The Perfect Day

Do you ever have those days or moments that you wish would never end?  I've gotta admit that I haven't had many of those since we moved to Laredo.  I often feel overwhelmed with settling in a new location whether it be in trying to make friends, making my house look decent, or adapting to a new culture.  Most days or even weeks  I just want to be over and done.

Yesterday was a lovely exception.  My husband had to go visit some tire stores in Pharr and Harlingen, Texas, and asked if we'd like to tag along.  Most days the kids and I just chill at home and do the same ole routine, so I answered him with a resounding "YES!!"  Let's get out of the house!

While he worked, the kids and I visited different areas of the cities.  The first place we went to was Quinta Mazatlan.  It's an old adobe mansion that has been turned into a botanical garden, only it has a gazillion birds.  I knew Evan and Lauren would love it because they love plants and animals, and I kind of like those things myself. The grounds were gorgeous, and the house was amazing.

*Stupid Johanna Moment* When I drove up to the place, I saw a parking lot outside the gate, but I wasn't sure if it was for the gardens or for the golf course or for the apartments that were nearby.  I just drove on through the gate.  The first thing I noticed was that we were the youngest people there.  Quinta Mazatlan seems to be a hot spot for seniors, and they were all staring at us as we drove in.  I drove up to the building and parked by it.  I walked in and asked who I was supposed to pay ($2 for adults and children under 4 are freeee!), and I asked the lady if I could park by the building.  "Oooh, no!  You park in the parking lot outside the gate!"  Hm, no wonder I was getting so many stares... Young whipper snappers think they can drive wherever they darn well please!  :)

Here are a few fun pictures from our visit there.

This is the Quinta Mazatlan home.  Very pretty!

This is their BATHTUB!  Cool, huh?

Evan did not like that I made him pose by that cactus.

They had these all over the place.

Best face EVER!

So cute! :)

By the time Andrew was completely done working for the day, we were in Harlingen which I found out was only about 30 minutes from South Padre Island.  He asked me if I wanted to go to the beach.  What a silly question!  

The beach was by far my favorite part of the trip.  I really loved watching the kids play, feeling the wind on my face and the sand and waves on my feet, and smelling the ocean.  It made me feel alive.  Happy!  It was fantastic.

Evan exclaimed, "I LOVE this!!"

This was Lauren's stance every time she went in.

*Stupid Andrew and Johanna moment*  We weren't really planning on going to the beach, so we weren't prepared at all. Andrew and I had on jeans, and all of us had on tennis shoes.  We took all of our shoes off, and Andrew and I rolled up our pants, and we went out to the water.  We had tons of fun until we needed to leave.  We didn't have towels.  The kids were soaked.  We didn't have extra clothes.  We just happened to have the kids' pajamas in the car from leaving early that morning.  Also, we went to a public access area of the beach which had no showers.  Our kids were covered from head to toe in sand, and our feet were, too.  We used some water bottles we had to clean our feet, but we didn't have enough for the kids.  We tried to just wipe them down, but that didn't work.  They had sand in places I won't mention here on the internet.  We HAD to clean them up.  We ended up driving to a gas station, putting money in the air/water machine, and hosing our kids down in the parking lot.   Lauren was completely naked, too.  That's A+ parenting right there. We should get an award. Ha!

The drive home was long, but we were blessed to see the most gorgeous sunset ever.  I felt like we were at the end of a movie where they have a perfect time together and drive off into the sunset.  At that moment, looking at my beautiful family and then back at that amazing sunset, I felt like the luckiest person alive.

The perfect end to a perfect day

Let's Go Fly a Kite

One of the things I really like about Laredo is the constant breeze.  No matter how hot it is outside, that breeze makes it all better.  It also makes this place the best location for flying kites. Ever.

Apparently, the city officials of Laredo agree because they've dedicated a whole festival to the fantastic toy known as the Kite and have done so for 3 years.  

I heard about it through a friend, and I wasn't planning on going because my husband had to work, but the words "free" and "fun" kept going through my head, so I got the kids dressed, and we headed out.

I felt like a little kid when we got to the park, and I saw all those kites!  I was amazed.  I've never seen so many kites in one place in all my life.  I kept trying to take pictures, but my camera never caught the awesomeness of it all.  This was about as good as I could get.

Those little specks are kites

This kite was pyramid shaped.  How weird is that?

You know how I mentioned the word "free" earlier?  Yeah.  Everything was FREE!  They had bounce houses and slides, and they were all FREE!  I really, really like that word.  So the kids and I waited in lines for all of the FREE stuff.

This was the biggest stinkin' slide I've ever seen!  

Yet another fun bouncy thing-a-ma-bob

Lauren did pretty good on this wall, but she got stuck on the really high one, and I had to get her down

He looks so excited.

Lauren thought this was the coolest.  Look at those red cheeks.

His expression is one of pure glee

This little booger wouldn't get out of the bounce house... 

We had to wait in lines for a loooong time because I guess everybody else wanted to take advantage of the FREE fun, too, but it was worth it.  I loved watching their faces and seeing how excited they were.  While we were in line, we got a little bored, as you can see here:

I just started taking pictures because I was bored

Evan started messing with the stroller

I was pretty worn out by the time it was over, but the kids loved it.  Evan found some broken kites while we were waiting in line and told me, "I love my kite collection." I don't even have to get that kid working kites.  He's happy with the broken ones! Afterwards, we stopped by Papa Johns to pick up a pizza, and my kids enjoyed licking the pictures of pizza on the wall.  I didn't enjoy them doing that very much.  

Overall, we had a fun time. Our outing seemed to be Brown Kid approved.

I'm going BANANAS! <--See what I did there?

I attempted to trim our banana tree today.  I've been wanting to do it for awhile now b/c ever since the cold weather hit, it has looked like this:

Actually, it ended up looking worse than this as all the green eventually turned brown.

It used to look like this:

Anyway, I finally bought some clippers, and I was going to trim it until it looked good.  There have been some green leaves sprouting out of it lately, and I thought I'd be able to trim everything but those.

However, I never took into consideration that a banana tree is totally disgusting.  It was all wet on the inside, and as soon as I started cutting, it stunk!  Like rotten fruit and eggs, and UGH!  I couldn't stand it.  I also heard that spiders like to breed in banana trees, so the whole time I'm cutting, I keep picturing millions of baby spiders climbing out of the stems after I cut them.  After a few cuts of nasty branches and an overwhelming smell of rottenness, I called Andrew to ask him if we had a saw.

"Uh, why do you need a saw?"
"I'm going to cut this stupid banana tree down! *insert rant about smell and spiders*"
"Wait, wait, you just let me take care of it..."

He has a soft spot for the banana tree.

I've read online that you can cut them down, and they'll grow back.  I've read it multiple times on different sites, so I think we'll be okay here.  I mean, I like the novelty of having a banana tree, but I don't like the spiders nor the stinky smell.

On a side note, I detest plants with pokey things like thorns.

I'm hoping that we can tackle this nastrocity this weekend.  I'll keep ya updated.