Veteran's Parade San Marcos

The town of San Marcos (about 10 min South of us) had their Veteran's Day parade today so more people could attend, since many still had work or school yesterday. 

So we picked up some donuts and headed down.

There were many vets in the parade, it was nice to be able to wave at them and say thank you. A lot of local businesses and schools participated in the parade too.

The kids were happy when people in the parade gave them candy.

We saw a lot of cool old cars and also some loud motorcycles.

We noticed we were sitting right by a historic park near the river. We walked around and I staked out some good spots that I want to come back to to take Christmas portraits.

It's been crazy busy!

Sorry I have not been blogging...it's been crazy busy! Last week I was getting ready for the arrival of my family, Tason, David, Armilyn & Alexander. They arrived on Thursday and Friday. It's the first time my brother Tason has come to visit us in Texas. On Friday afternoon we had plans to go river tubing on the Comal in New Braunfels - but right as we were about to leave to go do that Stephen misplaced the van keys. We searched for a few hours with no luck. He picked up another van from work and we decided to go to San Marcos which is closer by since it was getting so late. Well when we arrived they were closed. I guess they're only open on the weekends during May. Bummer! So we still stayed and played on the river area. Surprisingly Madeline was brave enough to try out the tree rope swing since she saw her Tante Armilyn do it. Can you tell how proud Stephen was?


Here's Alex and James, very happy to be swimming and playing at our neighborhood pool!

On Saturday Stephen found the missing van keys in our trash can. Sigh. We headed to Stephen's work to swap out cars and then got comfy in an XL Tahoe for our 3 hour road trip to Houston for our 2nd cousin, Ariel's high school graduation. It was at Reliant stadium where the Texans play. Here's the whole gang after the ceremony and after we gave her the traditional leis for graduating.

On Sunday we headed back to our home. With some more ohana visiting, my cousin Eric's family from Hawaii flew into Houston and drove to our home to visit for 2 days. We decided to go tubing on the Comal since we didn't on Friday. It turned out to be an adventure! Above are my two older brothers, Tason and David.

We had a group of 15 including 5 kids. Well the river was higher and flowing faster than I remembered from last summer - we did get a lot of rain this winter so I'm sure that affected it. Well some of the kids freaked out as we went down some tube shoots (aka rapids) and they got drenched or knocked out of their tube. Add to that a chaos of mass amounts of crazy college students on the river - it made the start of our tubing adventure a bit stressful. But as we got down the river a bit where it was more calm - the kids started to enjoy the tubing again. Um I just don't think we'll be coming again to this river on a holiday or with the kiddos - they got their first taste of college kids acting like it's Spring Break or Girls Gone Wild! All of us laughed about it afterwards as it turned out to be a crazy adventure but we made the best of it and still had fun.

They all had to fly back a day early (the joys of flying stand-by) because the Tuesday flights suddenly became over booked...so before they left I had my cousin take a photo of all of us as requested by my mom - she wanted one of all her kids and grandkids. Here's one of the shots.

Now onto more craziness...leaving for my best friend's wedding in a couple of days and Madeline graduates Kindergarten on Thursday!

Day 13...San Marcos River

So today was the first day off Stephen had after working 12 straight days (10-12 hour shifts). Thank you everyone who has been praying for him on this promotion at work and checking in for updates. His boss has had several meetings with him, complimenting him on his efforts and hard work, implying that he's really been proving himself...and he even just gave Stephen the new duty of taking over the CSR (Counter Service Rep) Dept. This is a good sign as ultimately the Level 2 Manager position Stephen is gunning for oversees this dept. He thinks this is the last straw his boss needs to see if he can handle this. Stephen's very confident, focused and dedicated right now. He has a really good feeling that he could get this promotion. Although last night he got wind from a visiting San Antonio manager that his brother who is a Level 2 in Louisiana was approached about this position in Austin (we think by Stephen's boss' boss). That was a downer to hear, as this guy has more experience than Stephen. But Stephen's boss did say that he was looking to fill this position from within the location and it would be between Stephen and 2 other level 1 managers. So keep PRAYING. Pray for God to continue giving Stephen the endurance he needs to get through this proving time. Pray that God helps Stephen say the right things to his boss (he has a meeting with him tomorrow, go figure on his day off).

So late this afternoon we decided to venture out and check out the San Marcos River (about 15 minutes South from our house). After all it was 4 in the afternoon and in the 90's outside! We found a great recreational park right on the river. It was so much fun! About a mile up from where we were there's a Tube Rental place that you can get tubes at, float down river for 1-1.5 hours, and then be bused back to your car all for $7! We want to try it next time we have visitors...who wants to go!?

James checking out the rocks in the park.


Daddy and Maddy swimming in the river!


They had small cascading waterfalls here where people in tubes and kayaks went down, even swimmers!


My beautiful Ohana. :-) (P.S. Stephen made me promise to crop his pepperoni nipple out of this picture LOL!)


Madeline dipping her toes!


Back in the water again...isn't my husband absolutely gorgeous!?


Me and my boy...a stranger offered to take the photo.


James loves being thrown up in the air (notice the tubers in the water passing by).


After the river we got an appetizer at SaltGrass. Kids on top the Ford Edge (Stephen's been bringing this car home a lot, I really like it - sorry I didn't get a better shot of the car).

And if I didn't already post enough photos on this post...I just got my haircut again!

Here's the before (excuse how awful I look with no makeup and desperately needing my eyebrows waxed!)


And this is after! :-) Got about 3 inches cut off the back with an a-line cut to the front with longer layers. How does it look?