On The Road Again

Our last hoo-rah of the summer was to San Antonio for our family vacation! Chance and I learned A LOT about parenting on this trip and we have already planned out our vacation next year, keeping in mind the lessons that the kids taught us.

Day One:
We learned that that the Snake Farm in New Braunfels has become 1. Much less scary than it was when I was growing up and 2. Home to baby cougars. So, we thought this would be an excellent first stop on our trip.

Unfortunately, while waiting for the baby cougars to come out, Cade was heckled and pecked by a chicken. My un-suppressed laughter did not help his hurt pride and pecked leg, and his mind was made up that the Snake Farm was a terrible place. The cougars were very cute and it was very interesting to watch them climb all over one of the workers before she gave them their breakfast of raw chunks of meat. Chance and I would have loved to have played with them!



The Snake Farm houses much more than snakes, and it was fun (for most of us) to see the peacocks, wolves, monkeys, lions, and more. The petting zoo included some very friendly goats, but both kids were very ready to move on by then. 45 minutes is not exactly the amount of time we planned on staying at a surprisingly-expensive place, but it was TIME TO GO.



Parenting lessons learned: Stay away from chickens. Do not laugh when your son gets attacked by a chicken.

After a somewhat successful lunch at Taco Cabana (love it when we don't branch out at all while on vacation), we headed to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. We've been here a couple of times before and it has been super fun. Since Annie was little and slept through most of the visit last time, we were just sure that the kids would love to go again. In hindsight, we kind of remember the kids telling us before we left that they were not interested in seeing the animals on the drive-thru, but we knew that we knew best, so we made the plans and bought the tickets anyway.

Well, we have never been to the drive-thru in the middle of the day in July. It was hot. It was crowded. The animals were about as energetic as we were, and we could not coax very many to come eat food from our car. Even the monkeys that performed acrobatics in their cage last time were just laying down.



We had a long talk with the kids when we got out of the car at the visitor center. Both of them were whining about heat, complaining about being in the car, and NOT displaying the amazing enthusiasm that we expected. I'm pretty sure Chance was very close to driving back to College Station! We needed an attitude adjustment for all of us, and things turned around when I called the hotel and learned that our room was ready early.

Parenting lessons learned: Listen to your kids when they voice opinions about things they are interested/ not interested in. Do not buy 4 bags of food for the drive-thru in the middle of the day in July. Do not buy the pricey field guide when you go through the drive thru in the middle of the day in July. Do not go to the drive thru in the middle of the day in July.

We got to our hotel quickly and the kids were completely entertained by exploring the hotel room and setting up their beds. We threw out our plans of going out to dinner in favor of spending time at the pool and ordering pizza for the kids. The hotel provided free hamburgers and drinks for the adults that night.



Parenting lessons learned: Request an early check-in. Do not make any stops on the way to the hotel. Stay in a hotel that gives each person/ couple their own sleeping space. Get to the hotel pool as quickly as possible. Do not make any plans after this.

We decided that night to listen more closely to the kids and honor (as best we could) their requests. Even as teachers, our time during the summer with our kids is not limitless, and we want all of us to have happy memories. And on the first day of vacation, those happy memories were made while swimming in a small pool and eating Dominos. It also does not hurt that we bought the kids ice cream and that the parents got free drinks. Late bedtimes but smiles on faces got us ready for the next day!

And now I'm going to honor a different kind of parenting lesson that I've learned... don't parent on too little sleep. I'll continue this post tomorrow!

Destination: Dallas

We jam-packed tons of fun into our time in Dallas this year!

Family time usually keeps us pretty busy, but we did get to see some friends this time! We spent one night and Chris and Karen's house, where our kids had a blast staying up waaaaay too late with the Hull kiddos in the pool. And we got to celebrate Uncle Russell's birthday the next day! I should have taken pictures for proof, but I actually made chocolate chip cookies AND cupcakes for our friends, just like our pre-kid days.



The next day we got to see Whitney and Kyle King get married and hang out with our coaching friends. It was a beautiful wedding!



Our family fun started with a big dinner at The Palm restaurant. This Dallas landmark has been one of Jim's favorite places and he took his family there on several special occasions when the kids were younger. Before it closed to move to a new location, we had to go one more time! All 5 of the Locklear kids were there and it was super fun to see everyone. The food was delicious, the waitstaff was very patient, and we had a grand time!



The splash pad, Brookhaven pool, and Melly and Papaw's backyard brought us plenty of fun in the water, which was great with the soaring temperatures!



We had a short but crazy-fun time where all 6 grandkids were at the house, and we also celebrated Xavier's 10th birthday at a trampoline park!



Our biggest outing was a tour of the Dallas Cowboys' stadium!!That place is amazing! We learned a lot about the design of the stadium, got to see all of the highlights, and even play on the field for as long as we wanted. It was a long day but I'm so glad we did it!



More outside fun - a playground for EVERYBODY!



We have celebrated the 4th of July with the Locklears almost every year since we took our cruise in 2006! But this was our first year for matching shirts!

Teacher Appreciation

Since it's summer... we appreciate teachers more than ever!

We love having Cade and Annie home with us for more time each day during the summer, but we are also very aware that their teachers earn every penny of their paychecks. So here are some great memories of the teachers Cade and Annie had last year

You've already read about the incredible Ms. George, who was Cade's 3rd grade homeroom teacher. She came to his track meet in June and last week, she met us and the Erskine family at Chick fil A for dinner. She was brave/ nice/ crazy enough to sit at the table with Garrett, Cade, and Annie so the parents would have time to talk to each other. Ms. George was surrounded by 3 of her biggest fans, and Annie is dead set on having Ms. George as her teacher in the future.

Vandi and I tried to warn Ms. George and Mrs. Young that Cade and Garrett should not be in the same homeroom because they would not behave. Well, these fabulous ladies made sure that our boys did not only behave, but they thrived! 3rd grade was a great year!



Annie has been in the Sunshine class for almost a year at the Weekday School. Her favorite teacher is Ms. Tiffany, who actually works in another classroom. But Tiffany is so sweet that she always makes time to visit Annie and the two of them have such a special relationship. Annie was thrilled to be invited to Tiffany's son's birthday party, and less than thrilled that Ms. Tiffany has decided to stay home with her boys and no longer works at the Weekday School. Tiffany's last day was emotional for all of us, but the two of them now send each other facebook messages!



We also said goodbye to Miss Crystal, another wonderful teacher at the Weekday School. She is headed to nursing school, and we wish her the best! Her last day was the 4th of July parade day, so we got to see some very festive and patriotic faces before saying goodbyes!



August 28 will bring us Cade's first day of 4th grade and Annie's first day of Friendship (Pre-K), so here's to the month of freedom until then!

Next, New Braunfels

Our next summer travel took us to New Braunfels to see Oma and Opa. We were there just a little over 12 hours before the guys started fishing!



And it didn't take long for Annie to get bored with that, so the girls went exploring around Fischer Park, where Annie found some chickens and had fun on the playground and splash pad!



After a delicious lunch...



We headed to Natural Bridge Caverns. We had fun exploring while we waited for our tour, and then embarked on our journey waaaay down into the caverns. Most of the group found the tour pretty interesting, but Annie determined it too long and too much walking. I love how nice all of us look with the flash in the cave! The kids really enjoyed hunting for gemstones in the mining area after our tour.



Oma and Opa were nice enough to get a big pool for their backyard, and after spending lots of time (and water) filling it up, it was super fun!



Another highlight of our trip was Uncle Willy's 80th birthday party! It was held at my Great Oma and Great Opa's old house (Uncle Willy and my Opa's parents' house, which is still in the family), and I was so happy to take Chance and the kids where I had fun memories of holidays with my cousins when we were kids. Robbie and MJ have done a lot with the house, including adding a party area in the back and an outdoor restroom constructed entirely out of Jim Bean bottles!



We always have a great time in New Braunfels!