Month: June 2008

Thursday was our last day in San Antonio. As much fun as I was having I missed Mario terribly and couldn’t wait to get home and see him.

We got up, got ready, and packed up all our stuff. While we waited for everyone else, Mary, the kids and I went to Walmart to get a few things for the road. We got packages of ham for Alaethia (one of the only things she wanted to eat during the trip), fruit, milk and drinks.

We had breakfast at Denny’s (yum) with Jose, Elda, their kids and Jorge. Tommy, Yadira and their kids arrived later since they were going their own way.

Our first stop was Cabela’s after breakfast, which is this huge sporting goods store in Buda, TX. All the men in our family love some type of hunting so they all loved this place. It was really amazing, actually. It had huge dioramas of stuffed animals in their natural habitats such as the mountains or Africa. It was really cool. My boys were throwing fits while I was taking photos and looking around because they were desperate to get to the shooting range upstairs. So after I’d taken at least 50 pictures of all the animals we went up there. And then they were upset because they couldn’t shoot the targets correctly. After they’d played there for a while they took pictures and then we went to the aquarium. It was a nice aquarium; lots of bass fish and a funny one called a Black Crappie LOL. I became 5 years old when I saw that one and laughed along with the kids.

We hit the road again and stopped for gas. While we were there we asked for directions to the Inner Space Cavern. Nobody knew the way except that it was in Georgetown. We followed Jose and Elda through Austin and then Round Rock and then got to Georgetown. The kids were antsy and hungry (mine were throwing spectacular fits not wanting to leave the gift shop—which is quite rude of the people to put it right at the entrance!)

We went back to Round Rock to have lunch a T.G.I.Fridays. What a shame that we didn’t have a truck or money…Ikea was right in from of Fridays!

I ate the usual plate I’d get when we actually had a Fridays in the Valley, the Sizzling Chicken and Shrimp, or something like that. It was so good.

We went back to the Cavern and waited for the tour to start. They told us no food or drinks were allowed but they were crazy if they thought Alaethia would stay quiet the whole tour without a sippy of milk. It’s not like we were going to graffiti the walls with it or anything. So we smuggled one in in Sammy’s shorts.

We got on the trolley to go into the cave and right at the point the tour guide told us the 95° heat would change to a cool 70°, it did!

The kids were amazed by the formations; I especially liked the straws. We weren’t allowed to touch anything except for the Formation of Temptation, or something like that, and other places he told us we could.

He told us the history of the cave and how some DOT people found it while checking the ground in preparation of a new highway. The owner of the land wanted to explore so they dug a huge hole through the ground and dropped him in with a rope. He landed on a pile of prehistoric bat droppings. The only bats that inhabit the cave right now are teeny tiny ones, can’t remember their name. He said, “Imagine a chicken nugget with wings,” and they totally look like that!

Alaethia was so sleepy halfway through the tour that she threw the fit of all fits. Not fun in the confined spaces of the cave “rooms”. Mary and I stayed behind the group, away from the eyes of the tour guide, and gave Alaethia her sippy while trying to put her to sleep. I don’t know how Mary does it. I eventually get Aly to fall asleep, but Mary just rocks her and hums to her and voila! She’s out!

Mary passed her on to Jorge on the way back, since it was kind of slippery and uphill. The boys had such a great time looking around, feeling mysterious and like explorers. Even Jaylen, who hates to even walk through Wal-mart, had a great time and only complained a handful of times about his feet hurting (he’s in such a tattle-telling, whiny mood lately!).

I took tons of pictures; it was so interesting. We were the last tour so we only had a bit of time to look through the gift shop, which sucks because I wanted to look around more and get a souvenir, since I didn’t get one anywhere else. But oh well, at least I got my babe something.

We got some ice cream (I craved a Snickers ice cream bar immediately and had one. I was a naughty diabetic the whole time we were over there!)

Alaethia was moody all the way home. She desperately needed to sleep, but didn’t want to. She’s so dramatic—she’d cover her face with her hands and scream “Aye, aye, ayyyyee!” We heard that till we stopped at a rest stop. I got her down to distract her for a little bit but as soon as she got in the car seat again it was Scream City. She eventually got so tired that she passed out and stayed asleep till we got home at midnight. All the way over I was texting Mario a play-by-play of our location.

We got home and left everything in the car; we were too tired to bother with luggage. The boys slept over at Mary’s and Aly, Mario and I came home and watched TV. Mario surprised me with a Jensen iPod docking station/stereo, which he’d already set up on my desk in our bedroom. He’s so sweet to me. We put Aly in her crib and updated each other on the goings on of the past 4 days. It was so nice to be home!

We were up by 8am, but everyone else was having a hard time getting out of bed. I was rolling around being lazy and then I hear Jorge hurling in the bathroom. I quickly became nauseous.

Mary, the kids and I decided to walk to Whataburger right next door instead of waiting around. We had a quick breakfast then went back to the hotel to finish packing up the diaper bag and made sure we had everything we needed for our sure-to-be long day.

When everyone had already had breakfast we followed Tommy, our leader, to Sea World again. I was so hot the day before I decided to wear a tank top, regardless of how huge I thought my arms looked. Besides, it would do some good to get rid of my horrible “Farmer’s Tan.” All the other ladies at the park seemed to be comfortable with their bodies, why couldn’t I?

We were supposed to start off with the rides, but of course, Eenan and the kids wanted to go to the Lost Lagoon, where you get wet. Their first stop was the tubing place. I was really nervous about them going in there, especially since they were bobbing all over the place even with life jackets on. I wanted to get in there with them to help them out and take Alaethia around a few times, but I stupidly didn’t take a change of clothes and didn’t feel like walking around feeling damp like the day before. Sammy, Brandon, and Jose went in so I left the boys with them. They always stick together, so I felt confident that nobody would stray.

Meanwhile Elda and I went into one of the shops to either find an over-dress, shorts, or a bathing suit. Everything was super expensive but I bought myself some board shorts even though they were a size bigger. When I’ve gotten changed and I’ve got Alaethia in my arms I see Sammy and Jose, soaked, walking towards us. I ask them, “Is Brandon still with the boys?” Sammy replies, “Yes. But Jaylen’s looking for you.” I stop dead in my tracks and think What do you mean Jaylen’s looking for me!? As my heart starts racing and I go into a panic because I imagine him lost and helpless in this huge park, a lifeguard with a clipboard is turning around a corner and is asking someone, “…what was she wearing?” I crane my neck to see who’s behind him and its Jaylen sobbing. I scream, “JAYLEN!” and grab him. I ask the lifeguard, “How long’s he been with you?! Has he been lost long?” and he smiles nicely and says, “No, ma’am. He just came up to me a few seconds ago.” I gave him the usual lecture of, “You NEVER, EVER wander off alone!!!” and walk him over to where Mary is waiting with Jorge and Tommy (neither of them got in the water) because Jaylen’s too shook up to go back.

When Alaethia and I went to meet Yadira, Yazmin, Angela and Matthew at the tubes I ask if they’ve seen Eenan and Brandon floating around. They tell me no, not the whole time that they’ve been there. My heart sinks. Not again!

Tommy had been filming Matthew in the tubes with Yadira and he said Mary was with the boys. Thank God. I managed to have a pretty relaxing time floating around with Alaethia. She enjoyed it a lot. We went around about 3 times and then got out to go to the kiddie pool. I tried getting Alaethia to go on the tiny slide or under the splashing mushroom but she was terrified, clinging onto me for dear life. So we just sat in the foot of water for a bit until she became brave enough to splash a little.

We changed and met everyone at the table and chairs we’d claimed “ours”. I was in pain. Stupid shorts I’d bought had some plastic stitching and scratched up my legs. I didn’t notice till I slid my jean capris back on and rubbed my thigh. It hurts just thinking about it.

Alaethia fell asleep for a good long while. I couldn’t change her tank top, but I removed her little water undies and diaper and just left her in a clean diaper. She was nice and fresh.

If I remember correctly our next stop was the Journey to Atlantis ride. It was Jose, Jaylen, Yazmin, Angela, Yadira and me. I’m not a big fan of roller coasters; I hate that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach…that pressure. But, Yadira had, as always, convinced me to go on it. As soon as we got in line I was chickening out. And then I realized I had my Centro in my pocket. I called Mary and poor thing came all the way to get my phone. Once we got on the ride (and my heart felt like it would pop out of my nostrils) it wasn’t too bad. I mean, yeah, it was all I expected it to be (scary) but it wasn’t THAT BAD. We slowly went up, had a little spin that turned us backwards and down we went, took another spin and then BOOM! Straight down we went into the water. That was the part I liked the least. Jaylen was probably braver than I was; he wanted another go! So Jose left and the rest of us got back on.

It was me, Jaylen and Yazmin this time around in our row, which was the 3rd one or so. The first time Jaylen was between Jose and Yadira in the very front row! So we’re on our way up we’re excited and then we just suddenly stop. There’s another boat in right in front of us on the part that turns you backwards and up ahead was another boat backwards right before the part that spins you forward again. We were up there for 10 minutes, at least. Turns out a little girl in the very first boat had thrown up and they needed to clean it up. I got SO SUNBURNED while we were up there. When they got the girl and her mom down and everything went back to normal Jaylen wanted another turn! We said, after that, yeah right!

We met everyone at the bottom and sat around a little. Then we decided to go to lunch. We went to Ray’s Bar-b-q. They had the best brisket and creamed corn! When we went back we went to the Haunted Lighthouse show again, because we’d missed Pirates 4-D. It’s sort of the same thing; a show in 3-d where they splash you with water, air and so forth. I figured Alaethia would be terrified again, so I sat near the exit and when she started screaming I went outside with her since I’d watched it the day before and Mary didn’t get to. It was so hot out we went into one of the shops and just basked in the cool air conditioning. We walked around and when we passed some walrus plushes she cooed, “Doggy!” so I promised her that when everyone came out of the show (and I got my money from my camera bag which stayed with Mary) I’d get her one.

We sat atop a stone wall while she drank her cup of milk in my lap. Everyone came out and we headed to the gift shop. She wanted a small walrus, but then I showed her the pup that Jaylen got and she wanted that one instead. She hugged it so tightly, it was too cute.

We missed the Rockin’ Ski Party and Waggin’ Tales shows so we headed to Sea Lions Tonight again. This time I took video of it, but it wasn’t as funny as the day before since it wasn’t the same guy acting.

The boys complained for a good while that they wanted these darn spray bottle fans. I kept telling them the past two days to save their money, because we’d be going to Fiesta Texas on Thursday but we decided not to go after all. So I spent $15 for each bottle…grr.

All the shows were over by then so we all went to a bench and sat down. Then Elda remembered the Rio Loco ride. I told Mary, “Go ahead, go! You haven’t ridden anything.” She smiled and said, “No thanks. Go ahead. I’ll watch Alaethia.”

So Eenan, Jaylen, Elda, Jose, Sammy, Brandon and me went to the ride. It was pretty quick getting to the beginning of the line since it was almost closing. The first way around I realize I have my darn cell phone again. Never learn. I had nowhere to hide it; I was getting soaked fast! So I stuck it in my undies LOL. It stayed pretty dry!

The boys wanted to go around again so this time Elda and I asked the ride attendant to hold our phones. He already had 4 other ones in his pocket LOL. We went around two more times and it was awesome. When we’d pass by this certain point Jorge would wet us with this water gun thing and Mary would show Alaethia where we were and she’d wave. The boys had so much fun on it, especially when it was their turn to get soaked under the waterfall.

We had to get creative in the truck so as not to wet the seats too much.

I’d sent my cousin Jessica a message that we were in town and she left me her number. I called her back and we talked for a good while. It was so nice to hear from her! We wanted to meet up but she’d be at Fiesta Texas he next day and we’d be at the caverns. She’s coming down this month so we decided to meet when she was in the Valley.

I got Jaylen bathed and Mary got Eenan and Aly bathed while I spoke to Jessica. I ate dinner (can’t remember what) and then I took a shower. I had a harder time sleeping that night; everything was waking me up. Even Alaethia stirred for a cup of milk and as I was getting up to get it, Mary had already come back with it and Alaethia had fallen back to sleep.

The last time I posted we just chilled out the rest of the night in the hotel. The boys played their DS’s, Alaethia had a fab time playing with her babies and pulling things out of everyone’s bags. We didn’t feel like going anywhere for dinner so we ordered in, though I can’t remember exactly what at the moment.

I forgot to mention on the previous entry that the day before while we were still at the Alamo Yadira got Matthew’s overnight Strep test results and he was positive for Strep. And he’d shared a drink with Alaethia. I was on pins and needles the rest of the trip, and was praying that if she got sick please, God, please make it before June 30th. The kids were denied their Chip insurance after that :(.

I was Myspacing Mario through my Centro but in a moment of desperation I went outside and tried stealing Wi-Fi from somewhere. Jorge followed me and watched me from our hotel room while he smoked a cigarette (I felt a little uneasy being alone…and apparently Jorge felt like that about me too LOL). We were right across from Burger King and if I stood at the corner of the 2nd story (where our rooms were) I could totally get signal! I could actually get it all the way in front of our door, but once I got in it disappeared. Bummer.

The next morning I woke up in such a good, rested mood! It was probably the arctic temperatures in the room but for the first time in a long time Alaethia slept through the whole night. She didn’t wake up for a bottle once. And I didn’t wake up to pee once, either!

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel that morning. I wasn’t too excited about it; I would have much rather had breakfast at Denny’s, Ihop or even Burger King. I wanted pancakes like crazy and all they have there are fried pancakes—ew. I got some blueberry ones that looked deceivingly like they were nice and fluffy and non-fried in the menu, but nope, they were fried, too.
We made our way to Sea World after breakfast and managed to take a few wrong turns here and there but we eventually made it.

I texted Mario most of the day, letting him know where we were going next and whatnot.

We made plans to watch all the shows that day and do the rides the next day. Eenan was already in a foul mood and we’d just gotten there, but we tried not to let it get to us. He eventually got over it and we went to “Believe” one of the Shamu shows. It was really nice and I got some awesome shots of the whales.

Alaethia, who only wanted to be with Jorge most of our trip, was really enjoying the show. She didn’t fuss once. Well, until we got splashed with the ice-cold water! We were sitting in the “splash zone” and even though we were pretty high up we still got completely soaked! We were damp the rest of the time we were there.

The next show we watched was “Viva!” I love the opening show, which is about a funny plumber type guy who’s trying to contain a water leak. He’s the same exact guy that was doing the show back when we last visited Sea World in 2003.

Alaethia watched with admiration while the acrobats dove off of high platforms, danced around in the flying ring, and shot themselves off of the swings. She fussed once for snacks and once she got them she was all eyes and ears again.

I’m not sure what else we did after that. I think we left the park to go eat lunch. Yes, that’s what we did. And we made the mistake of exiting through one of the gift shops and Jaylen fell in love with a white sea lion pup plush and started pitching a fit. I promised him that when we got back, if he behaved, he’d get it.

Jose, Elda, Jorge and the boys went to eat at Rudy’s Bar-B-Q and Tommy, Yadira, their kids, Mary, my kids and I went to Subway. The boys were still complaining that their underwear were wet so Mary went to Family Dollar next door to buy them some tightie whities after she finished eating and got Jaylen a pair of shorts since, for some reason, he didn’t have extras. We all got into the car after that and took off again to the park.

Jaylen didn’t forget about his sea lion. First stop was buying it and then he was happy.

Eenan was complaining yet again when we got back about how he wanted to go to Shamu’s Happy Harbor to get wet. They didn’t have a change of clothes and it was still a few hours till we went home so it was a no-go. He said he’d be satisfied if they just went to play in the little jungle-gym type thing that they have. So there we go.

We went to The Haunted Lighthouse 4-D show after that. It was so fun. Not only was it 3-D, but the 4-D part came when they’d splash us with water or blow a stream of air at our legs to make it seem like rats were running by our legs. Mary was sitting with Alaethia and at one point Alaethia started screaming because the water they were spraying at us was really cold, so Mary walked out with her.

The kids had some cotton candy and drinks while we walked to the Sea Lions Tonight Show, which is a show featuring seals (named Seymore and Clyde) that parody all the shows at Sea World. It was too funny; probably my favorite show out of all of them. It was hilarious.

What was also hilarious was when Yazmin (who will kill me for telling the internetz this if she ever reads it) was telling me about a boy who was following her around at the Haunted Lighthouse show. She said she was so annoyed that if he went up to her to talk to her she’d tell him, “*cough*cough* I have Staph.” I just stare at her and say, “Um, Yazmin, Staph is a skin infection. I think you mean Strep.” The people behind us couldn’t stop laughing. I couldn’t stop laughing LOL.

We went to the other Shamu show after that. It was cool. They even had dance contests on the screen before the actual show. All the shows were done after this one so we walked around and looked at the crocodiles and gators and then made our way to the cars.

We went straight to the hotel after we left Sea World. I chatted with Mario for a bit. We ordered Chinese takeout, which was actually really good and very well served. I bathed all the kids and got into bed. It was 11:30 by the time I went to bed, but I had another night of awesome sleep!