Glass Bottom Boat

Today, our friend Sarah treated us to a special "adventure trip".  She took us to the Glass Bottom Boat tour in San Marcos, TX at Spring Lake.  Here are the girls in front of the boat we went out on for our tour.

This is a bald cypress tree at the park.

The girls enjoyed standing next to the trees.

There were lots of cool places to take cool pictures.

Natalie refused to sit down, she did not want to get dirty.

We finally convinced her to pose with her sister.  I love this picture of the girls.

Here is Miss Riley.  She is growing up so fast.

She asked me to take her pictures with the butterfly paintings.

Here is Riley in front of the original underwater theater.  This place was fascinating and was one of the first amusement parks in Texas.

Here they are posing.

We finally got to get on the boat.  There was this long wooden box down the middle of the boat with a big glass bottom.  All the boats are made of wood and not fiberglass.

This is what it looked like below us.  Not that we needed to look through the glass.  The water there was so clear you could see straight to the bottom without the boat.  The entire lake is fed through underground springs.  The log on the bottom of the lake is over 100 years old!

Here is the view out the side of the boat.  See what I mean about the water being so clear?  There are also Gar in the lake.  They like to hide in all the plants.

The kids were completely fascinated.

Here is one of the big fish swimming under us.

This picture is of some birds that were panting to cool off.

They had an aquarium we got to walk through also.

They had turtles...

Photo op!

Then we went to the Wetland Boardwalk.  This was a great experience for the kids to learn about being quiet.

Riley is so smart.  She said,"Mom, if you are really quiet you see a lot in Nature and its beautiful."

I agree.

Randomness

We love samples!  Its the best free snack in town.  The economy is down and we are dealing with it and making the most of free fieldtrips.  LOL

This is what happens when the girls get ahold of my phone.

Here is Natalie's silent cheer.  This is what you do when you are happy and cannot be loud.

Summer Pic and Grillin'

Here is a picture of a wonderful greek salad I learned to make from Miss Aunt Jill.  UMMMM!!!

Here are the girls swimming.

Riley is learning that mistakes are okay... it's what you do about them that counts.  Yes, she has a unique sense of humor.

I decided to not be afraid of the grill.  I thawed out some of our steaks and face my fear...

It turned out beautiful.  The downside was it was a little freezer burned.  

Cousins Camp 2011

We have great family.  The WhatchaMcCalleys had us up to Dallas for a visit.  It was great!  They treated us to all kinds of fun.  We even took Oliver.  Here is a picture of him looking in at us from the back porch.

Natalie and Abby were ready to go swimming.  I just love Abby's fashion style.

Here are most of the cousins.  Emily is at her Duke TIPS camp.  We missed spending time with her.  Mr. Muscles is Trey. 

Max made the girls sidewalk chalk. I traced Natalie on the driveway and then she drew her sandals on her feet.

Natalie has become quite the photo op girl.

They did sleep...

Jill treated all of us to a trip to In-N-Out burger.  That was one impressive outfit.  We only had to wait 20 minutes.

In-N-Out gave all the kids hats to wear too!

The girls love the swing...

Here is a picture of a pasta salad I made while up there... we got the recipe from one of the sample stands at Central Market.

We went to the neighborhood park.

And the girls went bunny hunting.  I was so glad they never caught one.  They were planning on us taking it home with us and making it a pet.  They actually caught one and it escaped within seconds.

We spent a lot of our mornings on the porch with Ollie and having morning coffee(for me).

Here is Natalie trying to cool off after playing tag.  LOL

Trey taught Riley one of the cool things about having braces.  Here is a metal dart stuck to her braces.

The day we left was the Mavericks Victory Parade.  Thank goodness we were going the opposite direction.  Here is a picture of the American Airlines Center on our way out of town.

And then tragedy struck....

Natalie left her beloved Pinkie in Dallas!  Not to fear Miss Aunt Jill sent her to us UPS and the very next day Pinkie was home safe and sound!