I can't believe it's been almost a year since I've blogged! I used to blog almost everyday in the summer. We left Sunday for our 8th year at the condo on South Padre Island. Mom and Dad came with us this year. On the way down we stopped in San Antonio to eat at Lulu's. We enjoyed chicken fried steak and one of their 3 pound, yes 3 POUND cinnamon rolls! If you watch Man vs. Food...Adam has been there and eaten the whole thing.
We spent Monday playing on the beach and enjoying the beautiful sunny weather. Well, all of us except Scott who had to fly to Houston and back for a work meeting.
And it was a good thing, because Tuesday we evacuated inland because of the threat of Hurricane Alex. We have now spent two nights in Corpus. If you are going to leave the island, you have to leave before the wind gusts get to 45 mph, because they close the Queen Isabella Causeway when that happens. I suppose so cars don't go flying off. Everyone was boarding up their windows and sandbagging their doors. The condo throws all the pool chairs in the pool to keep them from blowing away.
Yesterday we went to the Texas State Aquarium and to see Toy Story 3. The kids love the aquarium that's here. Since it was raining the regular outdoor dolphin show couldn't be done, so they did it indoor in the underwater viewing area. It was even better! It was almost like the dolphins were in the room with us.
Thomas got picked to come assist the trainer! Apparently the dolphins know their shapes. She would tell them to pick the circle or the triangle and they got it right every time.
We are checking out of the hotel around noon and heading back to the island. The Causeway is open and the emergency management website says that the flooding has receded and things are fine and back to normal. We kept up with what was happening on their Facebook page! The whole thing is unbelieveably efficient. We've seen the island in "Hurricane mode" twice now. Four(?) years ago we were there for tropical storm Emily. Spent the night in Harlingen then.
Better get to packing us up.....again. I will post "aftermath" pictures when we get back to the condo.
Hurricane Blessings,
Leslie
Many of you have asked about our big vacation for the year. We are going to Disney for Thanksgiving, and with Scott joining the mission team for Egypt, we decided not to do a big road trip this summer. We are still planning our annual trip to Padre Island, which will be a wonderful opportunity to spend some family time together the week after Scott returns!
Blessings,
This past year Grace has really blossomed into a confident, social, witty little girl. We are so proud of her and how well she is doing in school. Her favorite things lately are riding her new bike, playing with her friends, clothes, flip-flops, looking up verses in her bible, and reading. We are so blessed to have this beautiful girl with such a lively, sweet spirit.
Two weeks ago we picked the kids up at school on Thursday afternoon and took them to Great Wolf Lodge for the night. They had absolutely no idea. We told them we had to go to Daddy's office. When we stopped at the red light next to Great Wolf they yelled jokingly "Hey, let's go there instead!" We were in the parking lot, at the entrance and were out of the car before they caught on!!! I love it!! As we were checking in Scott pointed out that if we stayed the night we probably wouldn't make it back for school in the morning...you should have seen Thomas' face light up!! I love taking them by surprise like that and doing something they totally wouldn't expect! It was great to just escape and have a little family time for 24 hours. The kids played till they were exhausted. 
She did this blue slide about 512 times in the 24 hours we were there!
