Christmas Vacation

On Christmas Day, Bryan's parents flew to San Antonio to spend their vacation with us. We were joined the next day by Bryan's brother Scott and his family from Utah. As they all arrived, Ella and I had a big day out - to lunch and to see The Nutcracker. It was a lot of fun to spend that day with Ella, and I love watching The Nutcracker with her. She had learned about it in her dance class, so knew more about it than I did! And she loved watching it. As you can see in the above picture, however, she was just plain tired out from all the fun over the past few days and she sacked out during the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance. It was quite sweet, actually. Little peanut. I can't wait until Ruby is a little older and we can ALL go together. On the 28th, the whole clan caravaned three hours south of here to Mustang Island, where we met Bryan's sister and her family. We had four fun days to spend all together, and it was a blast. My favorite part was watching the cousins play together. Ella and Mya would lock themselves in Ella's room in our condo with her new Karaoke set, and they would sing and dance and bounce all day long. With matching hairstyles (care of me!). Spencer and Tyler roped A.J. and Daniel into hours of Laser Tag (with Bryan and Scott joining in occasionally), and lots of wrestling and teasing the girls. Good cousin fun! Ruby (poor thing!) was sporting a major cold, but she did manage to have a good time with grandma and the girls. So, we went to the aquarium on our first day down there, since it was pouring rain outside. The kids had a great time looking at all the fish, sharks, and sea turtles. We saw a good dolphin show, the fish feeding time, and also a bird and critter show. Spencer was picked out of the audience to feed an anteater, which he thought was the coolest thing in the world.

The next day was a little rainy as well, so we decided to alter our original itinerary and go to the USS Lexington Aircraft carrier that day instead. It was really awesome to see! That thing was huge! Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the whole thing, or even a good group shot, because we were having Bryan's dad take all the good pictures with his really sweet new camera. I just need to find out how to get those pictures, now! But oh well. Here are a few pictures of the kids sitting in a cockpit. Always a good time.


Finally we got some sun!! The next day was gorgeous and we spent it at the beach. We took a quick trip to the store to get some groceries for our New Years Eve feast that night, and we just had to stop and let the kids run around inside this giant shark. They could have spent another hour there! But the beach was calling...


The beach is always a great time. We had a blast down there! Now I mentioned that it was a gorgeous day...but it was still December! So I was still wearing a jacket while watching my kids frolic around in their swimming suits, obviously not bothered by the temperature at all. They dug and ran and had a ball. The boys played some great beach football, then all the kids embarked upon the challenge of building a giant volcano of sand. It ended up being taller than Ruby! Spencer really wanted to be buried, so that I could draw some giant muscles on him, but he got awfully cold under all that sand. Ella made some sand angels, Tyler made all the kids a "bed" on the beach, and we stayed out there for hours and hours (until the giant mosquitoes drove us in). At one point before going in, Catherine and I challenged our husbands to run out into the ocean (remember us in our nice cozy jackets?). The boys joined in, and they all had a nice cold swim!

The resort we were staying at had a huge, really nice pool. Unfortunately it was freezing!! But thankfully there were several toasty hot tubs that we spent some good time in. It felt great! Of course, no hot tubbing would be complete without the challenge of getting into the COLD pool (Feats of Strength). At first no one was taking the bait. But then Bryan jumped in. And then Scott trumped him and swam to the other side. And then Spencer got in. And then Tyler put his whole body and head in. So, we had a bunch of crazy men and boys swimming in a very cold pool on New Years Eve.


And finally, after coming back home, we went to see The Lion King. WOW! It was amazing! We loved it. This was Ella's first musical, and she was mesmerized. So much so that she fell asleep during one of the most exciting parts! Little one. We wore her out with all that vacationing. The boys loved it also, and Bryan and I loved both the show and being there with the kids. It was such a wonderful Christmas break, and we enjoyed being able to spend it together.