VACATION!!!

Well, we just got back from our Plan B vacation to Austin and San Antonio, TX. Our Plan A, of course was to go to Gulf Shores with Josh's parents, but Hurricane Katrina destroyed that plan. We instead, we took a long weekend trip.

We left Wednesday night after church and drove through the night to Jesse's house in Austin. (Jesse is Josh's brother.) Thursday and Friday, Jesse showed us Austin. We got to see his office at UT, the Children's Museum and a Science & Nature Center. We ate out at a couple different places, and we got to meet Jesse's Hope Group (his church's small groups). They met at Jesse's. I was amazed we all fit in his cute little house!

I've got lots of pictures, but I tried to keep it under 30 that I posted. :) If you want to see more, let me know, and I can email some to you. You will probably have to click on the October 2005 Archives link on the right to see all the photos I've posted today. I have a couple of non-vacation photos... I put them up at the top... then the vacation begins... Enjoy!

Okay, it took me awhile to post this, but this is what Emmi's current tooth situation is. During VBS in August, she was jumping in an inflatable jumpy thing (whatever you call them) and somehow hit her mouth. One tooth popped out immediately, and the other we took out when VBS was over that night... It was barely hanging, and oh, so gross!

Our friends Patricia and Laney came for a visit from Clinton, MS. We were so glad to see them. Tori and Laney had a lot of fun together. (The rest of the girls had fun with Laney, too, they just didn't make this pic.) 

Kezzi learned this attractive face from Emmi! 

This is my new desktop background. I took this picture at the Austin Science and Nature Center. I really liked the lilies in the pond.... and the girls aren't bad, either. :) 

Sweet sisters.... 

I like this picture of Kezzi, digging in the "dinosaur pit" at the Austin Science and Nature Center. It makes her look like such a big kid! 

Here are the girls at the Children's Museum in Austin, TX.  

The big highlight of our trip was Sea World in San Antonio. Uncle Jesse went with us, and we got a nice big hotel room in San Antonio. Emmi and Tori posed with this poor sweaty guy in a Shamu suit, but Abbi and Kezzi wouldn't have anything to do with him! 

We spent two days in Sea World, and it was so much fun. The shows were all great, all the girls behaved themselves for the most part, and the park wasn't busy at all. Many of the rides, we rode over and over without waiting in a line! 

Tori and Josh ride the Shamu Express! Emmi is in there, too... that bit of hair next to Josh. :) 

Despite our near run-in with Hurricane Rita, we didn't see a cloud in the sky at Sea World. In fact, it was super hot! Sea World has nice play areas with water for the kids to run around in. 

Kezzi spent much of our trip being traumatized. I knew we were in trouble when she started saying "No, NO!" at the first animal we saw inside Sea World... the Clydesdale horses. Here, she is busy keeping her distance from the water playground you saw Tori playing in in the last picture. 

If you couldn't tell, this is a look and shriek of sheer terror, the first time we went to see the Shamu show. To be fair, she had just gone down to the side of the tank with her Daddy, and one of the whales splashed cold salt water on them.  

Oh, the trauma! 

Too loud! 

The girls got to feed the dolphins stinky fish. 

Kezzi did have a favorite animal... She really liked the penguins. 

A nice profile shot of the rest of the family. In case you're wondering, Abbi is throwing a ball into a cup for a prize, and the others are looking on. 

One of the many big splashes by the killer whales, designed to fill the eyes and nostrils of the tourists with salt water. 

These dripping wet girls were in the "splash zone" for that wave. 

The friendly killer whale that splashed. (Shamu, or some Shamu family member, I'm sure.) 

The end of our Sea World trip. Cute girls, pretty fountain... I don't know if you've tried to take a decent photo of 4 girls at once... 

It's really hard to get a good shot of each of them... so I try again and again. 

And it just gets worse.... 

Abbi was a bit goofy by the end of our big trip.