Gruene, Texas

The first stop on our two-week vacation was to Schlitterbahn with my family.  We travelled just down the road Friday night for dinner in Gruene, Texas. 

We had dinner at the Grist Mill, which is the former location of the Gruene Cotton Gin.

Vacation is Over

Justin and I made it back from our 2 week vacation.  We traveled to New Braunfels, Texas for a weekend with my parents.  Then we left for 10 days in Idaho to escape the heat.  I will be posting the pictures as I go through them but here is how our vacation started. 

Justin and I traveled to Idaho separately because I had to be in Houston to care for my grandmother and we didn't have anyone to pick us up at 11:30 when the later flight would get us to Idaho Falls.  Justin made it on time to Idaho Falls on Monday.  Later in the day I made it to the Houston airport to find the plane came in with a flat tire.  This delayed my flight into Denver and I ended up missing my connection into Idaho Falls.  The airline rescheduled my flight for late the next afternoon!!  I spent the night in a hotel somewhere in Denver.  I went back to the airport early the next morning hoping to get on an earlier flight.  I missed the first flight out (which I would have been standby on) because the line to get through security at the Denver airport is CRAZY!  Apparently they only have one security line that everyone has to go through.  For the next flight out they could only guarantee me a seat into Jackson Hole (1-1/2 to 2 hours from Idaho Falls) and I was on standby for the flight into Idaho Falls that left at the same time but at opposite ends of the terminal.  They couldn't book me into one of the empty seats until 30 minutes before flight time.  It would have taken me that long to get the other gate.  I took the chance and made it on the flight!!  Yeah!  I finally got to start my vacation...if only a day late.

Rylie the "Protector"

Our big guy might be getting older but he still gets excited when he is searching for critters or his "friends" as we like to call them. 

Now it is highly doubtful that there was even anything in the tree but you can't blame him for trying!

Finally??

A while back I posted this and this.  Well I think we have finally found peace.

How Justin Dries the Viper

Yes that is our leaf blower!!

Baleigh the Playful

She loves to "lose" her toys in the grass.  We can throw her tennis balls in there and she searches for it like a drug searching dog.  Her little tail is en pointe like a periscope from a submarine.  One of these days I will get a video of it.

Maura and the Sprinkler

Viper Event - Cruzin Cooler

A couple of weeks ago we went to a barbeque for the Houston Viper Club.  One of the owners used to work for a company that makes motorized coolers.  These were pretty darn cool.

Maui, Hawaii - The Hammock

These were taken at the Sheraton Kaanapli where we went snorkeling at Black Rock.  Great place by the way.  The Sheraton had hammocks.  The only thing that would have made them better was if they were under trees on the beach instead of in the middle of the courtyard where pale people would get burned easily.

Maui, Hawaii - Kite Surfing

Another set of pictures that were mysteriously lost on my hard drive...

In Maui, we stopped at the beach close to the airport to watch the kite surfers.  The height that these people were getting was amazing.

While we were watching there was a lady who was out for her first kite surfing lesson.  They initially make you learn to fly the kite from the beach.  Then once she got the hang of that, they let her go into the water.  Only we thought they were going to put a board on her once she got in there.  Nope.  She continued to get dragged through the water.  Initially we were scared for her being dragged through the water with no board but her instructors were not worried one bit.  She finally made it back to shore and we asked here how it was.  All she could say was..."WOW!!"  Justin really wanted to try it but the initial lesson is a minimum of 6 hours.  There is always next time.