New Braunfels and Schlitterbahn

My parents made plans to take some family friends to Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels last Friday. Their plan was to be at the park at opening (10 am) and stay until closing (8 pm). They invited us to go and there was born a plan. You see, Lisa and I thought we could do the babies a favor by driving up on Thursday night, staying the night at a hotel (with a voucher I had) and meeting the family and our husbands at the park at 10 o'clock on Friday. While planning we decided there was no reason to drive up just to go to bed and decided to leave around lunchtime. We ate lunch and headed out. I didn't nurse Kate before we left because I figured she would nap once we got there and we were in a hurry. So off we went. Also, our camera bit the dust so we picked up a Nikon D60 so you should see a little improvement in our photos, I hope!

It wasn't long before one was doing this...

While the other did this...

There was some lovin' and some fussin'

And finally some of that...

Just in time for this...

Which woke everyone back up

We made it to the hotel and got unpacked. I tried to nurse Kate, but she wanted nothing to do with it. I chalked it up to the fact that she had just witnessed me putting together the pack'n'play and she knew I was trying to get her to sleep. We decided after a few minutes of kids playing with the phone and refrigerator and jumping on the bed, that we needed to get out of the room.

So we headed out to the San Marcos outlet mall with a pit stop at Cracker Barrel because according to Leah, "that is where you eat on trips".

After dinner we stopped at a few stores and found a few good deals. We stopped by the bathrooms for diaper changes and found a carousel.

The kids had fun riding, until...

It stopped...

And then they got angry.

So we followed the beautiful Texas sky back to the motel.

And let the kids swim for a bit.

At 10:30 we started getting kids in bed. Kate still wouldn't nurse and by this time I was very engorged. I kept trying and she was just plain upset. At one point she head butted me and put my tooth through my lip. She then found herself in the playpen. She was so overtired. I let her cry for a few minutes, while I cried on my pillow. I hurt (my lip and chest) and I was a little stressed not knowing what to do. I didn't have a pump or pads or Advil or cabbage. After 15 months she sure picked a prime time to quit on me. I eventually gathered myself and tried again. She nursed well and went to sleep.

We all slept pretty well until 7:15 when Isaiah fussed and woke us all up. He, then, went right back to sleep. The girls were all up though. Since they had foiled our great plans, we got our swimsuits back on and had breakfast (which Kate nursed fine at)...

then loaded up and met up with the family...

And headed here...

We got in and found a "home base" for the coolers, stroller, wagon, towels, etc., got lockers, tubes and sunscreen and then split up. My group headed to one of the big canal rides. If you have never been, they have these rides that are like a big concrete river that have drops and tunnels. They take about 45 minutes to ride and are filled with water straight out of the river....very cold!

You even wind up in the river at the end of them. We hopped in line for one and waited about 45 minutes. Kate was tired until she hit that water. They have tubes with mesh nets for the kids so that they can sit in the hole of the tube without falling through. She LOVED it. We rode rides like these and played in the kiddie section, stopping only for lunch, until 5:00 pm. She went non-stop that whole time. Finally at 5 she slept for 45 minutes and then went back at it.

Leah had been to this park before, both in and out utero, but was too young to remember it. She loved it. She was a real trooper, never napping and never getting fussy. Kate was a true maniac though. These rides are not meant for small children and are rated "high thrill/deep water". That girl learned after the first slide (mind you, at 15 months) what the top of the drops looked like and would stand up and "surf" in her tube until the top, when she would "hunker down" like a ground hog, at the very last second. There was a lot of signing and screaming for more. Every time she saw a life guard along the way she would fuss at them thinking the ride was over. The life guards began remembering her and wouldn't even bother touching her tube. She was too fun! She is SO intense and loves a big thrill. Both girls had SO much fun and we had a blast watching them. I obviously couldn't take our camera with us, but Micah took his High Def video camera with a water proof case so we hope to have some great shots on that.

At 7:45 pm, 15 minutes prior to closing, we all hopped on one more 45 minute chute ride as a group. We then loaded up for the trek home. Kate slept about 45 minutes of the 3 1/2 hour drive home, but Glenn and Leah slept the whole way. We got home and in bed around 2:00 am, but it was SO worth it. We had a blast!