Bubba would like to say hello

(Bubba is dictating while I (Daddio) type.)

Daddy took a picture of a wasp. A wasp can sting you.

Happy Fathers Day! We love Mommy and Daddy.

I wish we could ride bikes but it keeps raining. Maybe we can play in the front yard when it's not raining.

I am doing good in school. I have been reading Bob books. My favorite one is the one with Mat.

We went to the beach. We went boogie boarding and we brought the yellow space shuttle and the blue car and the buckets and the shovels to play with in the sand. We went to the swimming pool. I am a good swimmer. We had bananas and cookies and granola bars and pizza and spaghetti and we had root beer floats. We went to a restaurant and had french fries and shrimp and bread and ketchup too. We got to drink lemonade. The trip in the car was fun. It took a long time. We ate pretzels and sandwiches and then we had to take a nap, and then we had more pretzels after nap time.

Andrew is going to type now:

zxcvbnm,

mat

i love daddy

mommy too

my brothers too

i like my friends

I love my godmother. We should see them again.

I like this picture. I am kicking my feet. My head is underwater because that's how I want to do it.

Patriotism

I'm going to be sarcastic in this post because I'm not in the mood to be diplomatic.

Here are some lines from the offertory hymn at mass at our parish last Sunday:

"This is my song, O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;
(so far so good...)
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine."

(give me a break)

"My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover,

(At this exact moment, both MamaLlama and I put away our hymnals and mouthed to each other "hippy song...")

And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations;
A song of peace for their land and for mine."

Can you guess when it was written? Copyright 1964, of course. I wonder if the author was smoking something.

Okay y'all, it's Independence Day. We should be focusing on how America kicks butt, right? Look, I know God is not an American (unless you're Mormon, I think), and our allegiance is first to God and the Church, and he loves everyone equally, blah blah blah. But is it necessary to diminsh America's unique greatness so as to not offend everyone else? It's not like there's some limited amount of greatness and we're hogging more than our fair share. I realize America is not perfect, but we definitely have something to be proud of. Not only the most powerful nation in the world, but the most free, and the most benevolent to those in need. And any other country could be just as great by following our example and not being a bunch of liberals and commies with spiraling birth rates.

Here's a rule of thumb. Any song written in the last 50 years that contains the word "peace" is going to piss people off. Fortunately, they redeemed themselves by singing America The Beautiful for the recesssional.

Give away that is awesome!

Check it out tonight ladies!!!!

What are you?

You Are Paper

Crafty and creative, you are able to adapt freely to almost any situation. People tend to underestimate you, unless they've truly seen what you are capable of. Deep down, you're always scheming and thinking up new plans. Your mind is constantly active. You are quite capable of anything you dream of. You can always figure out a way to get what you want. You can wrap a rock person up in your sheet of trickery. A scissor person can sneak up and cut you to pieces. When you fight: No one can anticipate your next move If someone makes you mad: You'll attack them mercilessly when they're unprepared

Are You Rock, Paper, or Scissors?

The Planning

I received a few comments about how we plan or pick a trip like this, so I will do my best to elaborate on our process. I think I am going to break this into two posts... lodging, and then activities.

2004
As far as Port Aransas, this was a place we went the year we were in the process of adopting. We were waiting, and knew this was going to be the last time for just the two of us to take a trip. Daddio did some research online (Port Aransas) and found this place. Neither of us had been before, nor did we know anyone who had been there... so we were taking a chance. Maybe Daddio can remember his thought process when he planned it that first year. Anyway, we found a hotel that looked nice in pictures, and booked it. When we arrived, we were pleased!!! Everything about the island was great, and while we were out in the waves boogie boarding we said that this is a place we should definitely come back to with the kids.

2005
The following year we felt like the kids were ready to take a summer vacation. Because we knew WE liked Port A, we decided to do a little more research on lodging. We wanted something that had a kitchen, washer/dryer, and 2-3 bedrooms so that the kids would have their own beds and a door to shut so that naptime would be effective. Daddio found a condo that said it was near the beach and seemed to have the features we wanted. So we booked it. At this time the boys were 2, 3, and 4... and they really didn't like it as much as we hoped. It turned out that they spent all their time on the beach and when we tried to get them in the water they would scream and cry. While it was frustrating (to say the least) we did our best... when you got down on their perspective you realized just how overwhelming the water looked! But we knew that in the future things would get better.

2006
The condo from the previous year was okay, but it wasn't walking distance to the beach (if it says a block... that is too far to carry your gear :-). And we felt like we wanted a little more privacy. In 2005 during the drive to another section of beach we saw several neighborhoods of rental homes and boardwalks over the dunes to the beach, and decided we would try to get one of those. Again we went online to see what we could find. We found Coastline Adventures, and browsed thru their homes to find one that we thought would work for us. We found this green house. Property was well maintained, the neighborhood was really nice, and there is a pool.

2007
This was kind of a spur of the moment trip. We considered trying a new location this year (Dauphin Island, Al), plus we were kind of waiting to see what was going to happen with Daddio's job location, but ultimately decided the week before the trip that we needed to take a trip and Port A is where we wanted to go! We got online and checked VRBO, and Coastline Adventures to see what was available. It turned out that when Daddio called Coastline, that they were running a deal for the following week that if you booked 3 nights, you got the 4th night free. BOOKED IT! This is the little cottage that met our needs! Since we knew the neighborhood (same as the previous year), and the pictures online looked good, we felt good about renting it. It turned out to be the nicest place so far. (last years was nice, but this place really went above and beyond with the amenities)

Sidenote: It is best to call the rental company managing the property before booking online. Sometimes the calendar of availablity is wrong, and not all the deals are listed!

Activities for vacationing

First I should preface this by saying that we like a laid back vacation, not so much running from here to there and everything in between... that's why a beach (or camping) instead of a theme park is the better fit for our family.

When planning out our time in Port A, we were realistic about what we could afford and what was going to fit into the boys schedule of napping and eating. The Port A website was a great tool for us in navigating our choices.

The first year (just the two of us) we went on a dolphin cruise. They take you out into the bay in search of the dolphins, and a tour of the light houses that are out there. It was pretty darn cool. So the first year we took the kids, we did this again. They really had fun, and so did we! But we haven't done it since... we have been lucky enough to see the dolphins out in the gulf when we were at the beach, or when we road the fairy boat. I would definitely say, though, it is worth it to do it once.

On our way to the island we stopped and toured the USS Lexington, and Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi. Both are pretty cool. I would caution that on the Lex, there is a tremendous amount of climbing stairs and would be very difficult for small children to manage.

So far those are the only things we've done that cost ticket money! And we've only done them once! I'm sure in a few years we might re-visit those things for the kids to have a new experience with them.

Once we arrive on the island we had to the local grocery store to pick up our food for the week. Buy cooking our own food, this really cuts down on the overall cost of the trip. We plan on cooking all our own meals except for one dinner out. You can't go to the coast and not eat fresh seafood! And by doing it this way you can splurge a little and get something really fancy if you want... also plan to eat out at lunch (especially during the week) and you will find that the resturants aren't busy and you get the lunchtime prices (which those of you with multiple kids knows how quickly that can add up)! Oh, and I usually make sandwiches for our drive down so that our only stops are for potty breaks and fill up the tank!

If you plan on going to the beach... plan on spending most of your time on the beach (it's free :-). We get up every morning, have breakfast... and then walk to the beach! We would stay till lunch time (bring sunscreen with you for reapplication). Go home, eat lunch, nap time (trust me it is exhausting playing in the water for even the grown ups), and then we hit the pool for the time between nap and dinner. After dinner... BACK TO THE BEACH, until it is too dark to play.

**By choosing a place with a washer/dryer, you don't need to bring tons of clothes... just a few sets and wash them! So that saves you lots of space when packing.

**For us, by keeping the cost of food down, and not paying for a lot of activities we could afford to pay a little more to rent a house.

We're back!

Wow, what an amazing trip! And so nice to get away from all the rain that seems to be hanging on to the area. Actually, it rained 3 quarters of the drive down... and when it cleared, the sky was amazing.

As usual something goes a little haywire on our trips, and this trip was no different... except that it happened before we could even get on the road! Daddio always checks the tires before we head out, and fills them up to a higher pressure for long trips. This requires our little air compressor (I should mention that this thing is, oh, 10-12 years old)... anyway after working on only one tire, Daddio realized that the compressor had drained the car battery... COMPLETELY. After waking all our neighbors for a brief survey at 7 am to see if they had jumper cables we could barrow, we finally had to have OnStar send someone out to jump the battery!

I had to take a picture of this, for insurance purposes... I mean seriously, they sent a Geo Metro (2 door hatch) to jump the Yukon XL... when that little thing burst into flames, I wanted to make sure they understood the situation.

Thankfully that only took 20 minutes (for them to arrive), and we were able to get underway... or so we thought. As you can see in the picture it wasn't raining... when we got to the gas station to finish the tire job, there came a down poor... oh and the air thingy there was all jacked up... so we went in search of another gas station. We ended up sitting under the awning and using our air compressor (with the car running this time) for about a half an hour, due to the rain and the air machine just out in the weather. Then we were off, with no further delays... except the crummy traffic we were trying to avoid by leaving at 7:00 instead of 8:30.

After getting our keys from the realtor, unloading the car, we were off to the grocery store for a weeks worth of supplies... then home again home again! Then off to the BEACH!

This was by far our best trip down, the house was great, the water and beach amazing, and the wildlife... we saw things up close that you usally only see in the zoo or on TV. We photographed wild sea turtles down on the jetty, we had to experiences with a stingray right in the water where we were playing, and this years shells were really neat. Thanks to the new camera we were able to catch every scene and bring it home with us to relive over and over again!

Here's a smattering of what we saw and did!