Mini vacation week

Did ya miss us??? Nick has been working like a migrant donkey the last few weeks, so the boys and I packed up and headed to Austin for the week. It's amazing how fast time flies when you are too busy to scratch your butt! Seriously, I barely sat down. It's always fun to go visit, but equally exhausting. My sister in law and my mom and I took the boys and my niece and nephew down to Sea World. It was a blast! I'm surprised how well Hud did. All he cared about was seeing "Shampoo", so we tried to hold off that show until the afternoon. He even rode a roller coaster. Ok, by roller coaster, realize it's a loose term. We were in a car, shaped like a whale on about 200 feet of track that went in a hill filled loop. For being so small, it sure knocked the crap out of us. Sooo bumpy! But, he loved it. Then, Henry and my nephew drug us on the only other ride they were tall enough for. It didn't look to bad.....until I was on it and being towed up at what felt like a 65 degree incline 2 miles up. I started to worry that Henry would freak out, but he loved it. Even pretended to barf when we got off! Luckily, we had passes that kept us from waiting in the hour long line, so guess who rode it twice? It's so fun to be entering the kid phase with Henry. I mean, it's sad that he no longer wants to work on puzzles with me or occasionally still fall asleep in the afternoon laying on my shoulder. But, it's really neat being able to have a "kid" that's able to really appreciate the world around him. Good thing I've got that younger child that is still in the little guy phase.

Just a side note. I'm not sure who decided that the one piece swimsuit that is actually a bikini connected w/ a strip of material across the stomach is stylish, but they were wrong. Know why??? Because apparently it's the official suit of the pastey white obese Nascar crowd and they really enjoy parading around in public amusement parks in them. I'm sure the gay man in NYC that designed them for whatever label didn't plan on them being produced in XXL and being sold at Walmart.

Happy 4th....on the 8th!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. This was our first one to do all the fanfare w/ the kids. Not that we haven't tried in years past. But, due to weather, family crap and other road blocks, this is the first time the boys have seen fireworks. We spent Friday night in a small town about 3 miles up the road. Very small town. It was a cute event. We even got front row seats for the "display". However, when planning the place where the fire dept. would ignite the show, someone forgot to do the "how high are the trees and how high do these bottle rockets go" math. We saw about 1 in 4 that were shot off. Good use of taxpayer dollars, I'd say.
Saturday, we had a BBQ, which means Nick got up at 3am and spent the next 15 hours watching the smoker better than a newborn. We had friends over and then headed to another fireworks display. It was cute too, but come on! Where are the giant ones that I remember as a kid? You know, the ones that would rattle the car windows? I know they are out there and next year, that will be my quest.
There is always something so comforting about the 4th. Is it the patriotism brought out in everyone, even the Chinese store owner or the Pakistani pizza guy? Is it that it's the official, "summer is really here" holiday? I'm not sure. But there is just something about seeing all the red, white and blue everywhere that makes me smile. It's nice that once a year, the country realizes that it's not about where you are from, it's that you are here and it's our job, all of us, to protect it.