Enchanted Rock

After our day at Sea World we headed to Enchanted Rock to camp (after a quick stop at my favorite Greek restaurant in San Antonio, of course).  We set up camp and just when I thought Violet would never stop jumping on our air mattress both of our kids fell asleep, and it was glorious.  My kids sleep better in tents than they do in their own beds.  The reason bedtime was so exciting was that Brandon and I had plans to stay up late and take pictures of the milky way.  Instead we fell asleep immediately but my alarm clock (Charlie) got us up in the middle of the night and we were able to do it then.  I would start to describe how cool it was but I'll just let the pictures do that.

More on Brandon's blog.  He took much better pictures than I did.  I wasn't willing to hike up rocks in the dark like he was to get a good shot.

In the morning, we started up the trail to the summit.  I had to carry chunky Charlie the entire way but it was cool, windy, and perfect. On the way I got a taste of what it must have been like to have me as a kid.  My mom always tells me that she feared that I wouldn't survive to maturity because I loved doing dangerous things and well... Violet isn't any different.  I would stop and talk to Brandon for 30 seconds and when we turned around she would be fifty yards away climbing over boulders.  I don't know how that girl gets so far so quickly.

Charlie was pretty heavy to carry up to the top, but at least I didn't have to carry Violet half the way up.

Between spurts of "Mommy, come see this!" Violet got some geology lessons from Brandon and by the end of the hike was pointing out, "Look, quartz!  Look, feldspar!"

Fellow geologists.

Before leaving we strolled over to a little creek where within 30 seconds Violet had taken her pants and shoes off and was stomping through it.

So happy to have eaten.

Violet, getting naked in the stream.

It was a long drive back but punctuated by a brief stop at Cooper's Barbecue in Llano.  Any place that sells meat, by the pound, on butcher paper, dunked in barbecue sauce, from a giant pit, to swarms of people driving Harley Davidsons is bound to be a good restaurant.

Sea World

Who else is tired of me complaining about my life? Time for a good post.  We made a poorly planned trip to Sea World this week.  Fortunately, it turns out that it doesn't take a lot of planning to go to Sea World and we had a lovely time.  The first attraction was the orca show.  Here's some advice: if you have a 2-year-old and a 5-month old, you probably shouldn't sit in the splash zone.  Violet was a little scared by the size of the whales but was captivated by their performance until they splashed water on us all.  Both our kids started screaming and crying.

They got over it.

Then I lost Violet when I looked away for 15 seconds while putting on sunscreen, and found her  surrounded by a group of women who were asking where her mommy was. She had been asking me to go see the flamingos and when I paused to protect my white hide from skin cancer she decided to go with or without me.

Dumb flamingos.

The next stop was a giant splash pad.  At first Violet didn't want to get wet, and I thought, "Great, I just paid $100 so that my kid could scream through the shows and not play in the water."  Luckily she wasn't a pansy the entire time and did end up running and splashing through the water like the wild animal that she normally is. 

See what I mean by wild animal?

We had two more shows; one with sea lions and a walrus and one with a beluga.  The Sea Lion show was clearly her favorite as she kept squealing and laughing each time they did a trick. 

Enthralled.

It just won't stop.

We finally escaped our old apartment.  After two burst pipes, flooded bedrooms, moldy carpet, and a few unexplained power outages, we had had enough.  I found a new apartment (with a garage) that we moved into.  I absolutely love it.  Brandon and I spent last night unpacking all of our things, and it already looks cute.

We also had some severe thunderstorms last night.  And after unpacking, I walked into Violet's room to find water dripping from her ceiling.  Followed by water coming through our chimney.  Then a puddle surrounding our fireplace, water under the floor in the master bedroom, and a puddle in Violet's closet.  Another night of staying up till 3 AM soaking up water with towels.

We have been living here for a total of two days.

And right now Brandon is out in our garage taking out our car battery that has died four times in the past week.  This time, our car is in the garage and not close enough to another car to jump start it.  So we now somehow have to get a new battery without a car to go to the auto shop.

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