Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch

We took our annual vacation to San Antonio's Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch a few weeks ago. And as usual it was wonderful. We added a few more families this year which was a lot of fun for the kids. I'll let the pictures tell the story since there are so many!

We always have to stop at Bill Miller's on the way there. It's Mondo's favorite childhood restaurant. Yes, we might have smuggled in some McDonald's for our picky eaters. It is a BBQ/fried chicken place.

This is how he wanted to pose for his picture. Mmm...that sweet tea looks good. It's the best!

Here's a view of one of the rooms. We stayed in a two bedroom with my friend Summer.

This is the adjoing living room.

Summer thought I brought a lot of chips. What can I say, my famly loves chippies!

I might get in trouble from Eric by posting this picture. :-) Really, they all needed a bath at the same time and who doesn't love bubbles? They didn't notice that one of them had different parts. Actually, no one noticed any parts because of all the bubbles! A squirt of shampoo on each head + jets = a TON of bubbles! We only did this once. It was a bit wild to say the least!

I debated on posting this one...but he's all covered. It's a bubble monster!

Munching on burgers and dogs.

Will's birthday was the weekend that we went so Summer brought some Star Wars cupcakes.

Every year we go to Sea World so we decided to change it up and go to Fiesta Texas. Little did we know it was field trip day! I've never seen so many buses! Luckily they were mainly on the bigger rides. Right when we walked in we saw some characters to take pictures with. That's Will, Tyler, and Maddie.

Scooby Doo! It's impossible to get a good picture with this rowdy bunch!

I was a good sport and rode this looney toon ride...that spins around and around. Blah!

A little train. Ethan was a good big brother and rode it with Caleb even though it was lame-o.

Not a great picture but I wanted one outside of the park. This was on our way out. We didn't stay too long because it was super hot and crowded.

We had some sparklers and smores one night. We had to go old school because we didn't have the skewers to put the marshmallows on so we used twigs. Pretty fun. There are smore pits there but they weren't open on Friday night. :-(

Caleb made me nervous with that thing!

Caleb was too busy to pose with Daddy.

That's Ethan and Will jumping in.

Building a sandcastle with Daddy.

Kristy and I helped Maddie and Caleb build a sandcastle...

...on the condition that they got to stomp it when we were done. :-)

The motley crew. From left to right: Vance, Tyler, Mallorie, Will, Jaley, Maddie, Maggie, Caleb, Carter, and Ethan.

Can anyone see what that says? ;-)

Taking a break.

Snack break.

They posed themselves and said "take a picture".

He's looking at the slide. Don't worry Caleb, you're too little for it anyway.

Playing on playground. The equipment was a little hot.

This just makes me laugh. He looked so big on it.

Wet family photo.

Wow, look how dark Ethan is!

They all piled into our bed and watched a movie. But no, they did NOT all sleep in there. Just my two.

On the way home. Worn to a frazzle. He fell asleep mid chicken nugget.

I had to donate my pillow to Ethan.

What a great, exhausting trip. :-)

Mother's Day

Mother's day this year consisted of me staying up all day after working the night before and hanging out with the kiddos. We went to church, Mondo made me lunch, and the we played in the backyard with our new blowup pool.

My prizes. Actually, just the flowers and the pictures. The other two items are from school. Mondo isn't that crafty. ;-) But he does know that I'm a sucker for all things home made.

This was from Ethan's school. So cute!!

From Caleb's school.

His picture is hanging out of the little tea cup...so cute!

Ethan's picture that he drew for me. I asked him who it was. He said "Mommy, Daddy, and me." Funny...he left out his brother. Hmmm...

Caleb's picture. I already forgot what he said it was but it definitely wasn't what it looked like.

Weren't these beautiful?!

Another thing Ethan made at school with his little handprint.

And another...

The best part was that he opened each little page and read it to me. :-)

Mmmm...lunch from Iron Chef Mondo. Steak, corn, and au gratin potatoes. So good!!

Our new blow up pool. It has already provided hours of fun!

The Tooth Fairy Came to Our House!

Oh, so behind on the blogging. Ethan lost his first tooth!.....on Mother's Day. He has had 4 slightly loose teeth for what seems like forever. Then suddenly one became very loose. He showed it to me that morning at church. It seemed like it was still a little stuck in the front so I thought it would be a day or two before it actually fell out.

He kept playing with it all morning. It was really bothering him and he wanted it out. We were playing outside and he was standing in the pool and started shouting "my tooth just came out!" Of course I didn't believe him. But sure enough...

It did fall out! Actually, he pulled it out himself. I was shocked. And I was even more shocked that he didn't drop the tooth in the water. It was a tiny little sucker. And man, did it bleed! I made sure to act super excited so he wouldn't notice the hemorrhage going on in his mouth.

Love that face.

Wow! The tooth fairy left him five bucks! I have later heard that we must have a great tooth fairy to leave so much money. I told him that the tooth fairy usually leaves the most for the first tooth then just a little for each tooth after that. He seemed to go along with that.

He requested that the tooth fairy bring him coins next time. I think that's a fabulous idea...since his top two are about to fall out!