Friday, June 26, 2009

San Antonio.... the Alamo

You can't go to San Antonio and not go to the Alamo. Kevin and I actually went to the Imax movie about the Alamo first, and then we walked over (yes it is literally across the street) and went for a walk through the Alamo. You aren't allowed to take pictures inside so there are only a few outdoor pictures....










San Antonio....the River Walk

We spent a lot of time walking along the river walk. The evenings were great and there were a lot of people there. Here is a view of the city skyline from our hotel balcony

Looking down to the river from our hotel balcony

This is Marriage Island. This is a very small island on the river. They say there are over 200 weddings a year here. There wasn't a wedding today, but it really is a nice place.

It is supposed to be good luck to get married on this island. So for sure it is good luck to have your picture taken on your 10th wedding anniversary....



This is from the boat ride on the river. The colorful umbrellas is the restaurant Casa Rio where we had a great dinner.





Another picture from the boat...the umbrellas here are from the "Republic of Texas" where we had lunch.



Isn't it serene here?









San Antonio.... the Food

What trip is complete without good food and drink? San Antonio was no different.

We had dinner at Casa Rio on Friday night....this is the oldest restaurant on the river walk. And it was packed....the food was great....

I had cheese enchiladas....


Kevin had green chicken enchiladas.... notice the margaritas.....when in San Antonio.....

Homemade chips and salsa

For one afternoon we had lunch at the Republic of Texas....no pictures...why? Well we were sitting outside by the river....we said "lets take a picture..." the food came...and we dug in...no pictures :) There are pictures on the website...you can check it out there. LOL
We also decided we wanted to have a really good dinner out. A romantic dinner if you will....we needed to celebrate our 10 years of wonderful marital bliss.... so we decided to go to The Little Rhein Steak House....again no pictures...but you know there are some places taking out your camera to take a picture just does not seem appropriate. :)
Kevin had a cesear salad, the petit filet, and Chocolate Cake
I had the Beef steak tomatoes with red onion and blue cheese, the filet with gulf shrimp and finished up with Creme Brulee.
We also shared a bottle of Texas Wine. what a great dinner, and the company was even better.


San Antonio.... the Animals

We arrived in San Antonio on Thursday night, so Friday morning we got up and took the bus to Sea World.

First up .... Feeding and petting the dolphins....



We also watched a couple of shows.....


This guy sat for over and hour (I know I could see him from our seats at the show above). That sun must have felt really good to him....to me...100 degrees and 80% humidity was too hot.


Of course there is the Shamu show. I remember seeing the original Shamu in San Diego as a kid. It is still just as amazing. These are such beautiful and powerful creatures.










Ever since I was little, I have wanted to ride a whale like this. I guess I should have studied marine biology instead of education....







Do you see 3 tails waving at you?





On Sunday we went to the Zoo. This is a really old zoo it is about 95 years old. I love big cats and so here is picture of the one I wanted to take home..... I keep asking Kevin if I can have one....he always says no :(




We were walking along this walkway and this zoo guy comes up and he has a 5 gallon bucket and he says "you guys have a camera" well of course we did. So he said "get it ready" He had a bird that had died and he was going to feed it to this Alligator.







It really was hot in San Antonio, but we enjoyed getting outside and of course just relaxing and spending time together.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Welcome Joslyn

I am a little late in getting this one out....on June 8th, my niece Desirae and her husband Tim welcomed a new little one to their family...Here is Josyln and proud Daddy




It looks like big brother Caelum is also pretty proud. Dez and Tim had trouble deciding on a name, but Caelum knew she was Joslyn :)


Saturday, June 20, 2009

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Tornados near the Ridge

So on Saturday Jody and I decided to go out for dinner and movie. So we went to Mavericks, for dinner and that was good. After that we decided to go see "Up". So we went to the theater and found our seat, the lights went down and the previews started going. Everything is going well, next thing you know that lights come back up and the previews stop. Jody and I look at each other and say "great, something is broke". The manager of the theater comes in and announces to the 10 of us, that there is a tornado warning and asks us to come to the lobby.

Once we go down to the lobby we can hear the warning sirens and someone says that 3 tornadoes have touched down by the airport. Since we live less than a mile from the airport we ask the manager if we can get passes and she says yes and we head home. On the way home there are State Patrol blocking the road about 3 miles from our house, but they don't even stop us as we drive right on thru.

We get home and everything looks normal but the dogs are a little jittery. So since we are home we decided to stay home for the night and watch some TV. But then another storm comes thru and disables the satellite system (due to the rain) and we get hard rain, wind and light hail for about 15 mins. The hail would hit the deck and the wind would blow it around. Scary, but everything is ok and the TV came back.

We then get the paper on Monday and find this article. Come to find out, there were no tornadoes that touched down and that it was all just a precaution. But we did find out in that article that the Storm Chasers where here again as someone took a picture of the "tank" Sunday morning. It is June in Colorado, which is when we get the majority of our severe weather.



But on the bright side with all this rain, everything is really green and pretty and afterwords the air smells so nice and clean.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Fixed the Tractor

Well on Monday I called the local John Deere place and they happened to have a drive belt for the tractor. So Jody's parent went and picked it up. So Monday afternoon I tore apart the bottom of the tractor to get everything out of the way to get the belt in. The guy at JD who designed this thing ought to be taken out back, way to much stuff to take out to replace a part that is gonna break. I got 90% of the way there and got stuck, so I had to ask Doug, and he came over on Tuesday and figured out how to get the belt in. Took him like 5 mins. Anyway after that I finished up putting the thing back together, and I didn't even have any parts left over. So I took the mower out and did a couple of laps before the rain came... I'm never gonna get this yard mowed...

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Outside day

Today (Saturday) was an outside day for us, you know that big room off the house with the bright light that is on part of the time. And yes mom we put on suncreen, I had on SPF 55 and still got a little sun. Anyway, today we went over to Doug's and got the garden cleaned up and did some planting. We planted sunflowers, corn, pumpkins, tomatos, squash, cabbage, lettuce, jalapenos and carrots. And there was already onions, rhubarb and mint from last year growing. So we thinned things out, got rid of the weeds, and finally did the planning. Doug then got the watering started. So wish us luck on our crop.

After that Jody and I came home and worked in the yard. I ran the smaller mower and Jody ran the big mower until she broke it. Actually the drive belt broke cause it was just worn out. So gotta get that replaced now.


Yup, that is Jody out in the yard making big cloud of dust. Luckily we had the other cart so we could tow the mower up to the house. And not have to push it up the hill.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Flat Tire

Jody and I were going into town yesterday to do some errands (pick up dog food, go to the bank, etc.). So as we just got into town, I heard this odd sound coming from the back of the car but I was not sure what it was, and since we were in a construction zone we were driving slow... well next thing I knew the car was driving very odd and then the light on the dash came up saying the tire pressure on the left rear tire was low.

So I turned off on to a side street and pulled over. Yup the tire was flat. So I get to change a tire. I can't remember when the last time I did this, but it took about 15 mins to do, so not too bad. While we had the broken tire off we checked it and the side wall was split rim to tread on the inner side of the tire, about a 3" long split in the tire. So I wonder if I hit something in the construction zone. Anyway, that set of tires has about 55K miles on them and it was getting time to replace them anyway. So "Andy" gets new shoes tomorrow.