Rain, rain, go away...

So we can go to Schlitterbahn to play.

Our friends are coming down from Dallas this weekend to visit. While they're here we're planning to go up to New Braunfels to enjoy the world's best water park. I know I'm looking forward to it. But, oh by the way, there's been some crazy rainfall here for more than a week. I was even released from work early yesterday because of flash flooding. However, it does look like it's beginning to let up and there's only a 40 percent chance for rain tomorrow. I'm okay with that, cause I'm sure that it can't rain all day. I'll keep my fingers crossed (is there any proof that that really works?).

In other news, my friend "Anonymous Mom" is in San Antonio en route to her new home in the DC area. V and I did manage to have dinner with her and her husband, but she's been scarce since (maybe we were bad company). Hopefully, we'll be able to hang out more before she leaves next weekend. (Yes, this is a shameless ploy to guilt her into not thinking up anymore excuses--to include attempting to amputate her foot with a pickle jar and following that up with a sunburn--to not visit more often.)

Hoping for a temporary drought and more company,

Marty

Father's Day

It was fun, the presents just kept coming. I guess it was like Hanukkah, except I'm not Jewish. I'm grateful that I now have two perfect sons. If I have another, I could have my own sitcom remake...

This was my favorite gift. I actually asked for it last Father's Day, but as I was out of the country, it would have been difficult to enjoy.

Aiden and I had a Father-Son project to build in the garage. He needed a new bookshelf for his library of books that he's been collecting since birth. Conveniently enough, I've had all the wood for said bookshelf for a few months now. Hey, no time like the present.

I hope all the fathers out there were doted upon as much as I.

Celebratin' with "My Two Sons,"

Marty

Water Play at Sea World

As I mentioned in a previous post, we traded in the season passes to the zoo for the more expensive, but equally (if not more) entertaining Sea World season passes. SW is quite a bit further from our house than the zoo, but we decided that Aiden is getting old enough to start enjoying rides and water play as well as shows, animals, and crazy large crowds. Having season passes affords us the opportunity to spend less time fighting the crowds because we can come back as often as we want. We've been to SW three times together (V and A went a couple of other times while I was deployed) and I'm certain we'll be back several more times before the season ends. Besides, SW is one of those attractions that people drive hundreds of miles to make part of their vacations, but we are fortunate enough to have it right here in our own backyard.

Enough of the background already...

So we took the boys to SW this weekend solely to enjoy the water park.


(V and EWG preparing for the "fun.")


(EWG gets his first dip. He was okay with it until his diaper became saturated -- He hates his diaper being wet. But he does love baths so maybe we should take him skinny dipping.)


(Aiden was surprisingly enjoying the water.)


(We were doing some kind of water dance. Next stop, "So You Think You Can Dance.")

I promise to start working on my summer tan so you won't have to dim your monitors to view future posts.

On a crazy posting spree...for now,

Marty

Catch Up, Part II

As promised, here's the next installation of my making reparations.

We visited the zoo (the last time with our annual pass) with some friends. Aiden took his camera along, but I somehow managed to erase all of his pictures while downloading them to the computer. Here's one of him feeding the birds. I believe the cost of the small cup of sugar water was considerably more than tuppence.

Ethan had his four month well-baby doctor visit. He's in the upper percentile for his height, but his weight and head circumference were in the lower. He's now trying solid foods and we're reading him Plato, so we expect he'll soon be ahead of the pack in those areas. (Editor's note: I know that we'll have no impact on his brain size and thereby his head circumference--it was a joke, people! Try to keep up.)

After a trip to our new season pass choice, Sea World, we stopped at Cold Stone Creamery for a treat. Aiden prefers chocolate with whatever mix-in tickles his fancy that day.







This has also been a popular time for birthday parties. Here we are enjoying riding bumper boats at the third party in three weeks. Aiden and I are in the red boat. We got drenched. Vanessa, meanwhile, used Ethan as an alibi to abjure getting wet.


I walked into the living room to find Aiden using Ethan's Bumbo seat as a helmet. Aside from the obvious uses as headgear, the seat is very useful for Ethan.







We had our family picture taken to include Ethan. We've had a few various combinations of family members before, but this one is complete...well without the dogs. So, never mind the whole "complete" thing, just enjoy.






Just recently, V's parents came for a visit so we took our first opportunity to get away from the screaming kids overnight (just kidding, they're actually well-behaved, little angels). We went to the coast for a couple of days and let the grandparents enjoy their grandchildren. We stayed in Corpus Christi and visited Padre Island, and Port Aransas as well. While we were there, we took in some night life, the Aquarium, some horseback riding along the beach, and visited the USS Lexington. Vanessa also tried an Appletini.

Upon returning, we took Aiden to start his swimming lessons. It was a rough start, as he wouldn't even get in the pool the first day. He has participated since, although he's still uneasy about the whole water thing.



Next up, Ethan's first pool experience.

Marty

Catch Up, Part I

Okay, okay! Stop with the yelling already. I know I've been a bit of a slacker lately, but the resounding uproar from not keeping this blog up-to-date has been deafening. Yes, there was only one elucidation left by an unhappy reader, but the castigation from my mother makes up for the dearth of protest from the rest of you.

So what’s my excuse? I don’t have one. Yep, I’ve just been a slacker. There have been copious opportunities, as I will exhibit in the next few posts. So now it’s just up to you, my steadfast audience, to continue to behold the exhilaration that is my life. So without further delay, this is what has been happening since my last post…

Birthday
Upon my return (read: the next day), we had a belated birthday party for Aiden's 4th. We let him choose his theme and venue, pirates and bowling. It makes me wonder if pirates ever played games aboard their ships aside from walking the plank and keel hauling.

He had a decent crowd of children, despite the horrible pizza served at the bowling alley and the pirate cake with pink sand frosting, but delicious blue gel water.

Aiden got lots of presents, of course, but I think his favorite was the Fisher Price digital camera that V and I got for him. It's neat to see things from a four-year-old's perspective.

Easter
Easter Sunday was a bust for outdoor egg hunting due to lots of rain, so the Easter Bunny visited our dining room instead. Aiden, unchallenged of course, did pretty well.

I suspect Ethan was a little miffed about not being able to participate.

Fiesta
April in San Antonio also brings Fiesta. Vanessa was off from work so we decided to make a family day of the Battle of Flowers parade. I don't think Ethan got much out of the numerous floats and elaborate dresses worn by the Fiesta queens, but we're counting this as his first parade nonetheless.

Strawberry Festival
April, or maybe early May, was also the annual Poteet Strawberry Festival. We sampled the various carnival foods as well as the obligatory strawberry comestibles, strawberry shortcake, strawberry wine, etc.

And with a carnival comes the various carnival rides. Fortunately, there was a large assortment of kiddy rides that Aiden was able to enjoy.

Well friends, that should whet your appetite for now. I'll go ahead and compose the second part in this post tonight but for now, I'll let you digest this one.

Your humble scribe,

Marty