Family Get Together

 My side of the family wanted to get together some time this summer. It's difficult planning a weekend get-away with everyone's schedules. We had nailed down the time, but when we started looking at cabins/houses to rent, they were out of our price range. Some of them rented for thousands per week. There are 20 people in our immediate family, so we needed a large house. We had given up on vacationing together because of the price.

My mom found a cabin that was available and reasonable to rent in Chamberlain. We were able to go for the weekend at the end of June. The only one that wasn't able to make it was my older sister, Amber.

The cabin had three large rooms with bunk beds. Most slept there, but we also set up tents. There was a nice campground right across the street from the cabin. Mike even convinced me to sleep in the tent one night and I will never do that again!! At night, we sat around the campfire and had smores. Yum!

 Chamberlain is such a pretty town. It sits right on the Missouri river. Mike's parents live in Chamberlain, so we were able to use their boat and go tubing and skiing. We also spent time at the beach and the pool. It was a nice relaxing time. The kids had fun playing with each other and stayed busy the entire time.

 We split up the meals and each family brought the ingredients and prepared one. This made it as stress-free as possible. Once your meal was done, you didn't have to cook any more. Mike and I made brauts and Mike and his mom (thanks, Andrea) made a few different salads to go with them. We ate good home-cooked food all weekend.

 We set off a bunch of fireworks. The kids' favorite were the parachutes. Even the men got in on catching the parachutes. The poor kids were trampled if they weren't watching out for the "big" kids.

 It was fun seeing everyone. The summer has gone by way too fast. Before we know it, school will start. I love making memories like these. I still remember spending time with my cousins and shooting off fireworks at my grandma's house.

 My brother-in-law, Steve, was deployed a few days after our vacation. It was good spending the weekend with him. He'll be gone a few months so my sister, Sarah, could use some prayers while he is away. It's never easy being a single-parent.

New Bikes

 Mike's parents wanted to buy the kids bikes for their birthdays. They had outgrown their other bikes, and they were sick of sharing them with each other.

One Saturday, we went to Toys R Us. I didn't realize how many bikes they had. There were dozens of them. It didn't take them too long to find their favorites. There were some Hello Kitty bikes, and I was sure the girls were going to choose those. They surprised me! Mia picked a princess bike, Riley picked a pink bike with a baby seat on the back, and Ethan picked out a spider man bike (no surprise there!)

I know the kids felt pretty special each having their own bike. They have to share a lot of things, so it's nice when they get their own things.

  Unfortunately, we live on a gravel road with no sidewalks. We do have a large driveway that has cement but I think the kids get kind of bored riding their bikes in our driveway. We have a duck park that is a mile away from our house. They have perfect little walking paths, so I loaded up the kids and their bikes and we headed to the park. There is a huge sign that says no bikes, but I ignored it and hoped no one would say anything to me (and no one did.)

The girls were so excited and hopped on as soon as their bikes were out of the van. Ethan was having a fit over something (I can't even remember why.) By the time I had him calmed down and looked up, the girls were gone. I could barely see them up on the path. They were pedaling as fast as they could.

I had to run a 1/2 of a mile to catch up with them. I am NOT a runner and I had shoes on that aren't meant for running. It was a good 5 minutes that they were completely out of my line of vision. That's a long time when you start thinking of all the things that can happen. I was pretty mad when I caught them. They both got in trouble for that one.

They all had a ton of fun, even after their scolding. I didn't hear one complaint from Mia or Riley. They could have stayed out there all day. Ethan was being a stinker that day, and I heard quite a few complaints from him, but he still had fun.

 It's such a pretty park. We always bring bread and feed all of the ducks. They're used to being around humans and you can get really close to them.

 Riley has been wearing this crown for weeks. She even wore it the last couple of weeks of preschool. I was wondering if her teacher was going to say anything, but she never did. She looks so cute with it on!

Packing

 The kids received luggage last year for Christmas and they LOVE packing their stuff. I always double check to make sure they have everything they need because they pack some pretty interesting stuff. I was loading the car to go to Grandma and Grandpa's and here is what I found in Ethan's luggage.

I guess you never know when you need chocolate chips and peanuts!

Japanese Garden and Museum

 We were trying to figure out what to do while we were stranded at the closed zoo. Mike had his smart phone with him and found this Japanese garden within a mile of the zoo. Sure, why not. It was very picturesque.

 There were lots of koi fish and turtles.

 And a beautiful waterfall...

 We walked a couple more miles to a museum. Apparently, I only took a few pictures while there, but they had a dinosaur exhibit and a mummy exhibit.

It was a nice get away for us. It's always good to get away and spend time together as a couple.

Buckhorn Saloon

 The day we visited the Alamo, we also went to the Buckhorn Saloon. It's a very popular tourist attraction. It has hundreds of mounted animals and a lot of them were "freaks" of nature.

They have a 78 point buck. I didn't even know that could exist. The original owner of the saloon paid $100 for this buck back in the 1800's.

 They also had a Texas Ranger museum in the Buckhorn Saloon. The kids were pretty concerned when they saw me in jail. :)

 This River Raptor was shown in circuses and people actually believed it was real. It was a monkey body and someone added a tail.

 The Figi Mermaid was also a made-up creature.

 I thought these were kind of neat but kind of disturbing at the same time. These are real shrunken heads. They had an exhibit on how the tribesmen shrunk the heads.

Poor cow. Its horns were growing into its eyes.

 This deer had a bunch of barbed wire stuck in its horns.

 This deer had a huge growth on the side of its antler.

 This is a barnacle buck. Its horns were very strange.

 Poor dear. He just looks goofy.

 Of course, they had to have some two-headed calves.

It was an entertaining museum and well worth the money. You could bring beer with you as you toured it so it was a good time!

San Antonio Trip

 Mike had a work conference at the end of May in San Antonio. I always accompany him to these conferences and I vacation while he works. Sounds good for me, right? We were there five days, which is the perfect amount of time. Not too long but not too short. The kids had a couple of days of school left, so Grandpa and Grandma Schmidt came and watched them at our house for a few days and then they went to Chamberlain for a few days.

 Our hotel was right on the Riverwalk, right across the street from a mall, and it had a Starbucks in the lobby. Perfect! The day I decide to take pictures, it was pouring. I didn't plan that very well.

They had 13 inches of rain in one day. Two people actually died in the floods. There was water blocking roadways. Needless to say, the rain hampered our vacation a little. We wanted to go to Sea World but all of the rental cars were booked, it would have taken us 2 hours to get there by city bus, and a taxi ride would have been $50-$60 each way. Instead, we decided to go to the San Antonio Zoo. We paid $25 for a taxi ride there. He dropped us off and we walked up to the gate (of course, the taxi driver took off right away.) The zoo was closed because of the flooding.

Instead of the zoo, we walked a couple of miles to a museum and visited a Japanese garden along the way. The museum had a dinosaur exhibit and a mummy exhibit which was neat but I was still bummed about not getting to go to Sea World.

 Our hotel was not far from the Alamo, so we were able to walk there. It was neat seeing it again. My parents took us when we were younger, so I remembered a lot of it.

 This tree is 400 years old. It's absolutely massive. I couldn't even get it in one picture.

 I have quite a few pictures, so I'm going to break the posts up so it doesn't get too long.