Sea World

The day after Christmas, we packed our bags and drove on over to the wonderous city of San Antonio, Texas. We arrived around 2:30, dropped our bags off at the hotel, and went to Sea World. Dan and I have year passes (you pay once, you get in free the rest of the year) but we had to buy one for Sam now that he's three. We'll have to make him do chores to pay for that.
They have a nice "kid zone" type area with lots of little rides and a big playset. We spent most of our time there. Dan and I also switched off riding the two big roller coasters.

When we got hungry, we headed to the famous Riverwalk. Except the GPS wasn't finding "Riverwalk." So I thought "Riverwalk Garage" sounded like it would get us pretty close. I assumed it was a parking garage. Well, it turns out that it's a mechanic garage, so we ended up in some ghetto part of town surrounded by auto mechanic buildings. Nice to see the real San Antonio... Once we got to the Riverwalk, it was pretty. We took a few pictures.

We tried to maneuver around all the other people also walking on the tiny sidewalk. Dan was pushing the double stroller and I was trying to keep Sam from falling in the river. I wished I was Andre the Giant when he yells "Everybody MOVE!" in The Princess Bride. Dan started bumping people with the stroller, but that's as aggressive as we got. After a while we got sick of it and ate some dinner at a restaurant at street level. We also did a drive-by of the Alamo.

Then back to the hotel for us. It had apparently been a while since we slept in the same room as Sam because he WOULD NOT go to sleep for the longest time. Dan and I were attempting to read in one bed while Sam was lying in the other, but anytime I shifted or anything he would raise up and look at me and smile or ask some kind of question. So it wasn't a very restful night for any of us.

The next morning we got up and swam in the hotel pool, then headed back to town to check out a church. It was overrated.

 Then I saw this guy who looked like he must have been famous, so I paparazzi'd him.

We met up with Dan's brother's (Adam's) family at Sea World and spent the rest of the day with them before driving back to Houston that night.

Happy birthday

Happy birthday to my wonderful mother!

Love you!

Wreath

I have things I want to write about: Sea World, our visit from in-laws, the rest of the books I read in '11, but I just made this wreath and I think it's cool and I want to share it.

It's supposed to be "Valentine's-y" but Dan didn't think it was. Do you like it? Our ward is having an auction to help the youth pay for their Nauvoo trip this summer. It cost $5 to make. Do you think it would make more than that in an auction? (If not, I'd rather just give them $5.)

Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Christmas was wonderful, as usual.

We started the festivities on Christmas Eve with a nice dinner with Kirk and Gretchen. We had ham and rolls (Gretchen), and salad and cheesy potatoes (me). I know, I got the easy stuff. After dinner, Kirk read the Christmas story while we acted it out with homemade puppets.

Our neighbors invited us over because Santa was coming to their house. It was great. Except for the fact that our kids hate Santa. Carter, however (and apparently Gretchen), love him.

 This is as close as Sam would get.

 Afton, too. That's our neighbor in the black dress.

They have a rule where before you get your gift from Santa, you have to sing a song. So it was nice to sing some Christmas carols (and the OU fight song - we live next door to the biggest OU fans in the world) to feel the holiday spirit. We went back to our house for dessert and to open PJs from G&G Cheney.

Christmas morning Dan and I got ready for church and woke the kids up to see their stockings and eat some breakfast before 8 a.m. Sacrament meeting.

After church we opened the rest of our presents and enjoyed Christmas tree-shaped beignets (perhaps a new tradition?) using Cafe Du Monde's recipe. Delish.

We went over to Kirk and Gretchen's house for leftovers that night and played some mean speed scrabble.

Merry Christmas!

Dear Daddy,

Sorry you're having a rough day. And sorry that the garage door and water dispenser on the fridge are broken. If we knew how to help you, we would. Love you! Can't wait to see you soon!
Love,
Afton and Sam

Christmas Lights

This week was much better than last week. No one threw up.

I took a basic photography class with a friend before Thanksgiving. Since then, I've been practicing taking pictures in "manual" mode. Here are a few random shots:

It's fun to practice. For me, at least.

Wednesday night Dan and I went on a dinner date. It was fun. Dan is the best. Saturday Gretchen watched our kids while we went to the temple. It was really nice. Later that day we took them dinner and then we headed over to Prestonwood Forest to look at their lights. It's a big neighborhood where each street has a different theme and people really get into it. It was so busy. Everyone else had the same idea we did.

I thought this house was cool.

The winner for this year was a house who set their lights to music. We tuned our radio to a certain station. They had choreographed lights for 2 songs. I got some of one on video. I didn't have the best angle...
But it was pretty awesome. I'm guessing this song is from some musical version of "A Christmas Carol." I'd never heard it before. And I didn't really think about it before, but I noticed now that their neighbor's house is for sale... I wonder if this crazy light show has anything to do with it.

If the video doesn't work, try copying this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5b6BQ28tmo