House of Estrogen

Deep in the Heart of Texas

While the most of the country was frozen solid with the polar vortex last week, Elise, Nina, and I headed to Texas Hill Country. It was a great getaway. We arrived in sunny Austin, and my BFF took us on a tour around town and out for a much appreciated Tex-Mex brunch.

In the afternoon, we went on a wild ride around the lake in a golf cart driven by her twelve year old,

 

and Elise taught M some jump rope moves. (M, you're welcome! I knew you'd love having this photo out on the Internet for all to see!)

 

That evening, we got all gussied up for my cousin's wedding.

 

The wedding was... interesting different unique... um... I have no words. Really. I'll just sum it up with the music below. The bridesmaids walked in to the ceremony to this music. Play it. Seriously. Even if you are one of those people (like me) who never watches videos on blogs, just play a little of this. You won't be sorry. Now imagine you are sitting at a wedding watching bridesmaids walk in to the ceremony to this "music". No words for it, right? Or maybe too many words? Anyway, just play it.

It was definitely not your traditional wedding. In the midst of the Star Wars light saber candlesticks, Dragon Ball Z cake topper, black rose bouquet center pieces, and the explicit lyrics to Thrift Shop playing in the background, the bride looked gorgeous, the groom smiled from ear to ear, (sorry... lousy photo!)

and Nina debuted her Miley Cyrus pose with her cousin B.

Elise entertained her cousin E, and I was able to catch up with family.

For the rest of the weekend, we visited with more Texas friends,

and pigged out on Mexican food

 

and cupcakes.

The polar vortex extended our trip an extra day by mucking with flights, and that was just fine with us! We had a great time deep in the heart of Texas!

A Whirlwind Weekend in Texas

I never pass up an opportunity to visit my home state of Texas. I may not live there anymore, but I will always be a Texan at heart. A couple weeks ago, my cousin's daughter was getting married in Dallas, so what better excuse to plan a Texas trip!  I wanted to leave early Friday morning to maximize our visit. Since it was Elise's first week of middle school, I didn't want to pull her from school for the day. She stayed home and had a fun, quiet only-child weekend with her dad while I flew with the littles to Texas. My mom joined us too.

We had booked a room at the Gaylord Texan, mostly because my aunt, uncle, and a bunch of cousins were going to stay there. At the last minute, they changed their plans and moved to the Great Wolf Lodge. We had gotten a good rate at the Gaylord though, so we stuck with our original plans. I'm so glad we did! Any long time readers of this blog likely know of my love affair with the Hill Country Hyatt in San Antonio. It is one of my very favorite vacation spots. The Gaylord is like the tackier, over-the-top step-cousin of the Hyatt. I loved it though!

I would describe the ambiance at the Hill Country Hyatt as "Texas Elegance". It is the perfect combination of elegance and Texas charm. My other favorite Texas vacation destiination is the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch. I would dub its decor "Ranch Chic".  It is a little more rustic than the Hill Country, but still so beautiful. The Gaylord is more like, "The state of Texas threw up and everything landed in the Gaylord atrium."  It is huge. It is over-the-top. It is Texas-tacky, but it is so much fun.

Where else can you get eat breakfast or get your picture taken in front of a fake Alamo?

Or meander along a fake San Antonio Riverwalk?

Or get your picture taken with a 10 foot tall cowboy?

How many other hotels have you stayed in that have a fake oil well in the atrium? (This was the view from our room.)

OVER.THE.TOP doesn't even begin to describe this place. If you can overlook the tacky and just go with it though, it is so much fun!

If you were reading this post and thinking to yourself, "Gosh... I wonder what that place would look like made of Legos", I have your answer.

My personal favorite part of the Gaylord is the great big Texas star at the top of the atrium. Be still my heart. Do you think I could install one of these in my house?

Friday night, we kept with our "experience fake Texas" theme and headed to Traildust Steak House for dinner. I had my birthday party there in about 6th grade, and the place hasn't changed a bit. I knew the kids would love it. There is a really fast slide that goes from the second floor down to the first and sends you screaming across the dance floor. The girls had a ball. The food was mediocre, but we were there for the fun.

The next day, after some breakfast at the hotel, we put on suits and took the trolley to the Gaylord's water park, Paradise Springs. We spent a fun day in the water. Addison's favorite activity was the slide which she went down over and over again.

Nina spent most of her time on the zip line.

It is really a fabulous little resort waterpark, and the lifeguards were the most vigilant I've ever seen at any pool or waterpark ever. If anyone from the Gaylord happens upon this little ol' blog o' mine, your lifeguards are exceptional. They all deserve a raise.

We ate lunch poolside, with a margarita (or two) for me,

and shaved ice for the kids.

After we eeked out every minute of pool time that we could, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. Don't we look purty?  (That's Texan for pretty)

The wedding location was beautiful.

The groom's name is Kyle. I thought every Kyle in Texas was named after Kyle field, the football stadium at Texas A&M. So many Aggies name their kids Kyle (my cousin Kyle is one) that I figured it was a Texas law that all Kyles were Aggie-kids. Apparently not... this Kyle is a Texas Tech man. The horror! (My family is predominantly Aggie. I'm the black sheep who left the state for college.)

(I just noticed this cake is missing a strawberry or two. I hope one of my kids didn't steal one!)

The girls had a blast hanging out with their cousins.

Nina and B were hilarious. They took over the photobooth. When the bride and groom get the CD of photos from the photobooth, they will quickly discover that 90% of them are of Nina and B!

Then there were these two cuties. Addison and her little cousin E hung out all evening long. They walked around holding hands all night, and just couldn't have gotten any cuter. Addison was wearing the dress that one of my flowergirls had worn in our wedding. My mom made it, and I was so excited that it fit her! It looked just gorgeous for the occassion.

I just now realized that those two are going to be in all the photos of the groom taking the garter off the bride!! Oops!

It was such a fun weekend with family.

The next morning, we said good-bye to the Gaylord and the 10 foot tall cowboy and headed to the airport, exhausted. The flights were good except for the dicey landing. We're no worse for the wear though, so all is good. I loved our little getaway.

Remain in Your Seats (Unless Told Otherwise)

Over the weekend, I took the littles to Dallas for my cousin's wedding. As we were in the Dallas airport waiting for our plane to leave, I texted J.C. with this:

Is it a bad omen when one of your flight attendants falls out of the plane and is taken away by ambulance?

 He responded:

That depends. Did she fall or did she jump?

I never did find out the answer to that, but I definitely think it was a bad sign for the trip ahead. Most of the flight was fine, but as we were making our approach for landing, Nina looked out the window and said, "Mom, why are we going back up?" I looked out, and sure enough, we were heading back up into the air, away from the airport. I assumed air traffic control had routed us away from another plane or something. A few minutes later, the pilot came on and said, "Well folks, as we were coming in for a landing, the flaps didn't come up as advertised. We are going to circle around and try again." Visions of last week's Asiana's crash in San Francisco haunted me as we descended again. Then, as we got closer to the ground, the pilot said, "Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts securely fastened until we arrive at the gate... unless you are told otherwise."  I've been on enough flights to know the "unless you are told otherwise" is NOT part of the usual speech. That was definitely not reassuring. The landing went fairly well. We skidded off to the side at one point when I think the pilot must have had to use extra brakes or perhaps the flaps hadn't deployed evenly on both sides. We came to a stop though and everyone applauded. Nina asked, "Why did everybody clap?"  You've gotta love how clueless kids can be in a situation like that. Sometimes it would be nice to have their naivety.  I said, "Because the pilot got us here safely even though there were problems with the plane." Then, Nina looked out the window and said, "Look! There's a fire engine! And an ambulance! And another fire engine!"

Fire engines and rescue vehicles who had clearly been waiting for us were coming at us from every direction. It was at this point I realized that we hadn't landed on one of the usual runways. We were in a more remote location that must be used for emergency landings.  I knew we were on the ground. I was pretty sure we were safe, but it was all very disconcerting to see what they had prepared for.  The firemen in the space-age silver suits examined the plane, took pictures, and boarded the plane.  Then the pilot came on again to say that the plane was being inspected to see if it was safe for us to taxi to the terminal or if we needed to deplane there. They must have decided it was safe to taxi. We were able to get off the plane at the gate, but the firetrucks and spacemen followed us there. We all deplaned a bit shaken but happy to be home.

Nothing like an emergency landing to make you appreciate the ground like never before.

"If black boxes survive air crashes, why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?"    ~ George Carlin

 

San Antonio, Part 3: Jet Skis, Repairs, and Friends

The last part of our trip was spent at my aunt and uncle's lake house on Lake LBJ. Since LBJ is a constant-level lake, people build really neat boat houses and docks. There is no concern about droughts or floods since the lake is always maintained at the same level. It makes for a great vacation spot. M, my best friend since about 4th grade, met us there with her family. Her boys are close in age to Elise and NIna.

We arrived at the lake house a day before M and her family to have a little time to ourselves there first. Within the first hour or two on the water, I managed to run over a tow rope and kill a jet ski. Nice.

I got the privilege of calling my aunt and uncle... "Um... we love the lake house! We're having a great time! Thanks so much for letting us use it! But... uh... um... well, you see... I may have destroyed a jet ski." Fortunately, their response was something along the lines of, "Oh! No worries! That happens all the time. They know us at the boat repair place. Just tell them it is ours, and they'll probably fix it while you wait." Whew! Unfortunately, the vehicle we were driving didn't have a hitch. We called M and R who were busy packing their car and begged them to switch to their truck, so we would have a hitch available. The morning after they arrived, R and JC spent the morning at the boat repair shop... not exactly how they wanted to spend their vacation, but I was very thankful! A morning wasted, and fifty bucks poorer, but we were back in business racing around the lake by that afternoon.

While the menfolk were gone, the kids had a ball jumping off the dock.

Even M got in on the fun!

All the kids got along great, but none moreso than Nina and B.

I suspect there may have been a bit of puppy love between these two. All weekend, all we heard from B was, "Where's Nina?", "Oh Nina, you're going swimming? I think I'll go swimming too.", "Have you seen Nina?", "Hey Nina - over here!", "Nina... let's jump!" 

It was very sweet, and really... Nina can't go wrong with this kid. M would make a fabulous mother-in-law.

Actually, B wasn't the only one smitten that weekend. JC was quite taken with R... in a "you're really macho, I want to be like you" sort of way. R could make crazy killer big waves on the jet ski. He would zoom by the dock, and you'd think you were being hit with a tsunami.

Try as he might, JC never did quite master it.

It was certainly not for lack of trying though. I give him an A for effort. It will give him something to strive for next time.

Despite the lack of photographic evidence (I put Nina in charge of the camera, and she didn't do her job very well), I actually rode in this inflatable contraption. Anyone who tells you that this is fun for people over 40 is lying. It is not. I'm pretty sure I broke a few vertebrae in my neck. The kids seemed to enjoy it though.

Notice there are no pictures of anyone waterskiing or taking a ride in the ski boat? There is a story behind that. Earlier in the week, Addie broke a picture frame at a kiosk in Rivercenter Mall. Then I mangled the jet ski, and the guys had already spent part of their morning at the boat shop. Then, Saturday evening, Addie and B were beating on a door trying to get Nina to come out of a locked bedroom, and they knocked the door completely off its hinges. (not very good house guests, are we?)  JC and R had to spend their evening at Lowe's buying door repair parts and then repairing the door. After that, they put their foots (feet?) down and declared, "We will not be taking out the boat. It is just one more thing that we may break and have to repair."  Really, you couldn't blame them, so... no boating for us. That didn't stop us from having fun though.

After eleven days of vacation bliss, we drove back to my aunt and uncle's house. Along the way, we took in the sights... the high tech internet cafe in small town, Texas...

That sign pointed to this joint. I bet their dial-up line is screaming.

I wanted to drive through this place just to say the words, "1 Corona, 1 Chardonnay, and 2 red velvet cupcakes to go, please."  Where else can you say that? I don't believe I've ever seen a  drive thru that specializes in beer, wine, and cupcakes. It is clearly an untapped market. Who knew?

We spent our last night with my aunt and uncle where we tried desperately not to break anything else.

Then, it was time to pack up the swimsuits and head home after a great trip.

So long, San Antonio! Hope to see you again soon!

San Antonio, Part 2: Two Hyatts, Lots of Rivers

For part two of our San Antonio vacation, we headed to the Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch. Those of you who know about my love affair with the Hyatt Hill Country may be wondering why on earth we would stay anywhere else. The answer is actually pretty simple. It was cheaper, had more space (condo vs. hotel room), AND we still had privileges to use all the amenities at the Hill Country right across the street. For those interested, I'll post later about the differences between the two.

Anyway, the Hyatt Wild Oak proved to be a great choice for us. We just spent the middle of the week playing and relaxing.

We swam,

went down the water slides,

floated around the lazy river,

played in the playground,

climbed in the treehouse,

roasted marshmallows, and ate s'mores at night.

When we weren't frolicking around the Wild Oak Ranch, we were hanging out at our other favorite spot, the Hill Country.

We left no lazy river untouched on this trip.

Our other river excursion was to the San Antonio River Walk downtown. That is always such a great way to spend an afternoon or evening.

We went on a river taxi ride,

and had lunch at The Republic of Texas.

Mostly, we spent our days at the Wild Oak Ranch, relaxing, lying in hammocks, and floating around with smiles on our faces...

except of course, when the children were tired and hungry for lunch and their mom made them stand in front of the cool "Greetings from Texas" sign... not too many smiles then.

Clearly, I should have taken a picture of the sign by itself. Nina and Addie are sort of killing the whole "happy vacation" theme of this post. Overall though, part two of our trip was just very laid back and carefree... pretty much perfect.

San Antonio, Part 1: Babies, Water Slides, Caves, and a Birthday

Our San Antonio trip was essentially divided into three separate trips in three different locations. That seems the easiest way to divide up my blog posts as well, so here is part one. We started off the trip at my aunt and uncle's house where the girls played in the pool with Texas-style pool toys - duck decoys and cap guns.

Then we had fun playing with our new sweet baby cousins. They are 8 months old, but this is the first chance we've had to meet them.

This picture makes me want a fourth. J.C. would never go for it though.

These little girlies crack me up. They couldn't be more different. One is a total tank, and the other is a petite little thing. Their personalities are total opposites too. Miss Chunk is clearly in charge.

Nina got hold of my camera and took this fabulous photo of my aunt with one of them. Nice, eh?

Of course, the very next shot was this lovely one of a worm in the garage. This is classic Nina.

From there, we headed North to New Braunfels, Texas. If you ever need a place to stay in New Braunfels, I highly recommend the Float Inn, a gorgeous condo on the Comal River. It was beautifully decorated, and the owner was such a nice hostess. This picture was taken on the balcony. Check out that blue water of the spring-fed Comal River!  We didn't do any tubing in the river on this trip, but the girls loved watching the tubers and paddle boarders go by.

The condo is directly across the street from Schlitterbahn which has been voted the world's best waterpark for 15 years in a row. It is truly amazing. I'm not sure I can even begin to explain it. There are three separate parks. Blastenhoff and Surfenburg are connected by the world's longest lazy river that runs between the two. It has an "aquaveyor" which is like a conveyor belt that takes you and your tube up hill. In Blastenhoff, there are uphill water coasters (The Master Blaster is the world's best water park ride) that are crazy fun. In the original Schlitterbahn section (which you can get to by tram), a lot of the rides are fed by water from the Comal River, and some of the rides dump you out in the river at the end. This video from the travel channel describes it all better than I can.

I didn't take many pictures at Schlitterbahn because without a waterproof camera, who has time for pictures?  You'll just have to trust me that we had a ball!

Schlitterbahn was Elise's eleventh birthday celebration. When we were completely worn out and waterlogged, we came back to the condo for birthday cake from Naegelin's Bakery, the oldest bakery in Texas. I loved the jump rope on it.

The next day, we had planned for another full day at Schlitterbahn, but it rained and rained and rained and rained some more. It never rains in South Texas, but apparently the one rainy day of the year was that day. (Note to self... never buy two-day amusement park tickets for the last two days the amusement park is open for the year without looking at the weather forecast first.) We were all disappointed but made the best of the day anyway. We headed down to the Natural Bridge Caverns. The tour was a bit too long for Addie's four year old attention span, but the rest of us all enjoyed it and learned a lot.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we head back down to San Antonio for part two of our Texas vacation!

San Antonio, Picture A Day, Day 12

Killing time in the Tampa Bay airport...

San Antonio, Picture A Day, Days 8, 9, 10, and 11

Sorry for the delay in the "daily" picture a day posts. The lake house isn't too high tech. :)

San Antonio, Picture A Day, Day 7

Floating around at the Hill Country Hyatt today...

San Antonio, Picture A Day, Day 6

Should J.C. ever need to brand any cattle, we found a brand for him.