding the Steel Eel

I love this man of mine!

Sea World day two!

We left Sunday and drove home in time for Awana Sunday evening.  This was our last time to visit Sea World because we were not renewing our annual passes.  I think we needed a short break because we had all the shows memorized because we have seen them so many times.  We totally recommend Sea World though, to families with young kids. 

Pine Cove Camp in the City

We've heard tons of great things about Pine Cove Camps and a lot of families we know go to Pine Cove Family Camp.  It's Christian based and always point everything back to the Gospel.  Pine Cove Camp in the City is a little piece of Pine Cove brought to different cities.  Sugar Creek Baptist Church usually hosts a week every summer but this was our first summer to sign our kids up.  Since W just finished Kinder, he was older enough to attend.  We applied for scholarships and made our kids pay some of their own money, so it didn't break the bank (well not totally). It was so worth it though for 5 days of faith and fun. 

R's counselor was Rink (Pretty in Rink) and it was her first year as a counselor. 

A & W were in the same group with Apple T (Apple Turnover). 

They all had a blast and want to do it again next summer.  

Rin's talent show

My oldest daughter is definitely half of B (maybe even a little more) and I know this because she has this gene, this performing gene inside her naturally.  When R heard of her school's talent show, she immediately signed up and thought about what she wanted to sing for days.  She finally landed on "How Far I'll Go" from Moana and so she practiced everyday.  We found a karaoke version on youtube and downloaded it to a CD so we all practiced while driving in the van.  She printed the words and even re-wrote them to help her memorize the song.  I'm so proud of all the hard work she put into this performance.   Her talent show was during the day at Williams Elementary.  Gran and Papaw were actually in town (for the what reason I don't remember) so they got to see her perform also.  B even took a day off of work and surprised her by showing up too.  I pulled A out of lunch because the cafeteria is right beside the gym so he could watch her, and then he quickly returned.  It was a lot of fun and she did great. 

The video is too long to upload but here's the youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkANyskSA28

B's Tough Mudder

A while back, like before Thanksgiving of 2016, B and our friend Chris were talking on the phone about how they really disliked working out.  They both agreed they needed an event to work towards like a run or a race....there birthed the Tough Mudder.

B and CB looked up different races like the spartan challenge and decided to sign up for the Tough Mudder in New Orleans, LA because it was in the middle of Atl and Hou.  The date was a Saturday at the end of Spring Break so it actually worked out perfectly as far as dates are concerned.  We drove to Hammond Thursday.  B took off work and we had a nice leisurely drive. We stopped in Baton Rouge and drove around LSU and then met Nana and Tata for dinner at Daddy's in the Pass after visiting Grandmalupe too. 

Just had knee surgery

Friday morning we woke up in Hammond, LA on St. Patrick's day.  The Mudder was Saturday morning so Friday was our little fun day.  My mom and Chuck came down and we went to see The Beauty and the Beast on opening day.  It was great and our whole family loved it (well B really liked it but he liked original Belle).  CB and HB (and L) made their way to Uncle Charles's house from Atl so we got to hang out with them all afternoon and evening.  B and CB ran to Wal-mart to buy things to make Dad Bod shirts for the team.  Uncle Charles cooked white lasagna made with seafood because it was Friday during Lent and it was delicious.  We made a bonfire and cooked s'mores with the kids before heading to bed.  The kids slept in the tent outside and loved it!

Saturday morning we were all up and excited for the dads.  CB and B left early because they needed to check in so H and I came later with the 5 kids.  The Dad Bod team consisted of B, CB, Rob L, and Josh C.  Rob and Josh had never met CB, but CB is so friendly, we knew they would get along. 

B and CB

Dad Bod Team: Josh, Rob, Bryce and Chris

Wives: K, Lauren, Heather, Maria

All the wives ended up meeting up along the route and we watched our men and cheered them on together.  If anyone is considering a Tough Mudder, we would highly recommend bringing a bag chair/blanket and a cooler with food and drinks.  We had no idea that it would take over 2 hours of the guys being gone back in the woods while we waited at the Lochness Monster obstacle. We will know that for next time.  Considering it was above 80 degrees and we had no where to sit, our kids did great and enjoyed watching all the men and women participating in the run.

When it was all over, the entire team came back to Uncle Charles's house for crawfish. We had our own little mini crawfish boil and it was so fun.  Uncle Charles is the best and sweetest man ever!  Rob and Maria went back to their hotel in New Orleans while Josh & Lauren left and drove back to Houston.  CB & HB left and drove a few hours to a hotel just to make the drive back to Atl a little shorter. 

We stayed and drove back to TX on Sunday after eating breakfast with Uncle Charles and enjoying a little more family time.  Uncle Charles did experience some plumbing problems Saturday night with his toilet backing up but I think he got it fixed.  We had to wait a while before we could shower but before going to bed, B was able to shower and get all the mud off of him and out of his ears. 

There's a Tough Mudder in Houston in November of 2017.  B wants to sign up again so we might be doing this all over again :)