The last bit of June

1. I can't post pictures, because I'm at my in-laws in Austin and don't have my cord.  We're supposed to be swimming at some waterfalls right now, but a thunderstorm is ruining our plans.

2.  Leo took the a couple days off and on Monday we headed to San Antonio and went to SeaWorld. (pictures to come, I promise.) It was hot.  And lots of fun.  We left our house at six, hoping the kids would fall back asleep.  Nope.  So everyone was pretty tired.  We arrived before it opened which was awesome for parking and we were able to enjoy a couple hours before it was sweltering, but Leo and I can't decide if it was worth it for the extremely tired children.  Nicolas did take a nap, and for the most part all the kids were great, but we were dragging all day.

3. We left when I could no longer walk and was having contractions every so often.  Yeah, I was pretty dead on my feet. I tried to watch the kids at the gigantic splashpad/playground while Leo took Ana and Elena on some of the roller coasters, but I was having a heart attack trying to keep up with them.  It's really open and huge and there's no way to monitor the whole place at once.  I lost Sebastian almost immediately, and only saw him from a distance once in a blue moon after that.  Isabel was pretty good and hung out by me.  Nicolas took off at one point, climbed three flights of stairs up and I couldn't tell for sure where he was for a minute but I thought he had gone down a huge slide that came out at a different end that was gated off. By the time I walked around to see, I couldn't find him, so then I walked back (it really was quite huge, and I was WADDLING somewhat painfully by this point) and climbed up the flights of stairs only to realize that he HAD gone down the slide and was now running out of the gated area into the main area where people were walking through.  I finally did catch him and corralled him in a the toddler splash pad.  Isabel stayed and played there too, even though earlier in the day she had been the one to have a meltdown and refused to play at the splashpad with the other kids because she didn't want her underwear wet.

4. Oh, and did I mention that by the end of the day (when I was trying to watch the kids) my pants had torn a huge hole in the crotch?  Yes, yes they had.  So that was another reason I wasn't anxious to try climbing up the ropes after them.  Sigh.  I bought that one pair of linen pants from a maternity store to last me through the summer.  And they really were super comfortable and light, and I really liked them, and then last week Nicolas had colored on me with dry erase marker without me even realizing it.  I had only washed them in cold/delicate cycle and air dried them before that, but then trying to get the marker out I had scrubbed, soaked, washed in hot repeatedly, and I think the linen just couldn't hold up.  I never got the marker out completely but I wore those pants anyway, because I was also wearing ted hose--there's no way I would have lasted without them--I would have had elephant legs and they were the only pants I had that fit.  Anyway, I'm pretty sad that they died.  :(

4.Then we went to the restaurant Leo and I had looked up before.  It was called Pasha's Mediterranean Grill.  It was so good!!!!!  All the kids loved it too and ate all their food, except Ana but that's to be expected.  Leo and I were in heaven.  Best gyro I've had since leaving Chicago.  Also the pitas and hummus were heavenly and I LOVED the baklava.  Once again, Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food  is my all time favorite cuisine.

5.  We spent the night at a hotel and left early the next morning to go to Austin and visit Leo's parents and grandparents.  We spent the afternoon at a local pool with Leo's mom.  The kids' loved it! It had a lazy river and waterslides and splashpads.  The only thing missing was an actual swimming pool with a diving board.  Unfortunately, Elena was just a 1/2 in. too short for the waterslides, and since Ana is such a people-person, she just hung out in the splashpads with us, since going by herself was no fun.  I tried getting on a tube by myself while holding Nicolas and ended up toppling over backwards.  Yes, I have no real balance anymore or sense of my own weight.  Then I tried again and asked some random kid to hold the tube for me.  I managed to get on and float a few seconds down the river before again going completely head over heels.  Yes, I am so graceful at 9 months pregnant.  I also lost Nicolas for a few seconds on that river (not when I toppled, I managed to hold him above water those times) but when I had him and Isabel on a tube and Isabel kept moving all over and slid in the middle at one point where I couldn't tell if her head was above water or not, so then I lifted her out to set her on the tube and was telling her off and it completely flipped the tube and it took me a little bit to find Nicolas under the tube.  He didn't even cry, just looked surprised. Good times.

6. After swimming we went to visit Leo's grandparents, and gave them the photo album I made.  It was nice, I think Leo's grandpa really liked it.  His grandma is not doing so well, and nobody thinks she will last much longer.  She did perk up at a few of the pictures though.  I also got his grandpa to do a DNA test for me.  Ha. Ha.  Leo had a fun time trying to explain that to his aunt and him.  I was going to test his grandma too, but she's just not well enough, so Leo's mom did it instead. Oh, and then after that, Leo's mom took us out to eat at an Asian buffet.  It was good!  I ate a ton.  And the kids ate a lot of ice-cream and desserts.

7.  In other news, swim team is over.  Hallelujah! And Ana made it back from girl's camp.  She said she had fun.  Actually, Ana does have one more meet for swim team, but that's it.

8.  Ana is cooking all the dinners this summer.  And it's gone fairly well so far.  She made pizza the first day, and chicken tetrazzini the second day, and that was not such a good day, but a lot of that was the fact that I was really tired and had other problems going on.  Since then it's gone much better.  She made sweet and sour meatballs and beef enchiladas.  They both tasted excellent.

9.  I finished making the cutest Dutch costumes for Hazel, Ethne, and Wyatt--and they are officially in the mail Kate!  However, I never did take pictures, the kids weren't being cooperative and then that evening we were getting ready to go on our trip.  Sigh.  So, no pictures till Kayli takes some.  That might be a while too, Halloween, or when she can convince Brett that a 7 hour drive to the Netherlands is worth it, or next spring when the tulips are blooming.  Who knows?  But trust me, they are adorable.

10. Okay, the rain stopped and we left my in-laws to head out to McKinney Falls State Park.  I'm writing this now on Thursday--at home.  We spent an awesome afternoon swimming and playing at the falls.  Although the snake Leo saw swimming in the river did dampen my enthusiasm somewhat. I showed the girls how to crack open rocks with other rocks and Elena and Isabel spent a lot of the afternoon cracking rocks and make a rock store.  I bought three rocks for $25.  :)   We finally left when it started raining like crazy. Then we had an interesting time changing into dry clothes using our big sun umbrella over the open back doors of our van as shelter.  Hee. Hee.  Good times.  It really was down pouring the whole time.

11. We made it home about 7 PM and we bathed the kids and fed them Ramen noodles and off to bed they went.  It was a really nice mini-vacation.

12.  Now I should be off doing all the things on my to-do list.  But I think I might post pictures for you all instead.

13.  Buenas tardes, amigos.