San Antonio and Sea World

After Dallas we went to San Antonio to visit my sister Emilee and her family. We got to go to Sea World for 2 days. My sister lives very close to Sea World, so we went in the morning, let the kids sleep in the afternoon and went back in the evening. We had a lot of fun.
This first day we went to a Sea Lion comedy show. Spencer really enjoyed it- it was pretty funny!
We also went to an Elmo 4D movie which freaked all of the kids out. I guess the 3D plus spraying water and air were a little too much for the kids. We joined up a little with Kelsey and her family who came to Sea World on the same days as us.
Here the boys are at the aquarium. A few big tanks, but not much to speak of.
We don't have any pictures of when we went back that evening, but we went to the water park. Emilee and her family came with us, Spencer loved being with his cousins. Devon and Spencer waited in a long line to go down the tube slide and James and I played in the toddler pool, which he loved! We also went on a few bigger rides. One favorite was the "Rio Loco" which they let Spencer on the first day- but not the second- he was right at the height limit. Also that night we went to the Shamoo show. It was pretty neat. I didn't know there were like 10 Sahmoo's.
On the second Day Emilee and her girls got to come with us in the morning. Spencer officially loves rides. This is a kid version of a dropping ride- the girl next to him was screaming when it dropped, so he screamed too- but for fun!
James waiting in a long line in the heat.
This is the only ride (besides the Merry go Round) that James went on, he did not like having to sit still.
Spencer and Kate and Olivia on the Ferris wheel ride.
Kate and Spencer on this crazy fist ride.
They are in the back with their hands in the air!
We loved being able to go with cousins
Spencer would much rather hold their hands than mom or dad's!
Also that morning we went to the best show. It had a beluga whale with a swimmer, divers, dolphins, acrobats, and exotic birds- it was amazing- James even watched.
The second evening we came back a little earlier to enjoy the water park- it was packed! We went to the toddler pool, the wave pool and the lazy river. James was not a huge fan, but Spencer loved it.
The cousins and Devon and Cathrine snuck off the Rio Loco so Spencer would not be too sad by not being let on again. During this time i unwisely let Spencer and James play on this huge Elmo's playland. It was insane! Picture a McDonald's toy like 20 times the size with tons of exits. I almost had a heart attach many times, but I found my kids every time and we came out okay.
Then Spencer got to go on his favorite ride twice. Here is is with Devon and Catherine and Aurora in the front seat.
You can't see him, but he is between Ben and Aurora. On the way down he said to Ben "Cover my eyes!" I will post a video of the ride at the end of this post, because I can never get it to post in the middle. As Kate said- that gives my lots of butterflies- it was a pretty daring ride, and Spencer and Aurora loved it!
On Saturday we went to the Alamo. The boys were pretty vacationed out- and not a real joy- but at least we got to see it.
Here is my sister and her family. Spencer loved playing with the twins, and James loved playing with Ruby- which was fun to see, he usually chooses to play by himself.
We also went to the river walk, which was pretty neat.

I really enjoyed not having to hold James or Spencer's hand the whole time- Kate and Olivia were so helpful




That night we went to a fun build your own frozen yogurt place, and then Emilee and I got to go shopping which was fun. We had a great trip.
Here are a few videos from Sea World.

This is a video of Spencer's favorite ride. He (and all of the other kids) also loved getting splashed by the ride.


Charlie will be a great father


We don't have a lot of pictures of James, but i think he really did have a good time

We had a lot of fun in Dallas with Devon's family in the beginning of July. It was a little warm, but we went out side first thing, and then went swimming or played on the toys at the mall. We didn't do too good of a job taking pictures. We also went to Cabela's to see the huge fish and stuffed animals. Spencer got a stomach bug the first few days, but no one else caught it- and we had a great time.
Here is James after the 4th of July breakfast.
We went to the Children's Museum with Kelsey and her family and Grandma and Catherine. James loved the water.
When you stood against this wall a super bright flash would come and it would take a picture of your shadow.
We went on a few "safaris" in the morning and found interesting spiders and ants and worms. Mostly it was so nice to be with family, and I enjoyed not having to plan and cook meals for more than a week.
We also celebrated James birthday a little more. He got this ball from grandma, and would not put it down
I think he was made we were making him open more presents

When he saw things with wheels he was okay.
We let the kids play in the pool after dinner, so we had to drag James out to blow out his candles on his cake.
He did not eat cake until pool time was over, he was having too much fun!
Spencer loved playing with his cousins, and James walked right up to the toy room every time we went to Kelsey's house. We had so much fun with cousins and Grandma and Grandpa and "Cafrine" (who Spencer could not leave alone!
One other funny thing. When we finally got to Grandma's house from Albuquerque (a 10 hour drive) James was sooo excited he tried to jump all over the house. He can't quite get both feet off of the ground, but it's a cute whole body effort! The trip was worth the drive- and that is saying something.

Albuquerque

On our way to Texas we stopped in Albuquerque to visit Deon and her family. While we were there Max had his birthday party.
We also got to meet up with our friends who moved to New Mexico at the Discovery museum. Spencer loved this place! Here you roll the ball down, but you can move the ramp around to see which way gives you the most momentum.
On the wall in the back you could build tracks for marbles, I mght need to make a way of my boys room like this, Spencer played with it forever.
Building a waterfall.
Spencer and Catherine build a route to water- for about 20 minutes- which is long for Spencer.

Have you ever been inside of a bubble?

or covered with bubbles?
This slide was like rolling sticks, it felt really fast.
We met the LaFonts, these are Spencer's friends Vivi and Dessa. It was so fun to see them for a little bit.

Stuff

I just wanted to post a few random pictures before moving on to the vacation posts.
Spencer and James have finally found a way to use the Ipad together- James watches
Spencer found this box and decorated it as his "special box" There is a T-Rex, a picture of him and a swirl. He played with this all day!


Spencer showing off what he learned in swim lessons



Spencer's creativity boggles my mind. He really made this all by himself, maybe he will be an inventor.

James' 2nd birthday

I cannot believe James is 2! He is such a sweet boy, always hugging everyone. He loves cars, so he got a lot of cars for his birthday. We actually gave him this car a few days before his birthday because we were cleaning out our storage unit, and then he found one of his presents (seriously- i am going to have to start hiding things), so he didn't open too many presents on his actual birthday.
He got a little garage from his Grandma Coombs, and did not want to open any more presents
I think Spencer took one of his cars, but this is a great example of how James cries- mouth wide open and very loud!

All better!
We had his real cake in Texas, so we just got a banana creme pie for his actual birthday.