Sea World 2011

Fabulous trip to San Antonio this weekend to visit my high school besties and take the kids to Sea World.

Day #1 - We decided that it was Water park day today. The kids had never been down a water slide and it took some convincing but once they tried it they loved it! We also spent a lot of time in the wave pool. For lunch we took in the show at the cafeteria and then dried off for some animal fun. We took in the beluga whale show, the Shamu One Ocean show, the Codfish Cafe show and then hit up the roller coaster and merry go round before calling it a night.





Day #2 - Sea World Day - Lots of fun at Sea World today but our favourite activity by far was feeding the dolphins!




High School Best Friends reunite - Amy, Becky, and I were best friends in high school (Go Dragons!) We got together and chatted about high school and various other random things until around 2am. We are in frequent contact but it's great that we are close enough to be able to actually see each other frequently!








Now these pictures are hilarious! Amy found an old picture of when we were dating our husbands :) The picture on the left is from 1998 or 1999 and we took the picture on the right this past weekend - July 2011. LOVE IT!!

Little Man and his first pair of glasses

I scheduled the kids for eye check ups this morning before we all get back into school. Little Miss and I checked out pretty good (although apparently glasses are in our future). When Little Man had his exam they told me that he's nearsighted and astigmatic and definitely needs glasses. Yikes! I was definitely not ready for that. They fitted him for frames (he picked out these blue frames and loves them) and made the lenses in house. We picked them up this afternoon.

Here he is in his new fabulous blue glasses - he looks so handsome and I'm so proud of him for wearing them all day today :)

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 4

Happy Birthday America!

What a great day :) Kids played (loudly) this morning while Ryan and I slept in. We went to the La Garita for pancakes with the family and then it was time for showers for all and curlers for my hair! Then I went to Ronnie and Barbara's cabin to do some online quizzes for my computer class while Ryan and the kids fished the ponds.
Little Miss caught a fish all by herself and Little Man caught a couple with dad's help and they skipped rocks and saw a red-tailed hawk and a golden eagle which they said was really cool!
Then we all went back to our cabin and took a good long nap.
We all left for the Lake City Fourth of July Celebration around 4:30pm. We stopped and watched a moose and her baby for a bit on the way. Once we got to town we did a bit of shopping and then found ourselves a nice place on the grass in the town square.
It was (as always) a great small town America 4th of July celebration - street band, street dancing, lawn chairs in the town square, kids playing at the park, glow sticks, blankets on the ground, and a fantastic fireworks display that boomed super loudly in the valley and lit up the surrounding mountainside. I LOVE coming here for the 4th!
Fireworks started around 9:15pm and ended around an hour later - best fireworks in Lake City yet! There was a LONG stream of cars and trucks leaving town to go back to their various mountain cabins.
What a great evening!

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 3

Fun and Relaxing Day

* Breakfast at the La Garita with the family
* Fun colouring sets from Meme for the kids
* Kids fished at the ponds with Ryan while I read my book back at the cabin - They caught a total of 7 rainbow trout - Little Miss caught 4 & Little Man caught 3.
* Naptime for all
* Little Man fished the streams with Ryan and caught 2 brown trout for the fish fry - Little Man was so excited to catch some fish for the fish fry and to gut his fish for the first time!
* Lara and Ryan came in today - Lara in her car and Ryan riding in on his Harley
* Lara and I cooked dinner - chicken, potatoes au gratin, broccoli and cherry cheesecake for dessert

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 2

Kids were up at 6:30am bouncing on the beds and chatting with each other. After a couple of attempts to get them to go back to sleep, Ryan and I decided that we'd have to get up. We got ready, had breakfast at the hotel and then went down to the City Market for our groceries.
After filling our cart with the necessities along with a couple of wind catchers, we ate lunch and headed up the mountain.
This year we decided that our family is just too big now to share one room in the big cabin so Ryan, the kids, and I stayed in the Alabama. We loaded all of our stuff into the cabin and then mom and dad and Bill and Rita showed up an hour later so we headed next door to the La Garita to help them unload.
The kids had fun using their binoculars and playing Old Maid and dressing the paper doll horses that Little Miss brought. Dinner was yummy flank steak and potatoes. After dinner we headed back to the Alabama for some much needed sleep.

Oleo Ranch 2011 - Day 1

Day 1 - Driving to Colorado

We left DFW around 10 am with the car topper (with the broken string) loaded and the obligatory family photo snapped by a neighbor. If we don't have it - we don't need it - although we did forget our Scrabble and Quiddler games at home!
My friend, Nicole, called me about 5 hours into the trip and told me that the Nursing School exam results were posted - lowest score accepted was a 74 - so with an 87 - I am officially accepted to nursing school (Nicole is in too!)!
The hills going over Raton pass were scorched from the recent wildfires and the sunset outside of Trinidad was beautiful - there were numerous mammatus clouds (my favourite kind) hanging around from the recent thunderstorms and the light through the clouds and around the mountains was spectacular this year.
We stayed the night in Alamosa (got in around 11:30pm). Both kids were asleep when we got there but Little Man woke up when we took him out of the car and was so excited to be there that it took a little while to get him back to sleep :)