Water Camera

I had a water camera that I used this summer to take pics while we went tubing and at Sea World, and I finally got the pictures developed! It was funny, I had found a bunch of old disposable cameras and ended up getting about 10 developed at once and it was so funny to see what was on those cameras! Riley at camp when he was 7, and he accidentally got someone elses camera about halfway through camp, so we have a bunch of pictures of some older girls that we don't know!

Here are some from tubing (with Trista, Chris, Kenzie, Gary, Joe, Mark and Tristan!):





And from Sea World (with Tina, Bennie and the kids):

Sea World

Sea World

This was a very last minute trip, but my cousin Christina and her family were going to San Antonio for a few days and invited us to come spend some time with them. We only had Wednesday available and they were headed to Sea World, so we tagged along. The kids, as usual, had a great time and they just LOVE playing with their cousins! They get along great, and it was a blast. We got to feed and pet the dolphins, spent the afternoon in the water park, rode all the rides (Riley was finally tall enough to ride the Great White), and saw the sea lion show, and the Shamu Rocks show. All in all it was a great day, and Regan was asleep before we left the parking lot!

Sea World

Girl Scouts Sea World

As a reward for selling so many girl scout cookies this year, the girls got to pick something fun to do, and they picked a trip to Sea World. We had to be at our leader's house by 6:45am to decorate the cars, the girls all wrote their names and "Sea World or bust" etc. all over the windows on the cars.

We got to Sea World just as it opened, and headed off to the dolphins and sharks. Then we spent some time in the water park to cool off, had lunch, and were about to go to another show when it started lightning and thundering. They ended up closing some of the rides and shows for a bit, so we went to the 4D movie that's indoors, and killed some time. Then Regan realized she was finally tall enough to ride the Steel Eel, so of course, we had to do that. She has spent many a time sitting under the Steel Eel waiting for Riley to ride so she was SO excited that it was finally her turn. She loved it (after that first big drop) and wanted to go again, but we had other things to see and do.

We saw the hilarious Sea Lion show that is my favorite, and then the last Shamu show of the day and left the park as it was closing at 10. We grabbed a quick bite at Taco Cabana and got home just before 2am. We were beat to say the least.

Sea World December

Sea World December

It was somewhat of an impromptu trip, we thought it would be nice to go over Christmas break and eke out every last drop of fun from our season passes, since they expire at the end of this year. So we decided to bring Tristan and Marissa with us. It was fun, a little nippy, but not too bad, it warmed up during the afternoon, we just had to keep moving to stay warm. We did all our favorites, fed the sea lions, the lorikeets, rode the Steel Eel a million times, Riley is still about an inch too short to ride the Great White so that makes him mad, but David and the girls rode that. We split for a while, Marissa and Mackenzie off to do their thing, David and the boys off to do their thing, and me and Regan to the kiddie rides. We stopped to feed some fish and turtles, and rode the spinning paint cans, and the Shamu roller coaster. We had nice warm chocolate and strawberry funnel cakes and saw the penguins, and played a midway game so the kids could all win their own Shamu. It closed at 5 so we went to Chacho's for dinner, our favorite place to eat in San Antonio, and the kids had so much fun, they just HAD to spend the night with us too, so we have a houseful of kids, playing Wii, jumping on the Pogo stick, watching TV, another fun day at the Crappell House!!

Sea World (again)!

Sea World November

We're trying to make the most of our season passes, so we drug some friends with us this time. The weather was excellent! It rained most of the way down so we were nervous, but it was blue skies and great weather the whole day. It was not too hot, not too cold, there was hardly anyone there, no lines to ride anything, it was perfect! We fed the dolphins, the sea lions and the Lorikeets, who were MUCH more aggressive than the Lorikeets at the San Antonio Zoo. We walked in the aviary and were instantly covered in birds. When Regan ran out of nectar, they bit her arm, and one kept thinking my thumb was a nice juicy worm. The sea lions are awesome. Reminds me of when we went to San Francisco (B.K. - before kids) and saw all the sea lions (or seals) off Fisherman's Wharf. They are loud, smelly and adorable!! We saw the sea lion show, again, and of course Riley rode the Steel Eel a few thousand times, and argued with us most of the day that he really IS tall enough to ride the Great White (another inch or so to go in actuality). David and Craig did the brew tour and relaxed and had an assortment of beers and cheeses and fruits while Laura and I had kid duty (how did we let that happen?) The dad's and kids rode the water rides, with some panchos so they didn't get too wet (Regan called them "nachos") and we watched the Pirate 4-D movie which is always fun.

And of course, we stayed till the bitter end then hit our favorite place to eat in SA, Chacho's! Made it home just in time for bed time since the kids have 2 more days of school until Thanksgiving break. I can't wait for some time off to catch up on some sleep!

San Antonio Weekend

San Antonio July 2007

Wow, what a trip! I can say without a doubt this was one of the more interesting trips we've been on! First, Jay and Tammy bought a new, bigger RV and wanted to try it out before they head out on their 2 week trip to Minnesota. So of course, we were more than happy to help them out!! They went to San Antonio Friday night, got set up and everything, since David had to work late Friday night, we headed out first thing Saturday morning.

We met at the San Antonio Zoo, it's been years since we've been there, the last time, Riley was 2, it was 112 degrees outside and we left after about 30 minutes. This time wasn't quite as hot, but it was still dang hot, humid and it was drizzling off and on. We saw the front half of the zoo, got to see a very talented monkey doing tricks for us with his privates. Played in the kid's area for a while, since it was air conditioned, and then found out the back half was shut down because someone got hurt. We thought we would wait it out a bit, at that time they were saying it would be an hour or so, but then decided we were all too hot and tired to wait much longer, so we headed back to the front, just in time to find out they closed the zoo and were making everyone leave. There were news crews all over, ambulance, Life Flight, it was a madhouse! We never heard what was going on, only someone was hurt. So, thankfully my husband can't go anywhere without wireless internet and his laptop, so when we got back to camp we found out a worker had been mauled by a Sumatran Tiger.

So we left and went to one of our favorite places to eat in San Antonio, Chacho's! They are like Taco Cabana, but better and cheaper, it's awesome.

The camp we were staying at had a nice playground, and a pool, so we spent the rest of the evening there, letting the kids get worn out, while David sat in the rec room surfing the net. We put all our wet bathing suits and towels, and Regan's shoes outside on the picnic table to dry out overnight, only to be awakened by a massive thunderstorm sometime in the early morning hours. The only shoes I packed for Regan, her tennis shoes, were soaked! So, before we could head to Sea World, we had to make a run to Walmart for some cheap replacements.

We pack up and head out to Sea World, since we have season passes, we were only going to stay for a little while. Of course, first stop is the hospitality room there, where they give out free samples of energy drinks!! Then Riley wanted to ride the Steel Eel about a million times, so he and David did that while Regan and I watched the 4D movie. We weren't in the door good and Regan was complaining about the new shoes, so we had a trip to first aid to get Band-Aids. We got to ride the log ride, Regan's favorite, and the new ride, Journey to Atlantis, which was really fun! We had all the fun we could handle around 5, so we left and went to Rudy's for dinner.

Made it home tired, hot, exhausted, and with company coming! We got a call that Tiffany, David's sister, was back in the hospital so Leo and Linda were on their way up. Thankfully, I cleaned my house before we left, so I was able to come home, change the sheets on the guest bed, and try to recuperate from the crazy weekend.