School's Out for Summer

School's out! Obviously Batman and the girls are excited, but now I get to sleep an extra few minutes each morning, so I'm pretty happy, too.

San Antonio was fun--Sunday was rainy, but we still got to enjoy what we wanted to see. We visited the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which was . . . not worth what we paid for it, but we fed the animals and took lots of pictures. Batman told the girls that one deer-like animal was called a "testicle," so we had lots of giggles from hearing Special yell, "There's more testicles, Daddy!" We're like evil twelve-year-olds.

We stayed in an old, historic hotel right next door to the Alamo, the Menger Hotel, which I'd highly recommend. I'd also recommend parking elsewhere, because it cost a small fortune there. But it was historic parking, at least. Their courtyard and pool area were really gorgeous, and we wished we'd had more time to enjoy them, but there was No Time! For we had to get to SeaWorld! Which was worth every penny! Especially since I saved 20% of our pennies by flashing my Southwest Airlines frequent flyer card.

That's Number One next to the ROLLER COASTER that she rode! So brave!

SeaWorld was great fun: the weather was perfect, partly cloudy with no rain at all, hot but not stiflingly so, some breezes; there was plenty to do but not so much that we feel like we have to go back another time; and best of all, it was not crowded in the least. I was surprised, it being Memorial Day, but there were no lines the whole day. And we got to see Shamu, which was the best part and a nice way to end the day.

Note: this is not the real Shamu.

And now we're home again. Batman will be home with the girls until we leave on vacation in three weeks, and he came up with a great idea: together, he and the girls came up with about forty fun things to do, and he put each idea on a slip of paper and stuck them all in a jar. Each morning they'll pull out three slips and do whatever they say. They may go swimming, have lunch with someone, go to the park, pick up litter (or "glitter," as Number One used to say), or do some other adventure. Today they went to Whole Foods for lunch with GrandBob, played an hour of video games, and watched a movie after dinner.

My surprise adventures are more along the lines of, "Who just emailed me?" or "What did I lay out to thaw for dinner tonight?" But at least I get those few extra minutes of sleep each morning! Hey, I take my fun where I can get it . . .


Note: I was going to sprinkle more "School's Out" references throughout this post, and so I Googled the lyrics to make sure I had the words right. Sadly, the version currently stuck in my head is not the Alice Cooper classic, but the one from an episode of "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody," courtesy of the Disney channel. I think I just lost the only bit of rocker cred I ever had. So to get it back, here's a picture I took that makes Batman look like he's imitating Ozzy Osbourne at the Alamo:


And here are the rest of our weekend photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/larfamily/SanAntonioMay2007