Halloween

It's hard to tell what this is, but it's the house in our neighborhood that goes even crazier than us when decorating for Halloween. They had three Frankensteins, mummies, gravestones and all sorts of scary.

We decided that Gabriel should have two costumes this year. His school frowns upon scary costumes because of the smaller kids, and I just wasn't sure about his Frankenstein. So we dug into the dress up box, borrowed from Mommy's closet and bought a couple of things for this clown outfit. Oh, and used lots of hair gel!

In the parking lot after Boo at the (FW) Zoo with our neighborhood Moms group. Which we will never be going to again. What a gigantic rip off. Lines to get in, even for members, and then paying an extra $3 apiece to get into the Boo area. Only to stand in more lines to do ANYTHING. All games, candy handouts, crafts, etc... Line after line after line. We stood in one for Gabriel to play a game and Mommy made an Executive Decision to head out of there and back to the animals. And started having much more fun!

I did Gabriel's, oops I mean Frankenstein's, face. I'm pretty proud of it since I have no face-painting experience other than Halloweens of yore. Joel tolerated his costume only because it was Elmo. It was really too warm to keep that thing on for very long.

This picture cracks me up since you can't see Joel and it really looks like Elmo is glancing into Frankie's candy sack.

Can you tell my mother-in-law never really grew up?

Gabriel loves Halloweens so much that even after it's over he tries to tell us stories about haunted houses or pretend visits to the Scary Guy store for weeks afterwards.

Joel is 2!

Loves to give hugs from behind. Plays with my hair constantly. Dances and sings ALL THE TIME. Reads books like a mad man. Asks for his brother as soon as he wakes up in the morning. Jumps, with both feet off the ground, for an entire song on Barney. Has more energy than a nuclear power plant. Smiles as big as Dallas when his Daddy comes home from work. Is fearless and wreckless which is making me age faster than I should be. Climbs anything. Has a full, deep voice that is lower than his brother's. Squeals at an ear-splitting level just to make me mad. In the grocery store. Talks in full sentences, some of which we understand. Knows how to work the cuteness when he wants something - already. Will knock me over with a full body shot when playing tickle on the floor. Has a temper that scares us more than his brother's, but we don't see it as often. Would rather be outside. All the time. Totally rocked my world two years ago today, and I've loved every second I've spent with him.

Time to start our Christmas music this year with a little rendition of "Walking in a Winter Wonderland". Happy Birthday Jo Jo.

My 5-year-old boy

Gabriel turned 5 in September. This is the only picture I have from his actual birthday day. We decided to wait until after our beach trip to have his party, so we tried to make this day special. He got one present and the CD I made for him (Gabriel's rockin' CD, of course) before we left for school. I hoped that one day I would introduce Gabriel to Green Day, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin and the like, but I never imagined it would be as early as five! They had his party at school. After school at his Tita and Tito's house, Tita had made him cupcakes and we sang Happy Birthday to him. We stopped at my mom and dad's on the way to soccer practice and they gave him a card and birthday hugs. When the coaches found out it was his birthday, the entire team sang Happy Birthday to him. We left soccer practice early to go eat dinner at Campo Verde, here the food is mediocre at best, but the two trains running constantly around the entire, festive restaurant are a huge draw. He had a great birthday!

We didn't have his party until mid-October, which was really weird. But we had beautiful weather for our Scooby-Doo Bouncy House Extravaganza!

I took advantage of our Halloween decorations already being up and just added a few Scooby Doo things to fit the theme.

The monstrosity in our backyard. I was just praying that they didn't say we had too many trees and needed to put it in the front yard.

Cade and Gabriel bouncing away.

One of Gabriel's new friends, Aidan, who attends our church, was determined to get in on this wagon ride!

Aha, I see your plan, Mommy. Tools to help you cook disguised as a birthday present. I'm on to you!

A happy boy, not just because of the Shaun the Sheep DVD. The party was really fun. I even had time to mingle and play some ping pong, and really enjoyed myself. I can't believe it's been five years since this sweet boy was born. He is so sweet and thoughtful, very caring of his little brother, smart as a whip (starting to read Level 1 readers pretty well), and has a terrific sense of humor. I love him so, so much.

San Antonio

One thing I forgot to write in my Padre post: When Gabriel had just turned one, we took him to Padre for the first time. Halfway through that trip he started walking on his own. This trip, Joel's constant stream of baby babble started turning into actual words. So one kid walking and one kid talking makes for some pretty powerful memories of a place! Joel woke us up the morning we headed to San Antonio with a loud, "APPLE!".

I have to brag about how well these boys did in the car on our trip. We brought Gabriel's practice drum so he could play in the car. He made up countless songs, music and lyrics, from that back seat. All of them Rockin, of course! Joel is so well trained that when he started to get sleepy, he would just quietly hum to himself until he fell asleep. You just can't ask for better kids than that.

Gabriel begged us to stop at the crazy, quirky, giant souvenir place on the highway back to reality. He didn't want to go in, just see the King Kong up close. I love the picture below. The sky is beautiful and it looks like a real dinosaur.

The trip was exhausting. We could see our hotel in San Antonio but couldn't get to it (what is with that crazy highway system?) Went to Chili's for dinner, Target for diapers and then tumbled into bed.

We got up to head to Sea World in the morning. I was surprised at the size of the crowd at that time of year until I realized they were doing their Halloween thing.

Here's Gabriel feeding a seal lion, which is in the picture before this one. We saw the silly show with the otter and the walrus, then made our way over to the Killer Whales.

They take my breath away.

Penguins! Joel had fallen asleep and was getting really banged up in his stroller, so Jav carried him for awhile. I thought it was so cute that when we got to the Penguin house, he sat in a cool (albeit fishy-smelling) corner with his baby asleep on his shoulder, just like a daddy penguin would have.

One complaint I have about Sea World (besides the ridiculous prices for everything) is the food selection is awful. How can a place like that not have anyplace that sells quesadillas or grilled cheese sandwiches? (The only two foods Joel will eat out). We decided to leave to find someplace we could all eat, even though we could have stayed much longer. We detoured through the Sesame Street amusement park on the way out. Jav took Gabriel on his first roller coaster trip. And Joel and I stood in a long line to ride the Elmo merry-go-round. He was sweaty, cranky, and hungry, but still managed to shout out "Melmo!" everytime he saw him.

Two boys who have had enough of Sea World!

That night we went for an early swim before dinner in the hotel swimming pool. It wasn't heated and was REALLY cold. I told Jav that Joel would probably scream bloody murder if we put him in that water. He proceeded to make a liar out of me and splashed and swam around for about 45 minutes. I guess Sea World inspired him to swim like a fish. Gabriel and I had to get out because our teeth wouldn't stop chattering. Wimps!

That night was a big Ranger game, so we ordered pizza to the room and had a pizza picnic on the floor. It was a great ending to our fantastic, memory-making trip.

Now, I have to try to get caught up on everything else that's happened in October and November.

South Padre

Aaaaaaahhhhhh. The beach. Well, at first it wasn't so relaxing. I don't know if everyone is this way, but it takes me at least a day to get used to the hot, sticky, sandy, salty mess that is the beach. And then I embrace it and love it again. Joel didn't like it one bit until the last day when it was finally cooler and cloudier. Gabriel loved it from the moment we stepped off the walkway into the sand. He loved riding the waves on the Boogie Board.

That last cloudy day was so much more fun. We each took a kid and walked way out on the sandbar to wave jump. The waves were bigger that far out, and Gabriel got a little scared. Then Gabriel and I made a volcano in front of our sand castle while Joel and Jav played soccer behind us.

We always had so much to carry that I would send them on ahead to look for a good spot while I finished packing everything up and would go down 10 minutes later. My first moment of the trip that I will hopefully always remember is walking down the beach boardwalk to find my three men, and seeing their silhouettes with the ocean behind them. And then Joel would spot me and run as fast as those little chubby legs could carry him to meet me. Love those boys more than I can put into words.

We finally learned that the easiest way to REALLY get all the sand off of us before we went back to the condo was to take a detour in the pool. It was really refreshing.

We would have lunch and then nap time for everyone. Except that we had the rotten luck of having workmen putting a new floor in the condo above ours. I can't describe the noise level. They were using a jackhammer, for gosh sakes! They would start working at 10 and finish up around 4. The first day nap time was a disaster. The only thing that made me feel better was that Jav took the boys to run some errands and I got to sit BY MYSELF and READ A BOOK. This never happens at home. I luckily had a great book club book, "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand." I couldn't put it down. The second two days we came up with a better nap strategy. We turned on the fan for the A/C, the bathroom vent fan, and ran a humidifier that we found in our storage closet that we had left last year. It worked! Successful naps in the cave.

After nap we would regroup and head down to the pool. We were thrilled for the boys to get to practice their swimming. I'm feel so proud/lucky that neither of them have ever been afraid to get their heads wet or put their ears under the water. Joel finally conquered his bad habit of opening his mouth every time I tried to put him underwater. Progress! I did so much swimming I was afraid I'd be sore the next day. But nope, nothing. Gotta love that stress free workout for your muscles! Then we would get a movie started while we got cleaned up to keep the boys occupied. We'd have dinner, then go back to the beach. This was my favorite part of the day. One day we built a gigantic sand castle, and Gabriel kept running to fill up the bucket to get water in the moat (pictured below). It never held any water, it just sank back down every time. What is the trick to that? The next night we took a flashlight and looked for crabs, at least for the 2o minutes we had before the flashlight batteries died.

Then we'd go back to the condo and watch the rest of the movie we started before dinner while we ate ice cream. Man, do I ever love vacations. That first night was the first time we had ever watched a movie together (Monsters Inc.), all of us, from start to finish. These days were so fun, but every night Gabriel would get a little home sick for his bed.

Snacks on the beach. Yum!

After having a thunderstorms on and off during our last afternoon, we decided not to do the pool and instead decided to treat ourselves to dinner out (as long as beer was served, we figured we could get through a restaurant meal with Joel). We headed to a typical souvenir shop on the island for t-shirts and one toy for each boy. Then onto Port Isabel, a funky beach town that I just love even better than Padre, to have dinner at the Pirate's Landing. Jav and his family always used to eat there on their vacations because it was one of his mom's favorite places to go. An example of Port Isabel's funkiness is that they had alternating decorations on each major corner of the main drag, going from El Dia de Los Muertos (skeletons riding bicicles), and traditional Halloween decorations. Very cool. Wish I would have thought to take a picture.

How good can you get? The bay, the bridge, and a salty dog pirate all in the same shot.

Joel cracked us up by starting his 2-year-old version of sparkling dinner conversation with a little girl sitting at the table behind us. He just talked and talked and talked to her! She was around 5 or 6, and loved it. Both boys were pretty well behaved and the food was good. How can you go wrong with a place that serves french fries for the kids in a paper pirate ship?

We walked next door to a funky ice cream shop that was run by the coolest girl, someone you would only meet in a funky beach town. I wanted to stay and talk to her for awhile, she was so charming. We told her that we were remembering the last time Jav and I ate at Pirate's Landing a freak cold front had blown in that day and even though the temperature was still in the 60's, the wind chill was like 30-something. She agreed that the wind off the water could be bone chilling cold. She also told me that almost all Europeans, Mexican nationals, and South Americans ordered pistachio-almond ice cream (my favorite that I had ordered). How cosmopolitan of me!

We then took our ice cream and walked over to the Port Isabel lighthouse. Here is some history. G & J loved running up and down the huge hill that it sits on. My second lovely moment that will be burned in my brain forever was to see them as the sun was going down behind them. We just had to take some pictures.

Aye Matey! Cap'n Gabriel is after ye!

When we got back to the condo, it was too late to make one more evening trip to the beach. We were all a little sad about it. We have definitely made some wonderfully happy memories in this condo. It's very bittersweet to see it go.

Next, on to San Antonio!

Road Trip Day Two - Fredericksburg to S. Padre

We left Fredericksburg by 6, so there weren't very many people driving in town. Gabriel shouted out at one point, "They are all going to work, and we are going to the beach!" Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

We had hoped the boys would fall back to sleep in the car, but they were just really grumpy. It was such a relief for all of us to reach San Antonio and go to breakfast at Taco Cabana. We sat on the patio and just let the boys run in the completely fenced off area while we enjoyed our breakfast tacos. It was at that stop that I realized that THIS is the way to travel on a long trip with kids. Just make sure they have some time to run around every two hours or so and they'll stay happy in the car.

One of the things I always look forward to on road trips is stopping for Chai at Starbucks. I don't usually treat myself at home because of time and expense. After breakfast Jav was sure we'd still see that beacon of a green and white sign while driving on the outskirts of San Antonio. After the houses started getting farther and farther apart, I gave him my Kevin face to let him know that I was worried he had been wrong. (Kevin, Steve Martin's oldest child in Parenthood, has anxiety issues and has this tormented look that he gets when his anxiousness reaches a peak level.) Finally we are driving through farmland again (thankfully, green farmland, making us think they had more rain between San Antonio and Corpus). But no Starbucks. Then through the outskirts of Corpus, where there are some really busy, fast food restaurant-filled exits, where Jav was certain there was a Starbucks. Nope. That was when my dream of Chai died.

We stopped at McDonald's for lunch, and they had a really cool play area with these giant instruments:

We hung out for an hour and a half. Plenty of stretch-your-legs time.

It was between Corpus and Harlingen that Jav saw a huge orange and white bird fly right over the car. We determined later that it was a falcon. After the turn-off for Padre the trip really starts to liven up again. Jav and I had our annual argument over how long that stretch of the trip is. I thought it was around two hours, but he claimed it was only 45 minutes or so. He was right. (Man, does it seem longer!!!!) Gabriel loved going past the giant souvenir shop with the life-sized dinosaurs out front. The owners have now added a giant King Kong in the back. Somewhere on this stretch Joel, having exhausted all of his toys and patience, just yelled out his scariest roar sound out of pure boredom. The rest of us almost came out of the car!

Gabriel also surprised us by asking if "everyone else" would be there when we got to our room at the beach. We asked what he meant, and realized why he was confused. We had told him that we weren't going to have his big birthday party the weekend after his actual birthday because we were going to the beach instead. He thought that everyone we were inviting to the party was now joining us at the beach! He didn't seem too disappointed, though, when we told him it was just going to be the four of us. When we started across the giant bridge to the island, a pelican flew out of nowhere and we ended up following him all the way across the bridge. It was as if he was welcoming us back!

After we unpacked the car, we headed to the grocery store to stock up for the week. After all that shopping we were hungry so we brought dinner back, ate, and then headed out to the beach. The temps for the first four days of our trip hovered around the upper 90's (ugh) still. So after dinner was a perfect time to go. Gabriel was so very excited to say hello to the ocean again. Joel wasn't sure. He would get really nervous and shake all over every time he could feel the undertow tugging him back out to sea.

We went back to the room and everyone slept really well. Even though I get nervous about it, I usually end up loving all of us sleeping in the same room. It's just so cozy and safe-feeling.

Road Trip Day 1 - Fredericksburg

We left Saturday morning by 7. I had wanted to leave by 5, but my body just wouldn't let that happen. We weren't but 8 blocks or so away from the house when Gabriel shouted out, "This is a fun trip, isn't it?" So funny. We stopped for our only big breakfast of the trip twenty minutes from home in Burleson to eat at Denny's. The kids don't really eat breakfast other than yogurt, waffles, bananas and dry cereal, and were bored before we even got our food. We realized that it wasn't worth the stress of trying to entertain them while we waited, but at least it tasted good for the five minutes that we were inhaling our food! When leaving, Jav took Gabriel to the bathroom and when they pushed the lever to flush, water started spraying all over Gabriel. He was literally soaked when Jav brought him back to the car. I know when I want to stay fresh and clean, a Denny's toilet shower is just the thing. So icky. We changed his clothes, washed his hands, and were on our way. What're you gonna do? It's a road trip!

We slowly made our way south, stopping to let Joel run (literally RUN) at certain gas station/convenience store stops that had big parking lots. One in Meridian has a particularly pretty field with a view and an almost vacant lot next to it. Perfect for standing far apart and letting Joel and Gabriel take turns running to us. They finally both fell asleep twenty minutes from our destination, of course.

A sideways shot of what I looked like most of the trip. I drove a little on the way home. More about that later. The thing I was dreading about this trip was having to see my beautiful state of Texas after falling victim to a drought for the last year. I tried to prepare myself, but it's just so awful actually seeing it compared to imagining. The Hill Country is supposed to be the hardest hit area other than West Texas. We saw no water in creeks, streams or tanks. Nothing. The Brazos was so far down I think you could have waded across at some points. The vultures appeared to be thriving, however.

And here is the reason for our sideways detour to Fredericksburg, minus a few people. This is my Uncle Robert and Aunt Lou. He is the last surviving sibling of my grandmother. We spent many fun summer trips to Fredericksburg staying with them, in the same house they are in today. He turned 90 this year, she is 88. They are both in excellent mental shape. Uncle Robert has some pretty severe physical things going on, especially affecting his circulation in his legs. He can barely get around, which just kills me to see because he was always so active. He played in amateur tennis leagues up into his 70's. He has a somewhat strong hint of a German accent, which I love to hear. She bakes, and is the one who made the homemade brown bread that I've written about before. They are such sweet, sweet people and I want to take every chance I can to visit them.

I'm so glad my boys have met them and heard my stories. Gabriel will remember them. I'm not sure about Joel. One neat thing that happened was that Jav had to take them in the backyard for a little while because Joel was going crazy. When they came back in Gabriel had counted the cement stepping stones, and I told him that was one of my favorite things to do as a kid. My cousin Laurie (their oldest daughter) visited for a short time also.

This picture means SO much to me. It's the oldest member of my family with the youngest. I get really sad sometimes that my grandparents never got to meet my boys, and vice versa. This is the next best thing.

Jo Jo and Daddy. The boys loved motel life. Eating in the same room we slept in, two TV's and one of them almost always on. Heaven! One of the strangest memories I'll have of that first day was just before going out for dinner we happened to catch Bye, Bye Birdie about halfway through on one of the movie channels. We'd never seen it, but were curious about it because of Ann-Margaret's song from I guess the beginning of the movie. It figured heavily in one of the Mad Men episodes, so we sat down to watch a little of it. Excuse me, kids, but What The Hell? Is it supposed to be funny? Does anyone from the town realized that their Idol can't really sing? We just didn't get it. Dick Van Dyke was slightly entertaining, but that was it!

We decided to drive by the Herb Farm where we got married, even though it was closed to visitors other than Bed and Breakfast customers. I wish we hadn't decided to do that. I was devastated to see what the new owners have done to the place. The entire wildflower field that used to have the big windmill in the middle is gone. The space where we had our ceremony is gone. The only garden with herbs growing in it left is the one by the storefront next to the parking lot. Every inch of space is covered with a tiny bungalow type bed and breakfast. The windmill sits in the center of all the buildings. So wrong. The bungalows are so close together you don't have any privacy.

When Gabriel was 6 months old or so, we took him there and took pictures of each of us holding him at our favorite spots, and had hoped to do the same with Joel. We had even entertained the idea of hiring our photographer, who lives in Fredericksburg, to take some pics of all of us there. Now we never will get to do any of those things, and that thought made me start bawling in the car. Sometimes I hate change, especially when the changes RUIN someplace that really had a special spark.

And that ends Day One. Tired. Bed. Sleep.

Road trip blues

A couple of months ago I began suffering from Road Trip Blues. We did not have an opportunity to go on vacation all summer, and the day-in, day-out routine was wearing me down day by day. I got a craving for traveling somewhere, anywhere. I didn't care where we went, as long as we were moving farther and farther away from that humdrum routine.

I started daydreaming about road trips taken as a kid with my family, and all the little things that made them memorable.

Big breakfasts. I used to be a big breakfast every day kind of girl, but middle age metabolism and healthier habits have reduced my breakfasts. But on vacation, I want to eat at least one HUGE breakfast. Eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuits. Don't care how many calories or what the fat content is. Bring it on.

To continue the breakfast theme, my grandparents would always stop at a diner in Hamilton, TX (which is about halfway to Fredericksburg), to have coffee for them and cokes for us. We would also all split a gigantic cinnamon roll, which I remember being the best thing I'd ever eaten. Sadly, the place isn't there anymore.

Two more places that we used to stop with my parents don't exist anymore either: Stuckey's and Nickerson Farms. One had a red roof and one a blue. We would sometimes stop for lunch, or sometimes just to explore all the chotchkies on sale next to the restaurant. Matching sheep salt and pepper shakers, tons of items with chickens on them, those fascinating things that Moo when you turn them upside down, crossword puzzle and coloring books. My brother and I had our favorite items: the quiz books that came with a magic pen that uncovered the answer when you swooped it across the page. Those books would keep us occupied all the way to Colorado.

Later on, as a solo adult traveler, I became enchanted with road trip mix tapes, cheesy local radio stations, and fountain diet cokes (they taste better while on the road, I swear). And these days, as a passenger with kid/s in the backseat, I love sleeping in the car (sleeping ANYWHERE) and reading more than three pages of a book at one time.

All of these things were flying around my head, but I didn't think anything would come of my daydreaming. But then, Jav told me we may have sold the condo, and a contract was pending, and we started talking dates and could we do it? We didn't have a for-sure close date, and were hesitant about planning a trip when we didn't know the sale would go through. But then Jav started talking "Sea World" on the way home, and he had me. I was going to get my road trip after all! More to come.