Vacation

We are getting so excited about our trip to the beach in a week.  We decided it was high time we started taking some family vacations but wanted them to be as simple and stress free as possible.  Another priority Ryan and I set for our family vacations was that they be about seeing things God created and called "good", not things man has created and called "good".   We figured, we live in a desert.  There are plenty of things that our children read about that they have never seen or experienced for themselves.....like the ocean....a beach, the tides, sea shells, sand castles, salt water, fresh sea food.....how can you really understand "ocean" until you have been there?  Some other things we hope to take them to see and experience in the next few years are:  mountains, snow, waterfalls, canyons, forests.....you get the idea.  Since it takes us at least a twelve hour drive to get anywhere with much of a different landscape or climate, we figured we would just do low-key, simple vacations where the attraction is the location.   Of course, someday, I hope we do get to do a Colonial American/ Washington D.C. trip and I would love for them to be able to travel overseas as well but for now, we will just enjoy seeing things that, up to this point, we have only read about!

We love Chinese!

One of the things we did while on vacation earlier this summer was to eat out at a Chinese Food place in San Antonio. The children loved trying out the chopsticks! We had a blast laughing at everyone's attempts at actually getting the food into the mouth! Benjamin finally started stabbing his-- smart kid!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Vacation

We had a wonderful vacation! We started out at "The Ranch"-- my Mom and Dad's place in Fredericksburg. Ryan and I took our three camping- had a campfire and roasted marshmallows, stargazed, got rained out-- you know, the whole bit! Then, we met up with Ryan's parents in San Antonio and stayed at a beautiful hotel on the Riverwalk and went to Sea World. Next, we met my parents at "The Lakehouse" in Canyon Lake for a week. We love it there! It is owned by some friends of ours who generously let us have it for a week every June. It is a 5 bedroom, 3 and 2-1/2 bath home right on the lake. It is a very comfortable way to enjoy time with my parents, three siblings, and their spouses and children (technically there is only one other child besides our three; so far.....) We had a wonderful time. Here is a list of some of the things my family loves to do together:

1. play games-- normal games like "You Might Be a Redneck if..." (did I say normal?), "Cranium" and "42" or "Spades" but also this great invented game we started about three years ago called "What (fill in the blank) Could Be Used For"-- this year my sister-in-law's long arms were the topic of conversation as we had a blast coming up with all the things her long arms could be used for-- rescuing babies from burning buildings, anchoring boats, painting her toenails without bending over, etc....... Thanks Dandy for being such a great sport!
2. sing
3. swim, canoe, tube-- anything in the water!
4. cook
5. EAT!!
6. the girls yak and the guys wrestle
7. do a "guys day" and a "girls day" (can anyone say pedicures and shopping?)

I will let the pictures tell the story:

Make a Smilebox photobook