Spring Break 2010

Wow! We had a great time over spring break. It was really nice to spend a full week with the boys and not have to think about work or school.

We started off our week of fun with a football game on Saturday. The Eagles won! I'll have to work with Kenny to see if there are highlights of Nate to post.

The time change (and spring weather) killed us on Sunday. No one could drag out of bed because of the time change. Add to that severe allergy flare ups and we stayed at the house most of the day. I think Kenny stayed in bed all day. The boys and I managed to get to WalMart to buy a few things for the trip.

We did laundry and packed on Monday.

Tuesday morning we were up and ready to go. We got to Galveston around 3:30 and checked into our room. We planned to go to the beach; unfortunately it was overcast, drizzly, and cool on Tuesday. We went to the beach anyway.

We walked down the beach next to the seawall and out on a jetti. Then Nate decided he couldn't pass up playing in the water. He started on the edge, just getting his feet wet. He ended up doing push up in the waves, a la Navy SEALS. He also made a friend while he was playing (no surprise).

Gray started off away from the water. He sat down in the sand and was very unsure about it. Then we moved him to the edge of the water so he could put his feet in. He just stood there and let the waves wash over his feet. That had an unfortunate effect of washing away the sand under his feet, causing him to get stuck. Then a bigger wave rolled in and knocked him down. It didn't bother him too much because he continued to stand there after we picked him up.

The biggest disappointment was that the boys didn't get to use the beach toys and build the giant sand castle that Nate had dreamed of.

Wednesday was beautiful and we went to Schlitterbahn. They only had the indoor section open, so it was nice and warm. The boys enjoyed splashing in the kids area and floating around on the river. Nate faced his fear and went down the large tube slides (with Kenny and I). He loved it and ended up doing the slides over and over all afternoon. We were worn about by 4 and decided to leave. Gray fell asleep before we got out of the parking lot.

Kenny had his ophthalmologist appointment on Thursday. He got a good check up. Then we went to the Johnson Space Center. We didn't realize that Spring Break was their biggest week and the place was packed. We did get to do one really cool thing though. We took the tour to the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. That's the big swimming pool with a life size mock up of the International Space Station and/or Space Shuttle that he astronauts train in. The astronauts happened to be training in the pool that day. We arrived just after they lifted the astronauts out of the water and got to watch them get out of their suits. They use a large frame to lift the astronauts out of the water. The tops of the suits connect to the frame and the astronauts have to slide out of the bottom. Then the astronauts have some helpers wiggle them out of the pants. It was very interesting to watch.

All of the boys had check ups with the Retina Specialist on Friday morning and got good reports. I'll write a separate post about Nate's situation. Let's just say it's a roller coaster.

After the doctor's appointments we headed north. We stopped to visit with Grandma Hutchins. Then we went to Hillsboro to watch Becky play basketball. Her team won the tournament. We all stayed in Grandview on Friday night.

Kenny and I came home Saturday morning and left the boys in Grandview. Nate went camping with his cousins Saturday night. They had big plans to roast weenies, but it was too cold. Luckily they were camping in a trailer. Nate said they had a triple bunk bed that he loved. Kenny and I took advantage of the alone time to go to dinner and movie. It started snowing while we were out.

Sunday morning we woke up to six inches of snow! I couldn't believe it. After the roads cleared we met Granddaddy to pick up the boys. Then we headed to a birthday party.

It was a busy, fun filled week and we hated that it was over. Going to work (and school) on Monday was hard.

Here are some pictures with highlights from our week.