Day 137
Sunday morning we woke up and got ready for 11:00 Mass. When we got there, we quickly found out the website was wrong and we were walking into the end of the 10:00 Mass. :-/ At least we all looked really good! So, we went with plan B and went across the street to a Sea life Nature Center. Here's Reese telling me all about the fish.
They also had a large turtle roaming around freely. The kiddos weren't too excited about it.
After some lunch, we put the kids down for a nap. Husbandy and I took this time to go on some big kid slides (don't worry, Nancy volunteered to stay up stairs with the littles). Once everyone was awake, we all swam some more until the park closed. We did have one "small" incident, Nancy ended up breaking her toe and had to go to the hospital in Brownsville. She's such a trooper though, cause she came back with pain meds and a wrapped foot and held out the rest of the trip. If it were me, I think I would have packed up and gone home!
My loves at dinner. Someone looks a little worn out.
Day 138
Monday morning we were at the park the minute it opened. We knew we had to get our swim on early because after naps we were going on a dolphin watch! Here's Reese and Mini B watching Frozen in between activities.
I don't have any pictures of the dolphin cruise, but we did see a lot of dolphins. We even saw some playing in the waves and jump out of the water. Every time one would come up then go back under Reese would say "Uh-oh. Where dolphin go?" It was fun, but by the end the littles were ready to get off the boat.
I do have to give a shout out to the place we ate dinner, Sea Ranch Restaurant Bar. Our dolphin tour started at six and the restaurant didn't start serving dinner until five. With 8 adults and 4 kids, that's a really quick turn around!! They did a great job of getting us in and out and our waiter, Eddie was so great with the kids. I'm sad we had to be rushed, because it was probably my favorite meal!
Day 139
Happy birthday, Bryan!
With only one day left, we knew we wanted to spend the entire day at Schlitterbahn. We started out the day on the horses. I know Bryan got some better pictures of the kiddos, so I'll have to get some more from him.
The rest of the day we planted ourselves on this frog. Sorry to any other kid who thought they were going to play on it. I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Brooklyn, but she was there too. All the kids loved this frog. Actually, every morning Reese would wake up and say "frog, frog, frog??" If I had counted how many times Reese went down, got out of the pool, climbed up the stairs, and went down again, I think I would have gotten to at least 500. She is the slide queen!
We did eventually convince the kids to move to the inside water park that had a fun pirate ship with lots of slides to play on. Reese did the same thing there too. After the park closed, we took the kids to the beach where they played in the water and covered grandpa with sand. I'm waiting to get those pictures as well.
A few random thoughts: Hotel living: I don't love it. Reese still cries when we put her to bed and in a room she's not familiar with, it's more of a scream. I know she will not go to sleep if she sees me, so I just had to go around the corner or leave the room until she was done. I know everyone around us loved that. I also think we've ruined Reese's nap schedule. Wednesday she flat out didn't get one. As I'm typing this, she's been in her room for over 1.5 hrs and has yet to fall asleep. I'm sure getting back on track next week is going to be lots of fun. :-) Thanks to Dad and Cindy for taking us on this trip. I know the cousins had lots of fun together! Reese is still asking to playing with all of them during the day.
Day 140
Wednesday we woke up to catch our flight out of Brownsville. It was kind of hectic with four kids, lots of luggage, and one adult with a broken toe. But, we made it! I love how in these situations you know you're not responsible for just your things, you're responsible for everyone's things, kids especially. I think J-Fry said it best one day when we were trying to get kids dressed and every one was crying about something..."This is a little stressful, but you know, it's nice." Traveling with kids brings a new definition to the word "vacation," but I wouldn't change it.
Anyway, back to Wednesday...when we got home Reese figured her 10 minute car ride nap was all she needed and that tending to her babies was more important.
Day 141
Reese was supposed to go back to school on Thursday and mom was going to have the rest of the week to clean, do laundry, and get things ready for birthday parties coming up in June. Instead, Reese stayed home with a fever, cough, and pink eye! Wednesday night was actually the first time every Reese slept in mommy and daddy's bed, so we could keep an ear on her breathing. It wasn't so bad, but she did definitely sleep horizontally between us. Here's a shot of her after she finally finally finally fell asleep for her nap Thursday afternoon.
Day 142
Reese woke up in a terrible mood Friday morning. The first hour was just crying about anything she could. The rest of the day was more whining with a few glimpses of smiles. Thank God for those smiles...or else I would have gone crazy. Here's one of the sweet moments when Reese was reading The Cat in the Hat to me.
Day 143
Reese had another incredibly moody day on Saturday. All seemed to be going fine before swim class, but as soon as we got in the car to head home...it was all over. We went to the "calm down room" when we got home and she ended up falling asleep on me for maybe 20 minutes? I'm not really sure how long it was because I wasn't anticipating a nap. Did this change her mood? No. I'm not sure if she's teething, still trying to catch up on sleep from vacation, going through growing pains, just not feeling well because of the cough, or what, but I hope it passes quickly! After putting her to bed I told Husbandy I had a brilliant idea which included someone going to Sweet Firefly. That's exactly what happened and boy did it hit the spot.
