Vacation!

Finally, we went on a family vacation and headed south to visit my sister over fall break! We had a very busy trip which started with the camera breaking. Therefore, I have no pictures to post, but did buy a disposable. However, I don't know how to get those pictures on this blog :( Bad news looks like I will need a new camera. Good news looks like I will be getting a new camera. Bad news again..I'll have to pay for it!

Our adventure started out with a night stay in Houston where we had a quick visit with Amy, Iris, and Ricky. We were so tired we had pizza in the hotel room. We enjoyed the Houston Children's museum the following day. It was awesome! Then later that afternoon headed to Galveston. After finding our hotel we headed to the beach! This was the first ocean experience for the Brook kids and they loved it! We had a nature lesson on sea shells and the little muscles that live inside. A few came out and attempted to bury themselves into our hands. This day was my favorite because I love the ocean! We all layed on the beach digging for shells and swam in the salty water. Both kids dove right in head included! Of course, I brought along Jake's earplugs but no life jacket. However, Jasson and I stayed in the water with them the entire time and "rode" the waves on the boogie board we just had to buy. That evening we went on the ferry to nowhere. The purpose was really just to give the kids the experience. We saw many dolphins and the seagulls came surprisingly close to us too. That night our quest for the perfect seafood ended in disappointment. We let Jacob order lobster and fish. He loved the fish, but lobster served boiled? was a no go. The food was barely warm and took for-ever! I think I had less patience then Addison and Jacob! Ugh I hate to wait.

The next day after a bit of beach combing we headed to San Antonio! By the time we arrived we were all so tired the kids just swam in the pool. We took advantage of the hotel's free finger food dinner and popcorn. Amy's family met with us and later that night we had dessert in the restaurant in the parking lot of the hotel.

The big day finally arrived. Today we would conquer SEAWORLD! The purpose of this crazy drive all over the place trip (well to see Amy, Iris, and Ricky too of course). Wow what didn't we do at Seaworld? We stayed about six and half hours I know! We saw the Baluga/Parrot show, Shamu show, and the sea lion show. We touched and fed the dolphins. We played/lost/won about $50 worth of boardwalk games. But hey it's vacation and who could resist the cute prizes? Besides spending $50 bucks to win them is waaay more fun then spending $20 to buy them at the local Disney store right? Oh, I forgot about the penguins and the alligators we saw too! The kids rode a mini rollercoaster and played on the playground. Our favorite was the Shamu show of course. Addison was so excited to see the giant whale leap into the air Jasson thought she just might cry! Jacob spouted out the facts of whales to me during show. Both were in awe as were Jasson and I. It was neat to be able to show the kids dolphins in the wild, dolphins in captivity and then have the opportunity to feed and touch them! So exciting! After a few more purchases we were all pretty worn out! And yes, we did wear matching shirts. If anyone were to get lost it would be easy to spot us because the four of us looked alike. Who have I become....a minivan and now this??? We had to the Riverwalk for dinner. Probably not the best idea since everyone was tired and hungry, but when you only have a few days you have to cram as much into it as possible. After a tasty, but uneventful dinner it was time for bed!

Sunday sent us packing! Packing for a long drive home. We said our good-byes and pleaded once again for Amy to move to Oklahoma. It's just not right for a sister to have a baby and then live so far away. Who does that, right? Anyway, it didn't work so off to Oklahoma we headed. Do you remember I said long drive? Well how about super long. That's right I listened to a man though my paper map, my phone GPS, and my memory said "GO STRAIGHT" my man said "GO LEFT" so left we went. Left took us to a very dark curvy hilly road about an hour out of our way. So our leasurely drive home (we stopped to shop at all those wonderful outlet malls), became the nightmare drive home. There are perks to having a dad that has been to like every cemetary in OK. GPS didn't know where we were. We didn't know where we were on the paper map, but dad was able to guide us back to a civilized road and finally at 9:50pm and almost 13 hours after our journey began we were HOME!

Best Vacation Ever!