Game On

Okay, so you are wondering what kind of game. Well, it's not really a game it's more like a competition. A good one. Many of my friends from church have decided to have a weight loss competition. I'm really excited about this. Some of you know that I set some goals back in February to lose my baby weight. I did decent for a couple of weeks, lost 5 pounds and then got off track in March while planning birthdays for both of the boys. At that time I had set some goals- lose 20 pounds by June, be able to fit back into my wedding dress by my anniversary (which was last Sunday) ......and obviously none of these have been met. I've struggled the last few months with trying to get "serious" again but after only a day or two I usually gave up. My friend Tami came up with a really great idea. Each Wednesday after church we are going to weigh in. Last night was our first week. We got our initial weight down, took before pictures, got some measurements and set some goals. We are all committing to 10 weeks. Each week, we pay $5 and the person that loses the biggest % wins all the money for that week. So, every week we all have a new chance to win. Right now, we have 14 people that have decided to do this (many will join in as we go) so right now everyone has the chance to win $70 a week if they lose the most. I love this idea and feel that this will really work for me. I never really loved the WW meetings- I didn't know anyone there, I really don't have any eating issues (mine is mostly just baby fat) and I found that I often paid $12 and walked away feeling pretty empty. Joining this group will motivate me since I know that my peers will see me gain or lose so there is major accountability, I have a huge group that I can lean on in moments of weakness and I have a chance to earn some cash.....maybe to spend on some cute clothes in a smaller size! Anyway, I've included the link to the Heritage Weight Loss Game. Feel free to cheer us on as we all strive to meet our individual goals. Here are a couple of sites that I refer to: http://www.dwlz.com/ and http://www.healthdiscovery.net/restaurants/index.html

Another great thing about this is that Jason and I have been really bad about not going to church on Wednesday nights. I am so excited that this will motivate me to attend regularly each week.

Here are a couple of pictures from our last day on vacation with Hudson. We took him to Chuck E. Cheese and he had a blast.

He loved the little ticket munching machine.

Fasten your seat belts!

Sea World

Wow, this is a double feature day- considering I posted already this morning. I have so many pictures from our trip but I also know that I can't bore those of you out there that check my blog from time to time. I'll try to pick the best ones and then leave the rest for my scrapbook.

We started planning our trip several months ago. We knew that Hudson was at the age where he would really enjoy Sea World. Jason and his mom talked about leaving Cooper here, with her, so that we could enjoy some time with just Hudson. At first I was very uneasy about this. After all, this was a family vacation. They kept telling me that we would have a better time not having to work around naps, diaper changes, snacks, height limits, etc......I finally gave in and agreed. Several weeks ago, we had some friends that went to Sea World. They came back telling me that I would have so much more fun if Cooper stayed behind. So the day finally came. We left last Wednesday after dropping Cooper off at Mimi's house. We drove down to Canyon Lake, where Jason's dad has a house located right on the Guadalupe River. It is so pretty and peaceful there.

On Wednesday evening, Hudson had his first experience with Jiffy Pop popcorn. We broke all the rules on this trip- staying up late, eating snacks and junk food, drinking lots of Sprite, no naps, etc......we were big-time rebels!!

We got up Thursday morning and headed out to Sea World. Here we are at the river house. It's so pretty! The view from the bridge by his house

At Dolphin Cove you could feed the dolphins

We saw several shows while at Sea World. This was the first one called Viva and it had acrobats and dolphins doing neat tricks. Before it started, there was a comedian that was acting silly and big streams of water were shooting across the stadium. He would pretend to turn the water off, it would splash in his face....you get the idea. Jason and I were watching all the kids around us laugh hysterically and ooh and aah with each move. Hudson watched very closely and was very quiet. All of a sudden, he leaned over to me and said "mom, where is that water coming from?" I don't know. But I did know that an "I don't know" would not satisfy my son. So I sat there, surrounded by children who couldn't give a rats about where the water was coming from, all the while I'm giving Hudson a rundown of the underground pipe system and how I "think" the water is coming out. What in the world?

This was Hudson's favorite fountain

Hudson and dad riding the Shamu Express

We spent a lot of time at the Lost Lagoon water park (sorry my friends, no pics) You may have a hard time deciding which is the real Shamu!

That night, we stayed at the Radisson Hill Country Resort. We really liked it. It was very nice, everyone was very friendly, the food was great, awesome service, and beautiful scenery. In the evenings, they have some activities for kids. One being, roasting smores on the outside fire pits. Hudson loved to roast the "smosmellows" as he calls them.

The hotel had a neat beach-entry pool for younger kids

Hanging out with dad

Back to Sea World. Looking at the sharks, fish, and the beautiful coral reef

Hudson and Jason feeding the Sea Lions

Checking out the penguins

The only souvenir he asked for- a battery operated spray fan. Go figure!

At the "Believe" Shamu show

Very hot and tired after a long day

The highlight of our Sea World experience was the dinner with Shamu. We all loved it! The food was great and we were so close to them. I did not even use my zoom lens here. We were that close. We learned a lot about whales. Did you know that there is more than one Shamu and that Shamu is actually kind of like their last name?

The Shamu waving goodbye at the end of our dinner

We had 2 great days at the park. The next day, we took Hudson to Chuck E. Cheese and to a movie. He really enjoyed his time alone with us. I may post more pictures later from the rest of the weekend because this one is getting pretty long. Overall, we had a blast and would love to go back when Cooper is around 3 or 4 and can enjoy it too.

Splish Splash

We got back from Sea World on Sunday. We had a great time together as a family. Yesterday was spent playing catch-up and last night I had Bunco. Needless to say, I have yet to go through the 300+ pictures that we took while we were there. I am going to try to do that today and possibly post those later this evening. For now, I am posting from last week when we got the pool out and let the boys play.

Although it was warm that day, the water was cold and Cooper did not like it one bit.

However, Hudson loved it and enjoyed playing with the hose and a few of his water toys.

Going down the slide and wow, the water was freezing!

Nothing better than a frozen ice pop to complete the day.

Sharing with daddy.

Sooooo cold, but oh so good!!

Our Tasmanian Devil

Every family has one, right? The kid in the family that makes a mess, leaves a trail through the house, and destroys things as fast as they are put back together. That Tasmanian Devil in our family is Cooper. This boy makes such a mess! His latest thing is to go into his room and take all of the diapers out of his basket. (they are clean) He will toss them nonchalantly over his shoulder. Once they are all on the floor he will again toss them over his shoulder. Then he crawls to that pile and does it again. I decided to just sit and take some pictures of this event.

Here he has them all on the floor just as he likes them. I think he is bringing back the "New Kids on the Block" look with the one-shoulder-undone-overall look.

He is working so hard that he is actually undressing himself.

Here is the over-the-shoulder toss

Then he gives you the look........

This was the funniest part. He was going back and forth between piles and his outfit got down around his waist. It was so baggy around the legs/knees that he fell flat.

Trying to fix it but it's beyond repair.

These clothes are really holding me back!

He managed to tear his room apart and undress himself, all at the same time. Way to go Cooper!! Although life with this little boy sure can be tiring, we can't imagine our lives without the Taz.

A Great Weekend

This past weekend, Jason and I went to Austin for the "Weekend to Remember" marriage seminar. It was really good and we had a lot of fun. It was such a great reminder that we need to put each other first. Like most young families,, we give everything to our kids and our spouses get the left-overs. We came home with a list of things to start doing so that we can make our marriage stronger.

Unfortunately, we missed the seminar in Dallas earlier this year. I was told that it took place at the Gaylord and that it was awesome. The one in Austin was at the Sheraton and we were pretty disappointed with our hotel. It was really old (we found out that they plan to completely remodel now that the conference is over) We got a conference discount of $149 a night (plus all the taxes, fees, parking costs,etc......) and it normally cost $217 a night. In my opinion, a $250-a-night room borders on a 5 star status and this hotel was anything but that. I'm not typing this to gripe about my trip, I'm simply wanting to tell you in case you plan to spend a weekend in Austin. The location was great- located right off the highway and in the middle of downtown- so that is how we justified it. To give you an idea, here were some of the disappointments. We got there on Friday, checked in for the conference and at the front desk. We gathered our clothes and bags and entered the elevator. It was SO hot and had no air conditioning. The trip up to the 8th floor was very long. It was this way the entire weekend. You almost couldn't breathe it was so hot. We got to our floor and found our room. Everything was clean but just had that older feel. Our room was simple and nothing to get excited about. Our conference started at 7pm so we went down to the hotel restaurant, Rojo Red's, and ate dinner there. The food was decent but overpriced. Our first session lasted from 7-10pm and was really good. We had a break in the middle of that session and we went to get coffee at the small Starbucks inside the hotel. It was already closed by 8:00. Lots of upset people that were wanting some caffeine!! We thought it was really weird to close when they knew that 800 people would be filing in during the break for a drink. After the session was over, I begain to get hungry. I had a small lunch that day and then for dinner I got a salad and didn't eat all of it. By 10:00 I had hunger pains. I thought about just getting some pretzels or something from the vending machine. I called the front desk and was told the 15th floor and the 1st floor had vending machines. We went up to 15 and it was only a Coke machine. We got into the hot elevator and went down to the 1st and that snack machine was broken. We went back up to our room and decided to order room service. No biggie. We talked about the first session and watched some TV. After 1 hour and 20 minutes- still no food- I called the front desk. She told me they were behind (tell me about it! My complaint was that no one told me that when I ordered) She said she would check my order and call me back. She called back and said it was being walked up right then. Another 20 minutes or so went by- still no food. I finally called back to cancel the order. It was now midnight, Jason was asleep and I was too tired to think about eating. I was not happy! The next morning, our seminar started at 8:30 and we had several breaks in between. We had neat projects to do together and we really enjoyed them. It was over at 4:30 so that we could have a date night. We drove around downtown, went to the Co-Op to get some UT shirts and then ate dinner at a place on 6th Street called the Iron Cactus. It had a rooftop balcony where you could eat dinner and look out over the street. It was pretty warm but they had fans and misters going the entire time. On Sunday, our session was from 9-1pm with breaks in the middle. We spent some time together afterwards talking about what we wanted to improve on and how we could make our family even better. Although the hotel wasn't the greatest, we still had a great time and are so glad we went!