Our July 4th Vacation

We went to Austin to spend the holiday with my sister and her husband. Of course, it rained the entire time. We had to change all our original plans due to the weather. We went to this cave in San Marcos. I love caves. There is something so awe inspiring about being under the earth. This particular cave was formed by an earthquake. You can actually see the two plates and and where the gulf coast plate slid under the hill country plate. Very cool. The boys had an okay time. We went with Rissa, Kevin, and Landan. One of the three boys was fussing at any given time and I have to admit, by the end of the tour I wondered why we thought having children was a good idea in the first place. Then I looked into their sweet little eyes and remembered all the loves and kisses and joy they bring into my life. Of course, at this point one of the angels would hit another one and the cycle started over again.
After diving into the earth 160 feet we went 160 feet up in the air to the top of an observation tower. We tried to pose the kids and have them all looking at us for a cute picture, but trying to get 3 small boys to all look and smile at the same time is akin to trying to stuff my I-have-had-two-babies body back into my pre- wedding jeans- it just ain't gonna happen.

Next on this little adventure was a train ride through a waterfall and deer petting zoo. We could have bought the boys some deer food, but we chose not to for three reasons: 1) They didn't deserve it after the fifth meltdown each, 2) I felt guilty that I was harboring a secret desire that one of the deer might accidentally get carried away eating out of the kids' hands and carry them off to magic train land or something for a few hours, and 3) deer slobber is nasty. The little zoo was fun. The boys got to touch a few of the deer but were able to keep slobber free. They also had peacocks with all their feathers out. Nathan really lite up when he saw those birds.

Now the real story surrounding the train. Kevin and Ken wanted the train to go through the waterfall without the little machine parting the water so the passengers stayed dry. We sat in the last car and the conductor person said he would try and shut the water-parting machine down early so our car could go through the water. The first time we went past the fall the bench I was sitting on got a little wet and the other bench stayed dry. The second time I told Kevin to move to my seat because he and Ken wanted to get wet, not me. So I moved to the dry seat with Nathan and Marissa. Look at what happened.
Please make a note of who is wet and who is not...mean boys.

After the cave place we went to see Kevin and Rissa's being built house. Due to it still raining, we took everyone to a movie. The men folk went to see Transformers, while us woman folk took the rugrats to see Ratitoulle. It was a cute movie. Of course we sat on the complete opposite side of the exit and Nathan pooped twice and Kenny had to go once as well. But they had a good time. After the movie, we sat out on the sidewalk and watched some fireworks displays because the dad's movie got out an hour later than our did. Nathan loved the fireworks. He would squeal with glee every time and say "That preddy!" Kenny was mesmerized by the cars driving by and Landon was into the grass.


Overall we had a great time and loved spending time with family. Hope you all had a happy, and not quite so wet, Fourth of July!