San Antonio

The morning we left. They were excited. San Antonio here we come!!!!

This past week we went to New Braunfels(pretty close to San Antonio) for our family vacation. We had a great time. We used some of our vacation points to book this resort.

We went to church with Aunt Dinah and Uncle Steve on Sunday and then went back to SA on Tuesday to do the river walk/Alamo thing.

We stopped to eat.

We planned on going back to the resort to get ready for our date night, but time and traffic don't always work well together. So, we ran out of time and had to just go in the casual clothes we had been wearing all day. We took the kids to Aunt Dinah and the girls so Jason and I could go see the musical WICKED. I had a bottle pumped for David, but we were able to get it so we went to the store to purchase some formula and a bottle. I talked to Dinah during our date and she said that he would have nothing to do with the formula and just cried for about an hour until he just fell asleep from exhaustion of crying. I feel bad for David, but even more so for Dinah and the girls. We met my good friend Heather and her husband Ryan for dinner and went to the show together. Jason worded it like this(and I can't put it better), "It was a totally righteous show."

We got back really late and just hung around at the resort on Wednesday. You know, swimming and napping, but did enjoy some Chuckie Cheese's for dinner. Thursday we were ready to head out again to enjoy SEA WORLD.

We went to a bunch of great shows. I don't think we saw one we didn't like. While we were watching a 3D movie we found our good friends Carrie and Brad. I taught with Carrie in Mineral Wells and they live in Waco now. How random that we ran into them. It was great to see them and enjoy some of Sea World with them.

There was a spray park for the kids. This place was extremely family friendly. There was a unigender changing room. There was even a nursing room. How awesome is that!!! There were little roller coasters and water rides for the kids, and of course roller coasters for adults and an entire portion of the park is a water park with rides, wave pools, and a lazy river. This place has it all.
We went to the Shamu Believe show with Carrie and Brad. It was amazing. Truly, if you have an opportunity to go to Sea World, do it. You will be pleased.

We left New Braunfels just in time to make it back for me to help set up for our Branch Activity. I came home Saturday night late and hurting. I was too pooped to pop. It was a long, eventful, fun fun fun week. One of my favorite vacations so far.

Quick trip to Idaho

My Grandma, Jesse Gropp, died on June 1, 2009. We found out that evening and started driving the next morning to Boise. My Dad, Lynnae, Andrea, for kids ages 4 and under, and I all caravan up to Cortez, Colorado. Then after Lynnae and Dad got a little cat nap we(Dad, Lynnae, my kids and I) got in the van to drive the rest of the way. We met my in-laws in Burley Idaho to give them the girls for a couple of days. They(Lita, Papa, and the girls) were super excited to spend some time together. We pulled into Boise extremely tired and in need of a shower and a bed. When we didn't have accommodations prepared for us, Lynnae and I got a hotel room(in the same hotel that Jim and Candice were staying in) and went over for some refreshing. Lisa,my sort of cousin, met us and treated us to dinner---tons of thanks--- and Bryan, her new husband, is super fun. After dinner we headed over to the Funeral Home for the viewing. We then headed over to Les and Sherry's, my aunt and uncle, house to practice the song for the funeral. My cousins, Amanda, Lisa, Summer and I sang Consider the Lillies. The next day we went to the grave-side funeral( it got extremely hot, so Lynnae nipped things in the bud) and we all went to the Church for a delicious lunch. We visited and played. We stayed up late talking. Overall it was a pretty good, short trip. I only wish it had been for a different reason.

My next step was traveling to Blackfoot to visit with the Holloways for a couple of days. It stayed wet the entire time I was there, so we spent most of our time inside. It was good though, because I needed to rest a bit before making the huge trek back to Texas.

Early Sunday afternoon, my kids and I left Blackfoot, Idaho in pursuit of my Sister-in-law, Andrea. She was staying with her sister in Layton, Utah. I received the address earlier in the day so I could print off directions. We made pretty good time. However, when we pulled onto the street I realized that the numbers on the houses were not going to reach the number I was given. Without a cell phone with me I began to quickly come up with ideas of how to find the house. After driving around the neighborhood a bit I decided to stop at one of the houses to ask for help. The kind man I asked said, "It is alright, the roads here are screwy." I followed his directions only to find that they were not working either. I saw an older lady walking along the road(with a walker non-the-less) and asked her for help. She did not know either, but just passed a lady working in her yard. So I drove around the corner while this older lady with the walker walked and we asked the sweet even older lady in her yard. Neither one could help. But, the walker lady said,"If you aren't offended by the Mormons, church just let out and the building is not too far from here." Not being offended I drove over there to find the parking lot almost completely abandoned. I got all 3 kids out(David had leaked through his diaper really bad) and went in. I asked a middle aged couple clearly cleaning the building if they knew the streets around here and they said no so I found 2 men(probably in a Bishopric) and asked them. They both looked at the address I had written down and pointed in a direction telling me I needed to go 'that way'. I said, "Wow, that is really vague. I have never been to Layton and have no idea where to go." One of them said that he was about to leave and to wait for him and he would lead me over there in his car. As he was saying this it began to rain. I mean really rain. Like horizontal pounding of water. Then the hailing started. I was holding David and Jessica was whining for me(she had a fever and just wasn't feeling well), while Cailyn looked nervous. I decided that I was going to put the kids in the car one at a time and then the couple cleaning offered their help. They said, "Will she let us hold her(talking about Jess)?" I said, "Probably not, but he won't care." So, I handed David over to a complete stranger, picked up Jessica and held Cailyn's hand so we could run to the van. We had to wade through ankle deep ice water. Cailyn and I both had flip-flops on and our toes were frozen within the first step outside. We got the kids in the car, I turned on the heater and we followed the nice brother around(seemingly in circles) until he stopped in front of a house that had the right house number, but it was on the wrong street(or so I thought). I told him that it wasn't the right street number, and he replied, "I used to throw newspapers in this neighborhood and there is no such street here." I decided to go to the house and knock on the door. I felt relief as Andrea opened the door and with her sweet voice said, "You found me!" Earlier in the day, Andrea asked her sister for the address and was told to ask her children. They had a little miscommunication about the numbers and I was given the wrong street. All was good though. With the help from the Lord through service of those around me I was able to find it and we went on to my brother's house to eat with his beautiful wife, Candice.

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Today is Jessica's 2nd birthday. She has decided that she doesn't need naps anymore, but everyday I don't put her down for a nap she ends up passing out somewhere before bed time. Tonight she decided she wasn't hungry for dinner and just went to bed. Normally I would have just let her stay there, but today is her birthday and we had everything ready for her celebration. So I went in to get her; I guess she wasn't too happy about it. Oh well, she warmed up to it by the end of the evening.

This is actually how we got her to calm down. Daddy was holding her and told her to eat the cake. She kept leaning down to bite into it and then looking up at him and making sure she understood him correctly. She LOVED this; do I see a family tradition starting?).

Jessica has always been my emotional child. She has extremes and very little middle ground. Her smile and giggles are completely contagious. She expresses herself very well for a 2-year old. She adds new words everyday and is using the potty chair regularly(she prefers it over her diaper, however, she doesn't have complete control yet).

Some of her favorite things to do are:

dress up

dance

sing

read books

watch movies

jump on the bed

color

tickle

blow on faces

Here are a couple of pictures of Jess when she was about 6 months old.

Hair does wonders for her, don't you think?

Happy 2nd Birthday Jessica, We love you!!!!!