Deep in the Heart of Texas: Part 1

July 20 marked two important occasions:  the 43rd anniversary of man landing on the moon, and my birthday.  I'm going to write extensively on the more important accomplishment:  my living to be 30 and my celebratory trip.

Sure, this is impressive, but it has nothing to do with me.

First, a tribute to the man who made it all possible, my wonderful husband Dan.  He thought I wanted an iPad for my birthday, but given the choice, I asked for a trip to visit my new nephew, and he obliged.  Not only was it an expensive plane ticket, he knew that I would have a better time celebrating this milestone with my family even if he couldn't be there. 

Artist's Rendering

It had been a year and a half since I'd seen my sister.  She'd gotten knocked-up AND had the baby, all without me being there.  It was very inconsiderate of her.  Good thing the kid is cute and at that perfect age where he's doing tricks and smiling, but he can't locomote yet, so there's no chance of losing him.

Grandma loves towel heads!

(Elizabeth, remind me to tell you about the time I babysat you at the same age while your poor father tried to work from home).

My mom, sister, nephews, and I took a 3-day trip to San Antonio. 

We went to the Natural Bridge Caverns.  It's a very accessible cave with many interesting formations.  That means it's very busy and you must go down with a tour guide instead of exploring by yourself.  My sister carried the baby all the way in the baby carrier;  I was very impressed.

Shaeleb, not so much.

Shaedon (who is eight), made the mistake of telling my mother she was too old to go zip-lining.  So we went zip-lining.

Who's too old?

Shaedon didn't believe that killer whales could do tricks like he saw on TV, so he was really excited to see Shamu.  As a theme park veteran, I know that it's a tactical error to go to the first or last Shamu show, so even though we had talked up Shamu and killer whales, I made the poor boy wait until 4:30pm to see Shamu.  He was sufficiently impressed, although I was not, because the trainers didn't get into the water with the whales at all.  Stay tuned for a further post on that.  Shaedon got to feed the dolphins and the sea lions; we were so proud of him, since he claimed to be scared of fish, but he picked up those slimy sardines and tossed them right into their mouths.

"Just give me the fish, kid!"

 
We only lost him one time, and that was our fault. Pro-tip:  don't just let the kiddies run right into the water playground unless you have someone prepared to go after him.

...and a good time was had by all.

On the mandatory trip to the Alamo (one of America's most important and boring landmarks), we also did a Mirror Maze and secret agent laser tunnel, both of which were a lot of fun.

Yup, there is is, now we can do something fun.

Like this.

We ate at a famous tourist trap Mexican restaurant, where we learned that Shaeleb's room should have been decorated in a Mexican Christmas theme instead of a monkey theme.

I couldn't take my eyes off the decor either.

On the way back, we stopped at Buc-ee's.  Buc-ee's is a truck stop like no other.  They have a mascot, a million kinds of snacks, 12 flavors of Icee, and trademark apparel.  I even saw a girl wearing a Buc-ee's t-shirt at a mall 100 miles away!  I hope that they build many many more of these amazing oases, so I can stop at them when I eventually have to resume getting to Houston on the most boring section of Interstate 10 rather than on an international airline which will bring me all the vodka tonics my little heart's (and little bladder's) desire.

Well, this is getting a little long, so here I will break it off.  What did Sabrina do on her actual birthday?  Did she get the pony she's always asking for??  What kind of cake did she have???

Find out next time, readers.  Same Bat-time, Same Bat-Channel.