Mine and Cade's vacation...

I was supposed to go to camp with Ryan to bring the college group to SL student staffing. I decided like a week before that with my pregnancy it wouldn't be a wise decision. I had come down with a really, REALLY bad headache the week before they left and was sick all night long. I thought it in my best interest not to go to a camp that was gonna be pretty much all physical. My parents were gonna keep Cade the week I was gonna be gone and since they already had all the hotel rooms and what-not reserved I decided to just go along with them. I don't think I would have been able to stay home all by myself for a week waiting around for my child AND my husband to come home. I like being alone for short amounts of time but not like that..lol.

Anyway, Cade couldn't stop talking about Sea World and how he was going to feed and pet and kiss the dolphins. He talked about it for like 4 or 5 weeks. I told him really early cause I wanted to make sure he was going to not be afraid of these pretty large animals that come straight to you for the little fishes. I had to remind myself not to tell him stuff early any more...lol. Anyway, my dad got all the really good pics of Cade feeding the dolphins but they are on a CD and I couldn't get them to upload to my computer. Hopefully I can get them from his card and post them...they are super cute. He had so much fun. My little camera doesn't take as good of pics as my dad's, but I guess it's all in how much you spend on your camera and his is a lot better than mine..lol. Oh, well, here is a pic of Shamu that I thought was good enough to share. I really enjoy watching the dolphins and the whales and looking at all the marine life.

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On day two we decided we would take Cade to Aquarena Springs. I don't know if anyone else remembers this place, but I have been there numerous times as a child and have the fondest of memories of it. You know, the glass-bottom boat, the submarine that takes you down into the water and you can watch the swimming pig and aqua-maids, the sky rail ride. Well, after we finally found the place we saw that lots of things have changed. It no longer looked like I remembered, which was really sad for me. After going for so long as a child and then seeing it as an adult it really hit me how old I am getting. It's been like 23 years or something since I've been there and the guy running the boat was telling us that the park actually went bankrupt and the college took it over (Texas State University). The submarine sank during El Nino and they never moved it. It just sits there, filled with water...a sad reminder of how it used to be. The guide was explaining that the spring (which looks more like a lake) is a federally protected body of water now because of the natural springs that bubble up from it. It was nice to ride on the boat, but Cade didn't find it all that interesting.

This is a picture of Cade sitting on a cypress knee. You can see how large it is, which tells you how old the tree is.

Later on that afternoon we drove down to Natural Bridge Safari Ranch. We thought it would be nicer than walking around in the heat at the zoo. We didn't see as many animals as we thought we would but we did see quite a few. They had this little petting pen filled with little goats that Cade really enjoyed. It was nice to watch him have fun interacting with animals.

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The third day my parents had planned on taking Cade to Fiesta Texas, but instead we decided to go downtown to the Children's Museum. Three floors of stuff for kids to touch and handle. It was just a place packed full of things for little kids. Things showing them how water comes up from the earth, a ball room demonstrating vacuums that sucked balls up through tubes, magnets, blocks, even a small mock-up of a grocery store where the kids could walk through and shop for their own groceries and ring them up when done. It was so neat and Cade had such a great time.

This is a small archaeology dig site where he found numerous things that were buried in the dirt. He got so excited when he uncovered something new...lol.

This was a small dentist office where he could pretend to be the receptionist. He could also brush teeth and read x-rays. Out of all the stuff we did over the course of the week I think he enjoyed the Children's Museum the most. I would recommend it to anyone visiting San Antonio (and btw, it was the cheapest thing we did there...lol...only $7 per person).

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Although I really enjoyed getting away and having a vacation, I missed my husband so much. I wished that he was with me every day. He had a fantastic time on his SL trip and he and the students he brought worked really hard. He came back with a new vision and it excites me to watch God reveal things in his life. I pray for him daily as I hope you all pray for your husbands. It is so important to make sure that we are all supporting them in the ministries in which God has called them.