The THIRD Week of Summer

Third Week of Summer!!!!

(June 10th-16th)

The third week of summer was a BIG one for us!  Grandma Texas (or Ba-Ba as Ian calls her) joined us for a week-long adventure! We traveled down to New Braunfels for our first "official" press trip for R We There Yet Mom! Woo-HOO!!!

We made a quick stop at Cabela's on the way down.  This happens to be Matt's favorite store....... So we needed to check it out.  We honestly had the best time - they have this aquarium with HUGE fish that Bubba loved.

And throughout the store are tons of animals - yep, their stuffed - to look at in various settings.  OUr favorite was the Texas animals - they had all these unusual deer with crazy antlers.  We spent quite a bit of time there - more than I thought we would.
I really wanted an air soft gun but mom said no.

Day 1 of our NB Adventure was at Natural Bridge Wildlife Park. SO MUCH FUN y'all.  It's a drive through Safari - animals come right up to your car to be fed. I hadn't done this in years and the kids had never done it, so we had a blast.

The Zebras were hysterical - first you come across this sign that says, "WARNING - Zebras Bite!" so you are a little bit nervous when they come right up to your car window and do this!!  This guy licked my steering wheel, chewed on my rearview mirror and looked at me as if to say "lady, feed me!!" We laughed so hard - and tended to get a bit braver after that. My mom attempted to pet an ostrich who turned and hissed at her.  She may have shouted an expletive and told me to floor it after that.....
The zebras were so funny!
One of the animals stuck his whole head in mom's car.  I fed one food and he had the slimiest tongue.

After our adventures there, had a wonderful tour of the Natural Bridge Caverns.  These are my favorite caverns in Texas - there are so many beautiful structures to see. You go 180 feet below the surface and then climb back up.  Last time we visited I was pregnant with Bubba.  This time, I got to carry him back out again - all 31 pounds of him.  Whew.
I went on a zip line - it was the first one I ever did.

The first time we went, we didn't get to see the formation that looked like a jellyfish.

Mom made us take this picture too many times.

Day two in NB was a day at Schlitterbahn - LOVE this place - this is the second time this summer in 2 weeks that we went.  I hesitated taking the kids for the past few years b/c of Bubba - I figure there was nothing for him to do there - I was so wrong!  Schlitterbahn has 4 different parks that you can go in & out of - each one had something for the big kids that they loved and something for Bubba that he loved.
My favorite part was the torrent wave pool- the waves were gigantic - you could go over & over & over.
My favorite part was when I beat my Mom and Grandma Texas on the Falls.

It was a pretty full day........

Day three started at Naegelin's Bakery - New Braunfels is an old Texas German town filled with wonderful restaurants and bakeries - like this one - yummy donuts & kolaches!
The donuts were good.

We then headed over to the McKenna's Children's Museum. I love how many towns have wonderful, hands-on museums for kids to play at for hours on end. This museum was no exception.  It had a kid-sized grocery store, a teepee, an ambulance to drive, an ATM to take "cash" out of it - and a great outdoor climbing structure that we couldn't keep Bubba off once he discovered it.
This place was awesome. just awesome.

The museum was a bit on the young side, so Sis played with Bubba and Brody was busy making structures out of foam blocks the whole time.  His little engineering mind never ceases to amaze me.....
This ramp took me the whole morning to make - the museum people even took a picture of it.

We stumbled across the New Braunfels Railroad Museum while we were downtown and stopped in.  They had an incredible miniature train setup that was wonderful and real train cars to climb through.
I got to ring the bell of an old engine.

Day three continued with a ride on the Landa Park train - I used to ride this train as a wee one so it was fun to take my kids on it too.
The train was fun - the conductors fed the squirrels nuts.  Squirrels would run up to the train to get a nut - it was crazy!

Bubba was thrilled to go on the train.......

As was Sis....texting the whole ride - is this a glimpse of what I have to look forward to?
I was texting a friend mom!

We headed home on Thursday and had a restful Friday.  So restful, that Bubba asked for a snack and then proceeded to put himself down for a nap. Don't you hate falling asleep in the middle of snack?

Saturday we were invited over to the best party! Matt was asked to be one of 3 judges at a Rib Cook-off.  He said it was hard to choose and he was right - y'all these were the best ribs I had EVER had!

The winner won the right to keep the highly coveted silver spatula for the year.  We decided we will never compete - seriously amazing ribs - but will lobby to judge them year after year.....

So that was week three - are you picking up on a theme here???  Busy Busy Busy!

Sissy provided commentary in pink.

Brody provided commentary in blue.

The FIRST Week of Summer
The Second Week of Summer