Here's the next day (day three, I think?) This day, we went to Fiesta Texas. Here's Sadie and Mads with Sylvester and Bugs.

Anna loved the fact that Fiesta Texas has "Wiggles World". We sat through the show and I have such sympathy for those charachters in the costumes and the ones not in the big costumes. Sweat pouring out of them like a water fall.

We went on the Roaring Rapids equivilent down there and right before we went on, they inspected all the tubes shutting the ride down for probably 1/2 an hour. This totally deflated Sadie and Madeline as you can tell from the picture.

After Fiesta Texas, we went down to the Riverwalk and ducked into a place that looked like it might have good food. Turns out it was a bar also and they had karaoke, to boot. Sadie's drinking root beer out of a bottle. (I promise, it's root beer.)

Madeline got up the nerve to karaoke Taylor Swift's "Teardrops On My Guitar" and got the biggest round of applause. We have now taken our girls to their first bar and watched, with pride, Madeline's first karaoke. If that ain't redneck, I don't know what is.

Then we took the riverboat cruise along the river. Here they are actually looking like they're getting along.




Anna, not long for this world in this picture, was quite content to sit on the non-river side of the boat, thank you very much. She didn't last the whole tour...

...as you can see.

Ok, the differences between SeaWorld and Six Flags (be it over Texas or Fiesta). One, SeaWorld is so spread out, we didn't even see everything. Six Flags is more compact. We did everything we wanted at Six Flags, including the water park. We didn't even see the water park at SeaWorld.

Two, SeaWorld is less expensive on alot of things. you can rent a locker to put your stuff in for 50 cents, at Six Flags, it's two dollars, I think and that's just to put your stuff in for the duration of a ride. All day lockers are $15. We have a season pass for SeaWorld for the price of a one day ticket. The season pass for Six Flags will pay for itself in about 2 1/2 visits, nice when you live next door or go to places with other Six Flags as we do/have.

Three, Six Flags has misters at every turn, at all the lines for rides, at the games, everywhere. If you get over heated, it's really your fault. SeaWorld is HOT. HOT. HOT. There was NO relief. Although a bottle of water is only $2.50 or so, still, put up some misters already!

Four, Anna couldn't ride ANYTHING (except the kiddie rides) at SeaWorld. We slipped her onto Journey to Atlantis (shhh, don't tell) and she loved it. She couldn't even ride the Shamu roller coaster which is built for little 'uns. Come on! She is fearless. She loves coasters and rides everything she can at Six Flags and loves every minute of it.

OK, there's my comparison of SeaWorld and Six Flags. I'm not sure who wins. Well, yeah I do...Six Flags. Not to say we won't go back to SW, but this time we know what to expect.

Tune in tomorrow for more tales of the WanglerWorld vacation!

not a vacaation post

So we got home tonight at 10:45 and we have no air conditioning. Our neighbor Lisa (who fed our cats while we were gone) told us that a tree trimmer did something to a line a few houses down and electricity went out again and several things were "burned" out in our neighbor's house. Our air conditioning, main computer, the main bathroom, the living room fan are all non-functioning now. And all except the air were off at the time.

Oh, we'll be getting to the bottom of this!

In the meantime, it's too late to find/post pictures so I'm going to do it tomorrow in the light of day and after a full night's sleep in my own bed, albeit a hot night. What I would'nt give for that loud air conditioner in that first hotel, huh?

Vacation post # 2

Our first full day in San Antonio, we went down to the Alamo. Actually, this was a request made by Madeline. She really wanted to see it. She's a big history buff and I couldn't be prouder.

So here's the Alamo. And, oddly enough, we could tell something was about to go on or had just gone on and lo and behold, who did we see?













Our esteemed Governor Perry. He was signing in a bill that, coincidentally, may come into play in our lives sooner rather than later. It was an imminent domain bill that we're not sure what they ended up making the bill say but, since "we" (a real estate firm) are marketing our neighborhood to, hopefully, take advantage of the locale it could play a part. We're hoping that it doesn't come to that (no matter what the bill says). We want someone (or company) to come in with buckets of money and throw them at us. But, I digress...on to the rest of the second day...





Here are some pictures from SeaWorld. A place that was hot and spread out so far and wide it was hard to do it all. Conrad and I were also not feeling very well so the heat did nothing for us. We got the season passes (same price as the one day pass, don't understand that but we took advantage of it) so we can go anytime we want, should we desire. Or if anyone is going down there and wants to take our kids, feel free!

Dinner anyone? Biggest lobster I've ever seen.

Mads and Sadie got to feed the dolphins and Mads actually got to touch one.

Our girls, actually getting along!

Madeline and Anna riding something at SeaWorld.

And, below, Mads with one of the pirates after the pirate show. (No, not the one we got to participate in - more on that in a later post.)

Then onto Shamu!!!! Yep, we sat in the splash zone and got wet. I don't know if you can see the whale jumping out of the water in the pic on the right but it is. Amazing!

And below is a whale showing off for us.

A great time was had by all at SeaWorld. More fun for some than others, due to various "not feeling goods" but we persevered. Tomorrow, I'll tell you the differences between SeaWorld and Fiesta Texas (aside from the obvious differences in themes).

Vacation post #1

Hello Everyone from beautiful South Padre Island, Texas. We're here on a family vacation after a stop in San Antonio. So, I'll start with SA. We left from Mom's house (after a high school reunion which I'll have to post pics from next time) in Shreveport, LA to go to San Antonio. It's a heck of a lot further from Mom's than our house, but we made it.



Here we are at our first official vacation stop...Sonic. I, unfortunately, stopped up the toilet there, keeping any of the rest of us from using it. We had to go next door to McDonalds for any subsequent calls from nature.

OK, truth be told, I don't think the person who flushes actually stops up the toilet, I think the person before does it, the next person just reaps the "rewards" of said stoppage. Embarrassing? Yes. Let's just say we won't be visiting that particular Sonic again.

I got on Priceline.com to get our hotel in San Antonio. $55 for a 3 star hotel. Not bad, huh? Well, let me tell you for that $55 a night, we got the LOUDEST, no internetest, least amount of TV channels you could get in San Antonio. It's saving grace?...sleep number beds. I have fallen in love with them. I think I'm about a 55 on the ol' sleep number.

The girls liked the pool and the hot tub. We didn't like the restaurant, the internet (or lack thereof) or the loudness of the air or bathroom fan. It was an OK hotel, just not what I expected from 3 stars.

We're in a Super 8 tonight, paying more per night but the air isn't loud, I have internet and the girls have Animal Planet. Does life get any better?

We'll be beaching it all day so if I'm still alive tomorrow night, I'll post more pics of our first full day in San Antonio.

quick update

For those of you who check without reminders, here's you a little nugget:

I have no internet access right now or you'd be seeing all our vacation photos etc. It all started with the power going out on Wed. night of our childless week then this hotel's internet and my cute little laptop don't communicate well so, you'll just have to wait until we get back.

See you all soon!

Recital

Today's post comes on the heels of a Ranger loss. I know this because we went to the game...childless!!!! When we first got there, we got to hear both the Canadian and American National Anthems. (Hey, the Canadian National Anthem is a good one!) Then we saw Kelsey's boyfriend, Shane, selling peanuts. We were sitting in the seats in front of our seats and the people came in to claim their seats (where we were) and we knew one of them, our former neighbor Clark. Then after talking to him awhile, I turn around and the guy behind me looks familiar and I said that to him and he says to me "well, I'm an attorney". Now, I don't know if I look like someone who uses an attorney often or what but I did actually know him, his kids go to ACA. I look down and there is one of the PTO people I served with last year. Then, I see another neighbor who sells cotton Candy, Eugene, and talk to him and then another PTOer texts me and says she saw me coming in and asked where we were sitting. Now, I realize I've lived in Arlington almost longer than I've lived anywhere else but this was weird. I don't think I've ever seen that many people I know in that short a span all in one place.



This post is actually about Sadie and Madeline's recital. I may post another one about it tomorrow night because it takes so darn long for videos to load and I'm tired and ready for bed. Sorry. The picture of Sadie with her lips kissy-fied is her and Madeline not wanting to get their picture made. Then the other one is of them before they started their jazz dance. The video is part of their jazz dance.

Tomorrow night will be the ballet.

I promised my Mumsey that while she had the children I would update the blog with all my pictures I've taken over the last week or so. You have her to thank for these updates. There should be one each day.

This one is Anna's end of the year program at her "school". They made these t-shirts, the rainbows are made with their fingerprints. Very cute.



















OK, I saw the blog after Conrad opened it up and all my pictures were in a nice neat row, like they're supposed to be. I don't know why they don't look like that when I put the blog together but I'll just have to deal.






As you can see, Anna's come out of her shell a bit. They used these scarves when they sang "She'll be comin' 'round the mountain".













And, proud moment for us as a family. She knows all the words to "Take me out to the ballgame". Excuse me while I wipe away this tear. Enjoy.

So, I am way far behind in updating, I know. However, I'm going to start with the latest and greatest.




I'm not sure why the pics loaded the way they did, but we'll work with it. These are only a few of the pictures I took last night at the official first event of the new Cowboys Stadium... at the right is Conrad and Phillip approaching the stadium. Unlike most of the people who attended last night, we only had to deal with foot traffic. It took us maybe 5 minutes to walk there and there were many police persons along the way to help us safely cross streets. I thanked each one of them, personally.






Then, at the right someone offered to take our picture outside so I let him. Thank you, kind stranger.








This is the first glimpse I had of inside the stadium. Awesome sight.

The picture to the right is the first line I stood in for a t-shirt. They actually had one (and only one with all my requirements. It had to have: inaugural event, George Strait, cowboys stadium - in word or picture - and the date. The one they had had all of that. I should have taken a picture but I didn't think about it until just now. I'm wearing it.

Because it took me so long to get the t-shirt, I missed 1/2 of Lee Ann Womack, all of Blake Shelton and about 3 songs of Reba. She can flat sing, that Reba. This is a picture of her during her set.

And below is a picture of her in her encore performance of "Fancy" ( a personal favorite of mine - the song, not the dress, although the dress ROCKED!!)

At right is the picture of what $12 will get you. One very tasty margarita in a take-homable "cowboyrita" glass. But, shouldn't they have been called "cowboyrebas" just for the night?

OK, well the pics moved, the pic of Reba is now to the right of this writing.





Phillip and Lisa before George came out.

At right, Conrad and I before George hit the stage.





Here's George!!!!!

Thanks to the HUGE video boards in the stadium, it doesn't matter where you sit, you're face to face with whomever takes that stage.

This is the video of George having us tell Jerry (Jones) to open the roof. It was AWESOME!!!!! You can see the roof opening, slowly. It takes 12 minutes for it to open fully. I hope the noise doesn't blow your speakers!

So you now saw the official first opening of the roof at an actual event. Don't you feel like you were there?

Other than the fact that it took so dang long to get the shirts and other stadium glitches, like no straws, and no forks and the fact that most places couldn't take credit cards because something went down, things that Jerry will have to fix and didn't really affect me since I ended up not being able to eat because I REFUSED to stand in another line and no one thought to get me anything to eat when they stood in line, I really had a great time.

The ABSOLUTE BEST PART: George Strait, himself, sang "The Chair" while my husband and I danced. You just can't beat something like that. It's a memory I'll have for a lifetime. Thanks, honey, for being so brave to go online and get tickets for us. You're the best!

playing a little catch up

Hi! Been awhile, I know. Lots has gone on that I would show you in pictures, however, when I started taking pictures on Saturday, I deleted all the pictures in my camera - not thinking that I hadn't downloaded all of them yet - so we'll just start with Saturday.



Saturday was very busy. First was Sadie's recital. She did very well. We were all so proud of her. Nonnie came in for the event and, while it was a short stay, we all enjoyed her being here.



This is Sadie receiving all her ribbons and her bronze medal for piano this year. She has really improved, I think.





This is her recital piece. It's Minuet by Bach. She's so impressed that she learned a piece by Bach. Thanks to Nonnie, she memorized it. Nonnie put the edict down that she should practice 30 minutes a day and after the second day, she had it memorized. Sit back and enjoy.














I put this video of a song another young man played (yes, I only got a portion of it) that hearkened me back to my youth. Sundays on the way to church with my sister and my Daddy. He taught us all sorts of songs. Well, I should say, he taught us new words to songs that already existed. Here are the words to this song. My Mom, sister and Aunt Janis will probably already know these words. Go ahead, you know the tune. It's the one in the video...Sing along!!!



Give a cheer, give a cheer

For the boys who drink the beer

In the bathrooms of ol' Blytheville High

They are brave they are bold

And the liquor they can hold

Is a story that's never been told



For it's guzzle guzzle guzzle

As the beer goes down the muzzle

Shout out your order loud and clear

"MORE BEER"



For wherever you go

You will always know

That those beercans

Just won't flush away.



After the recital and after Mom left, I went and took a nap. I intended to just sleep for an hour or so but, apparently, I needed some sleep and got up just in time to get ready for church, for Monsignor Joe's 50th anniversary celebration Mass. (50 years in the priesthood, pretty good, huh?) Here he is in his Monsignor robe. I've never seen him in these. I missed the mass where he was Monsignored or however you say it.

Immediately after that little shindig, I went home and we all went to Ethan Hale's birthday party. You know, Ethan Hale - Becky Hale's son, and that means Becky Hale cookies!!!! Since it was at a water park, the cookies were nautical themed. Aren't they cute? They were delicious, as usual. Thanks Becky!

It ended up that everyone had to get out of the water due to lightening but we'll get to go back at some point. So, two parties for the price of one. Can't beat that!

On to today...Happy Memorial Day. I hope you all are remembering those who gave their lives in the service of our country. We needed a new flag so Conrad and the girls went out to get one. Mads helped put it up.

(And, Mumsey, if you're wondering why Mads isn't in her new swimsuit, she's been in the new one for two days and it needed to dry.)

And our Amazing Rangers play the icky Yankees today and one of the perks of living where we do is that we get the flyovers. This Memorial day it was 4 helicopters. I just happened to have my camera out and caught it. Had to run like the wind to get it but I made it.

I hope this Memorial Day is one of rememberance, cookouts and just plain enjoyment for you all.

This weekend was the annual trip to San Antonio for the Cinco de Mayo Soccer Tournament. The "Killer Ducks" (Conrad's team) always stay at the same place, although it changes names from time to time. It's now known as Hawthorne Suites and when we got there, these were in the fountain out front.
Think they appreciate us? We've stayed there for 10 years now so, I'm sure they do. We always have a lovely time and there's lots of soccer and a "banquet" at a local restaurant after the Saturday games. Now, for the Ducks, it's not a tournament they hope to win, that's not the point. The point is to get together and play for the weekend. And, when I say play, I do mean soccer but I mean play in other ways as well. Nobody plays like the Ducks! However, this year, they fooled around an won two of the three games on Saturday which means they had a playoff game on Sunday morning. For the Ducks, this is hard, because the aforementioned "playing" really kicks in on Saturday night at the banquet so, it's hard for everyone to get up for an 8:30 game, not to mention the three games they played the day before have taken a toll upon their "duckly" bodies.

Last night at the banquet, we got a call that Anna had a fever, so we were more inclined to go home on Sunday morning than play/watch soccer so, inadvertently or not, we ended up sleeping until 8:15 and would have missed 3/4 of the game anyway so we just went on and headed home. We hope the Ducks did well in the playoffs. Sorry you didn't have Conrad to help out.

However, on Saturday night after the banquet, we decided to do something a little different for us. We went downtown and strolled along the Riverwalk and went to Alamo. As witnessed here.

That's my sweet husband in front of one of Texas most historical landmarks. We enjoyed being away for the weekend (without the girls - big shout out to Anita for making that happen) and just being together and with other adults. San Antonio is a lovely city (when you don't live there - been there, done that!).

I hear we missed exciting weather here. I hope you all "weathered" the storms and your house is more sturdy than the Cowboys training facility! That news even hit SA out on the soccer fields. Have a great week, everyone. Stay away from "flu-ish" people and stay healthy!

The elusive #500

Welcome to the 500th post of the "Wanglerworld" blog. Because coming up with some sort of monumental list or memorable post essentially scared me into not posting for over a week (call it writer's block), I am posting about a wonderful event in the Wangler family: Madeline's first communion.

Today was the day! Madeline's turn to finally take first communion. And, here she is with her Godparents, Paul and Anita.

Nana even came to town to see the wonderful event. Although her GPS led her astray and she didn't get there until after it was over. We were happy to see her anyway!

In all her glory!

With Nanny and Parrain.

And, sister Sadie.


All three of my girls.

All of my family except Uncle Howard, and the Armstrongs. Cool.



One down...

...two down...


...one more to go. See y'all in 5 years for my next "first communion" post!