Swim Lessons

Summer is here, let the pool time begin! We made sure to get the kids scheduled for swim lessons first thing this summer so that they could get their comfort level in the pool early. Before lessons, my prediction was that Avery would jump in right away and do whatever Ms. Natalie asked her to do and that Austin would be hesitant, possibly not want to venture far from the stairs. I figured it would be the end of week 1 before she convinced him to put his face in the water. I was on the money for Avery, but Austin proved me wrong. He was a little more hesitant than Avery when it came to venturing out away from the steps, but he let her take him and practice kicks and he put his face in the water to go get the dive sticks. I am interested to see where they will be after 2 weeks of lessons.

Memorial Day weekend

Nothing too exciting to report for our holiday weekend. We've stayed close to home after being on the road the last 4 out of 5 weekends. The highlight for the kids has been the purchase of a kid's summer must-have: a slip n slide. I went all out and got the double one (that's supposed to be sarcastic) and it has proven to provide the kids, primarily Austin and Avery, with hours of entertainment. If these early scorching temperatures are any indicatinon, it looks like we have a long summer ahead of us so any activity to help cool us down is welcomed. I know I should have pics, but those will have to come another time when I decide to get my camera out of the bag.
If there are any soldiers or verterans who happen to come across this, we thank you for the sacrifices you have made to allow us to live in a free country. Because of you, our children have the opportunity to make their dreams a reality and be whatever they want to be. We salute you for your courage and dedication to the United States of America.

That is NOT a caterpillar....

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have lots of bugs around - not in the house - just on our property. Austin & Caleb don't seem to be scared of picking up whatever is crawling around and putting it in their bug box. June bugs are a favorite find and pill bugs have no chance when they are found. Two days ago Austin found a caterpillar crawling and put it in his bug box. We talked about it making a cocoon and turning into a butterfly. I'm pretty sure it got out already. The boys have an issue about just watching the bugs.... they'd rather hold/torture them.
So now onto my story about what happend this morning before work/school. We had left a bag of trash sitting outside overnight and Wes was going to be taking it to work to their dumpster. Overnight the trash got maggots which must have crawled out onto the driveway. When Wes went to get the bag at 5:30am, he shook off the disgusting creatures and took the trash away. Two hours later, it was time for the kids and I to load up in the car. I saw no signs of anything crawling on the ground, but I do remember Austin bending down to pick up something in the cracks between the sidewalk. Minutes later I am leaning over to load him in the car and he opens his hand and says "Look Mama". I freaked out, hit his hand and smushed a maggot with my shoe. I was totally grossed out and I scared Austin to death. "NO Mama", he cried. "That was my caterpillar." Poor guy was heart broken and stunned.

Country Critters

So I just posted about having a mini HEB veggie section right outside our back door, a definite livin' in the country perk, right? Well with the good, there is the bad and there are quite a few bad things that attempt to make a home way too close to our house. Snakes, rats, spiders, bugs... all that creepy stuff. It's really not that bad since we keep things pretty clean around the property, but every once in a while something crawls up and puts us on critter alert.



Snakes are the creepiest! The kids know to come get mommy & daddy and never touch a snake.














Black widow spider! This scares me the most. Wes found this by one of the light fixtures on the front porch.


This rat enjoyed feasting on duck eggs in a nest that one of the ducks had near the house.... that is until Wes caught him.








So this isn't so bad, but I still consider him a country critter. We held the turtle captive for about a week and then he disappeared one morning.... on purpose.

Fresh veggies!

Love this time of year when supper is literally steps away from the back door. Wes gets full credit for the garden. He tills, plants, picks.... all the hard stuff. I help cook and we all eat! This year we have onions - white and red, potatoes, broccoli, corn, squash - yellow and butternut, zucchini, bell peppers, green beans, cabbage, jalepenos, cilantro and tomatoes. YUMMY!

Sea World!

Dear Sea World,

Thank you for the opportunity to spend a fun filled, nonstop day together as a family. From the animal exibits to the shows to the rides, we enjoyed every minute. Thank you for offering strollers so that we did not have to carry exhausted children around as we strolled from one side of the park to the other (best $$ spent the whole trip!). Thank you for giving us the chance to get up close and feed the Dolphins. The Azul show blew us away, and though Shamu was misbehaving and his show was cut short, we still enjoyed seeing the killer whales make massive splashes in the water. Thank you for the splash park that helped cool the kids off as the sun started to heat things up. We had a great time at your park and we will definitley be back.

The Maurers

Wesley, Jamie, Austin, Avery & Caleb

He just couldn't go anymore! A little cat nap before the Shamu show.

Pool time!

As I mentioned in an eariler post, the Hilton Hill Country Resort was a great fit for us. There was a zero entry that got no deeper than 1 foot and a half. Then there was another family pool that was connected to a hot tub. All the adults loved a little hot tub time and the kids LOVED every minute at the pool. Swim lessons couldn't come soon enough!

San Antonio Zoo... what's missing?

If you have looked closely through all the photos, you may notice that something is missing. Look again. Can you figure it out??? Well besides the Maurer Crew, which includes Mimi & Popo, there are no other people. We got to view the entire zoo by ourselves.... well, not exactly. After the monsoon rains Friday which lasted past lunch time, we decided that since we were in the downtown area at the Children's Museum, we should go to the zoo, even if there were still rain clouds in the sky. We got to the zoo around 2pm and as we drove to the entrace, I honestly thought we were at the wrong parking lot. There were literally only 6 other cars. Wes went to the front gate to check things out and minutes later we were walking on zoo grounds, umbrella in tow. There were no lines, no crowds, no need for breaks in the shade. The down side was that with the rian, some of the animals had been kept in their indoor habitat, but we still saw plenty of wildlife. Austin was so animated about anything new he saw "Aw... Cool mom. Look, look!" His eyes would get big and he'd point and make sure his brother and sister saw what he thought was so cool. One of the highlights was feeding some of the fish.... um, can't we do that at home? I guess it is a bigger deal at the zoo.

We lasted about 2 1/2 hours at the zoo. With no crowds, we walked through the grounds pretty quickly and by 4:30pm we had 3 exhausted kids. It was time to head back to the hotel for a nap and some pool time.

San Antonio Children's Museum