Easter Weekend

We spent Easter weekend at Jason's Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's house up in Dallas. Saturday morning we all got up, got ready, ate breakfast and then headed out to the lake to take a ride on Uncle Jim's boat and jet skis. Jason, Aunt Shelley, me and the girls stopped by Walmart first to pick up some sweaters and life jackets for the girls. It was beautiful out, but just a tad bit chilly!
We met Uncle Jim, Mike and the kids at the dock. After Uncle Jim filled up the tank with fuel, we headed out! Jason and Mike took their turns on the jet skis. I tried taking pictures and filming, but it was a little difficult to keep the camera steady while the boat was moving, so the videos didn't come out that great. That and the jet skis go so fast, the people on them end up being tiny spots in the distance in no time! Oh well - I tried anyways.
Jason took Kristin out for a little while and she loved it! I was surprised she didn't want to stop sooner - with the water being as cold as it was! Katie seemed to enjoy herself too. Her hair was blowing all over the place while she spent most of her time watching the jet skis from the boat while they made waves in the water.

At the dock getting ready to go on the boat!


Katie-poo


Kristin-poo


Jason getting ready to take the jet ski out...


Mike is either constipated or giving me his serious-looking pose - I'm not quite sure. ;)


Kristin and Aunt Shelley


Me and the girls are ready to go!


Kristin and Marissa


Aunt Shelley and Becky


I don't remember what I was laughing about, but it must have been funny!


Uncle Jim and Katie taking the boat away from the dock


Jason taking Kristin out for a ride on the jet ski


Mike doing another pose...


Me, Becky, Rissy and Katie


Jason and Kristin


Jason and Kristin on the jet ski



Katie entertaining herself


Mike, Jason and Katie


Me and Katie


Aunt Shelley had packed some things for lunch, so we ate sandwiches and some chips and dip while we were on the boat. After we docked the boat, covered it up and loaded the jet skis, Aunt Shelly and I went grocery shopping for dinner. When we got back to the house, Uncle Jim started grilling ribs while I got to work on Katie's birthday cake. Since she seems to love all the Elmo toys she sees at the store - I thought I'd make her an Elmo cake (that and I already had an Elmo cake pan from Kristin's 1st Birthday). I had forgotten how much I hated making Kristin's Elmo cake and I soon remembered when I got to work on the frosting. I always prefer homemade frosting to store bought frosting, but I do so HATE making it! It's not so much the making it as it is the tinting it different colors - especially if I have more than one color to tint! Ugh! I had so much trouble getting the right red color! I think I almost used a half a bottle of red food coloring! Which explains why everyone had red stained teeth - and also why Katie had a diaper full of red tinted poo the next morning!! ;)

Anyways - it took me freakin' 3 hours to finish decorating the cake! Everyone had eaten dinner long before, but I couldn't stop until I was finished! So I ate dinner afterwards at around 1030pm. I was so hungry! For some reason, Katie woke up (which is unusual for her to do after she goes to bed), so we just decided to throw her a birthday party at 1045pm at night! Which worked for me because I didn't realize until after I started the cake - that I didn't have anything to cover it with when I was done! Like it mattered anyways - when I was finally done, Kristin thought she'd help me out by covering it with a bowl... and the sides of it got all smeared and nasty looking! Sniff sniff. All of that hard work! Oh well - it was destroyed and eaten up within 10 minutes anyways, so who cares!

Getting ready to sing Happy Birthday!





A lovely family picture ;)


That's a little bit better...I suppose...(besides Kristin's red frosting dyed face) ;)


Micah, Mike and us


Katie looks totally lost


Present from Grandma and Grandpa Capra


Present from Mommy and Daddy


Presents from Great Grandma Jackson


Presents from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil


The next morning was Easter! We woke up to a scrumptious breakfast prepared by Uncle Jim and then we went to Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's church for their Easter service. We came back home for Kristin to do a quick egg hunt (of plastic eggs filled with candy) inside the house - since it was too cold for an outdoor egg hunt. But I'm sure it was no where near as cold as most parts of the country! This is probably one of the warmest places to do an Easter egg hunt! If we can't handle the cold here - we won't be able to handle it anywhere! I think the main reason we didn't do it outside - was mostly because Jason was too cold to go out and hide the eggs... And Kristin happily agreed that he should hide them inside the house. Tisk tisk.

This is what Jason wore to church...it was so humiliating! I don't know who was more embarrassed - me or Jason's cousin Mark (this is his letterman's jacket). He made us look like high school couple with 2 kiddie-poos! ;)


Kristin on the hunt for her candy-filled easter eggs


Hunting...


Kristin shared her candy with everyone and it was all eaten up within a few minutes!


After all the candy was eaten, we packed up the car and headed back home to San Antonio. But before we did, Mark and Mike thought they'd perform a couple of duets at the piano. One of the songs they performed was Colors of the Wind from Disney's Pocahontas. It was hilarious!

Mark and Mike's Duet


On the way home, we were quite disappointed that Ikea had closed early for Easter. We were really looking forward to another round of meatballs! Dang blast it! Before we all went to bed, the girls opened up their Easter boxes from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil, Grandma and Grandpa Capra and Great Grandma Jackson. Kristin and Katie were delighted to find that there was more candy involved... ;)

Sorry this was such a monster post! But it wasn't my fault! We had such a busy couple of days and I'm no good at getting to the point! That should come as no surprise to any of you! Am I right? ;) We had a fun Easter weekend at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's...of course! We hope you all had a great Easter as well!!!

Jason's Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim come to visit!

Well okay, so they didn't come to visit us specifically - but they came down from Dallas to San Antonio to go to Sea World and they invited us to come along. ;) They came down last Wednesday night and spent the night out at the Riverwalk, then we met up with them at Sea World early the next afternoon. When I say we, I mean me and the girls. Poor Jason had to work all day and he was on call at the hospital, so he didn't come home until Friday morning.
Aunt Shelley, Uncle Jim and three of their kids arrived at Sea World before it even opened. We, on the other hand, didn't get there for at least another 2-3 hours. Traffic getting into Sea World (because of spring break) was part to blame. It took us an hour before we ever even made it to the parking lot. It usually only takes us 15 minutes to get from our house to the parking lot! I definitely would have turned around and went home if we hadn't had family inside!
All of the kids get taller and more older-looking every time we see them! We just saw them a few days after Christmas and they already look so much older! Their youngest kid, Micah was only a baby when Jason and I first got married and now he's almost as tall as me! Time goes by so fast!
They had already been to the Shamu show (my favorite one) and another show, so we went with them to watch the Sea Lion show, then we rode a couple of rides, watched a 4-D Pirate show, played a few games and ate some funnel cakes and cotton candy. Mmm hmm!

Katie and Uncle Jim


Kristin gets kisses from Marissa and Becky


Becky, Marissa, Kristin and me at the Sea Lion Show


Uncle Jim, Katie, Aunt Shell and Micah


It's Becky's turn to try and hit all of the blocks down with one shot!


Becky and Aunt Shelley riding the Great White rollercoaster


Who will win?


Becky choosing her prize after she wins the game


The park was very crowded, so we didn't get to ride a couple of the rides (since we didn't feel like waiting in 1 1/2 hour lines). Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley decided it was time to go, so we left the park. Aunt Shell and Uncle Jim decided to spend the rest of the night alone and I took Becky, Rissy and Micah home with us to spend the night. We went out to eat for dinner at Chipoltle and then we headed over to Blockbuster to rent a movie and to the commissary for snacks. Jason's brother, Mike, also decided to drive 8 hours down here from Oklahoma to come visit while we had family in town. He got in around 9pm that night. We watched a couple of movies - August Rush and Enchanted - and then we all went to bed around 2am.

Jason came home from work around 9am the next morning and woke everyone up. Not too long after that, Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley came by to pick up the kids. They decided to leave a day early and head back home. I was sort of bummed out! I thought they were going to be here to celebrate Katie's 1st Birthday with us! Did I forget to mention that? Katie turned 1 year old on March 20th (the day we went to Sea World)! I can't believe she's already 1! She still seems like a baby to me - but she looks so much older now! Sniff sniff... I guess it's about that time... Time to replace her with another baby! ;)

Anyways - we didn't celebrate her birthday on the 20th because Jason was on call, so I was going to have a party for her the next day...but everyone decided to leave! When Uncle Jim heard that Jason would have a 3-day weekend, he invited us to come up to Dallas and stay with them, go out for a ride on their boat and celebrate Easter together. I always love going to visit them, but I felt SO bad that Michael had just driven 8 hours to come visit us and he had only just arrived late the night before! There was also the issue of money (for gas). When is money not an issue?! I hate money! Well - the lack of it anyways!

We left it up to Michael and he agreed it was a good idea. He enjoys visiting his aunt and uncle just as much as we do. I'm sure he was just being nice. Who would want to drive 8 hours - only to turn around the next day and drive 5 hours back the way you just came?! Poor Mikey!
So after we got everything packed, we headed up to Dallas - with a stop at Ikea for a late lunch along the way! We never drive by Ikea without at least stopping by for their Swedish meatballs, red potatoes and lingonberry sauce! Yummy! We also thought we'd walk through the store really fast to take a couple of pictures/videos. Jason always needs potential footage for any movies he might want to make (if he ever finds the time)!

Kristin and her Uncle Mikey enjoying their meatballs!


We put Katie up for sale


Shopping for Katie...literally


Mikey getting cozy on a cow print rug ;)


Rug shopping


Michael welcoming customers to Ikea...an embarrassing day for us all ;)


We eventually arrived at Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley's house later that evening and we spent the rest of the night cackling and telling stories while we ate a late dinner.

Japanese Garden or Chinese Tea Garden? Whatever...

So after church last weekend, we went out to our favorite Greek restaurant for lunch, then we stopped by Barnes and Noble for some Starbucks coffee and a little reading while the girls played in the kid's section.

Jason and the girls on our 1-mile trek back to our car from church (in their usual formation)


Afterwards we decided to head over to the newly renovated Japanese Gardens. Actually I'm not really sure what to call it. It's referred to as both the Japanese Garden and the Chinese Tea Garden. Which really doesn't make any sense to me. Isn't Japan and China two completely different countries?? Hello?!

Anyways - we thought we'd go take a look. It was nice, but it didn't really seem all that Japanese (or Chinese for that matter)! I'm not quite sure what qualifies it to be called either. We've been to both the Japanese and the Chinese Gardens in Portland, Oregon and those both appeared to be very Asian - each with their own distinct look. But for whatever reason, San Antonio calls this place a Japanese/Chinese Garden. Luckily the admission was free - which was a good thing or we would have been pretty disappointed! It was still a nice place to go for a walk and look at all of the pretty flowers, lake and waterfall. So here are a few pictures of our visit. This was another one of Jason's crazy camera clicking days. ;)

Me and the girls at the Chinese/Japanese Garden


Kristin posing for the camera


Me and Katie looking up at one of the stone creations


My little Katie-poo


Katie waving to someone


Me and the girls


Kristin being cheesy...as usual...


Jason and the girls on a bridge


Yay! Someone asked if we wanted our picture taken!


Jason trying to make it look like Katie is all by herself. She loves it!


Jason and Katie


Kristin doing one of her cheesy poses ;)


Two of my cuties...


Anytime is a good time for a little toss!


Aw...


A cheese muffin in the making


All done! Hooray!


That same weekend, we also stopped by Toys R Us for their Egg Hunt activity. We got bags for each of the girls and they both received a couple of eggs at two different locations in the store. One lucky person (per store) was going to get a surprise in their egg - a free trip to Disney World. Surprise surprise...we didn't win anything except for a couple of coupons for things neither of the girls would be interested in. Pssh! So before we stormed out of the store with shattered hopes of an all expense paid vacation to Disney World, we stopped by the coloring table to draw some pictures. Here's our finished masterpieces...

I don't think Katie cared too much about coloring... She was more interested in finding something to eat. ;)


Hey! What does that have to do with Easter??!! That little turd! ;)


Me and Kristin with our artwork


Why does it look like Jason and I had more fun than Kristin and Katie? I guess we're easily amused...