Our wet-n-wild weekend

It rained. Well, more like thunderstormed. As we were driving into New Braunfels on Saturday, the skies were sunny and beautiful. But the closer we got, the darker the skies were. And by the time we parked, it was downright pouring. No biggie, we thought, we're gonna get wet anyway. But all the rides were closed because of the lightning. *haha* So we ended up walking around in the rain for almost 2 hours. Once the thunderstorm passed the rides did open back up, but by then it was a gusty 60 degrees. The upside is that everyone left so the lines were really short! ;) 

The next day's forecast didn't look much better, but we ended up having PLENTY of sunshine to get our fill of Schlitterbahn. In fact, had we spent anymore time there I'd shudder to think of what my condition would be. As is, I have bruises under both of my arms from tubing, my feet are so sore I can STILL hardly walk on them barefoot and my pinky and wrist may never by the same after I fell out of my tube in a shallow section of a ride and slammed my hand against the bottom. Ouch. No sunburn, though! Still has pale as a sheet of paper. :)

So to sum up Schlitterbahn...it IS really huge! It started as a small park sandwiched between the little town of New Braunfels and the winding Comal River. They've expanded all over the place (there's a tram that can take you from one park to the other - that's how far apart the editions are.) But it's also the most poorly laid out amusement park I've ever been to. There was an entire section of slides that we almost didn't even find! We wandered down this random staircase and there they were! (They ended up being our favorites, so I'm glad we found them!) The maps were absolutely no help, either.  For one thing they're not very accurate. And they had them posted all over the park but never labeled with "YOU ARE HERE" markers, making them pretty much useless. So this is probably the reason my feet hurt so bad, because we just had to walk around till we figured out where we were. *haha*

One more complaint, then I swear I'll say something positive. :) One of the major draws of this park are the famous "Blaster" slides, which are marketed as "water coasters." I can't tell you how many times I've seen these slides on the Travel Channel on their thrill ride or amusement park specials. *in my best announcer voice* "They've harnessed the technology of using water jets to propel rafts uphill, defying the gravity that has limited to waterslides to downhill movement for so long." So that sounds really cool, right? I mean, I love me a good rollercoaster! What could be more fun than a water coaster? Um, lot's of things. In fact, after waiting in line for over 45 minutes, I called "Dragon's Revenge" the most disappointing part of the trip. It's a double ride, meaning we rode in one of those joint tubes, Jeremy was in front and I was in back. It was a regular tube where your booty is exposed. Remember those water jets that propel the tubes uphill? Well, when we went over them, it felt like someone was shooting my backside with a power washer. NOT comfortable. The jets practically knocked Jeremy's swim shorts all the way off. With every hill I was yelling, "OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" And, beyond that, the designers seemed to be so excited about their UPHILL technology they neglected to have very many DOWNHILL portions. Which, isn't that the whole point of going uphill? To come back down? That's what I thought. But we just kept going up, then down just a little, then back up again. Not very exciting. 

Enough complaining. We really DID have a great time!! The park is beautifully green and lush, probably because of its position along the river. (I didn't invest in a water proof camera so I don't have any pictures to share, but I did find a couple on the internet to show you.

This shows part of the park that runs along the river. The sidewalk on the left leads up to some slides.

Jeremy and I both agreed that our favorite rides were the "tube chutes," where you sit in a tube and float your way through twisting white water, down little drops and spills. Like this:

This picture shows a particularly gentle portion of a ride, but there were parts that got really rough. (Jeremy fell out of his tube multiple times. *haha*) They were so fun...and each of these rides lasted long enough to make standing in line seem worthwhile (unlike a regular slide where you're done in a matter of seconds.) 

We also engaged in one of our absolute favorite pastimes - people watching. Is anything more fun than people watching at a WATERPARK? ;) It was particularly entertaining playing "tattoo spotters." Boy did we see some doozies!  One dude had a spinal cord tattooed all the way down his back. That was certainly unique.

And I have to say, walking around in my swimsuit in public had the exact opposite effect on my self esteem than I would have thought. It really did me good to see ALL KINDS of bodies. I think I get so caught up in what I see on TV and in magazines that I really start to believe that my body is hideously misshaped and unusual.  That I'm in the minority because I'm carrying extra weight. But seeing other women stripped down and bare, it was apparent to me that NO ONE is perfect, including the skinny minnies that probably look flawless under clothes.

Mall Madness

(I'm sorry I left you all hanging! Truth is, I probably could have fit everything into one long run-on post...but I thought this would make it easier to read. AND I was way too tired to type anymore last night! *haha*)

Day 2 continued...

The Mall of America is awe-some. I love it! We arrived after our IKEA breakfast and found a parking spot in one of the TWO monstrous parking garages. Oh, I should mention that Jeremy and I are rather neurotic when it comes to mall-walking.  Under no circumstances is there any meandering allowed. We pick a direction to walk in and stick with it, making sure we see every single thing along our way. So we were worried that this huge mall might have absolutely no organization and would leave us zig zagging around in bewilderment. Turns out, it's really well organized in a big 'ol square and we had no trouble making our way around. :) What a relief huh? I'm sure you were worried. ;)

What's amazing is that every single section and level of the Mall feels and looks different. The colors, the design...everything makes you feel like you're in a new mall around every corner. 

The MOA was hosting a Knitting and Crochet Convention on the main level. It was packed!  Lot's of ladies crowded around kitting demo's and make-n-takes, plus a huge gathering in the main circle where they were listening to speakers. 

I thought it was all a little silly...until I found out they had just recently done this same thing for scrapbooking! WHA'?!? Oh my gosh, that would've been SO fun!! Not for Jeremy, but I would have had a cow! *haha*  Speaking of scrapbooking and having a cow...the Archiver's inside the MOA is huge! It's bigger than any free-standing Archiver's I've ever seen.

In retrospect, I wish I would have taken pictures INSIDE the store! But I was too busy walking around in a scrapbook stupor, filling up my basket. *haha*  The people there were so, so, so nice. I wanted to put on an apron and jump behind the counter with them. 

The best thing about the MOA is the variety of stores you won't see anywhere else. 

The "Life is Good" store. I love their products, especially the ones with the little yellow dog!  And they were having a sale! (I think everyone was having a sale this weekend!)

The QVC store! (Which really didn't have squat but it looked so cool from the outside.)

The American Girl store. Two stories high, with all the same features as the one we saw in NYC.

Old Navy! Ok so we have those here, but this one was two stories high! :)

Lego Land was a kid's paradise! They even had buckets and tables full of legos for kids to build with right there. (Jeremy and I speculated as to how many of those tiny blocks "disappear" every day. *haha*)

For lunch we ate at Famous Dave's, one of about a dozen full-size restaurants inside the mall. There are also two full-sized food courts! Craziness. And the rest of day one at the mall involved lot's and lot's and lot's of walking. And whenever we changed levels, we took the stairs. Just trying to make up for all the calories I was taking in. *haha*

That evening we went to see "International," or whatever that stupid bank movie with Clive Owen is called. I didn't like it, can you tell? But I just can't stand Clive Owen period, so that might have blurred my view.

Day 3

Wish I could tell you I got up and worked out again that morning, but I didn't. :(  After walking the entire MOA the day before, plus being out late with the movie, I was ZONKED. Sorry to disappoint. I went once, OK?! Geez get off my back. *haha* Ok so I feel a little guilty. ;)

We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed back to the MOA. This time we parked on the opposite side and started with a visit to the aquarium! Yes, the aquarium! It's underneath the mall! Bizarre. 

We took the Behind-the-Scenes tour, so we got to see the lab (where they were dissecting a baby stingray that had died recently - NASTY!) and the top of the tanks (looking down at the sharks swimming around was pretty freaky, they seemed closer somehow). We also got to see the kitchen, where they keep the "fish food." Here's our tour guide showing us one of the "larger portions." 

The majority of the aquarium is a tunnel which you ride through on a moving pathway. It's kept really clean and clear, so it's practically like being underwater. The sharks and fish got SO close on the other side of that glass. 

This aquarium has the largest shark exhibit in the world. Get a load of some of these beasties...

This guy is called a Guitar Shark. I don't think I'd ever seen one before.

I haven't at all mentioned the amusement park in the center of the MOA. We had originally planned on riding one or two on this day after the aquarium, but Jeremy wanted to do the "Underwater Rollercoaster" simulation thing at the aquarium and it made me SooOOOoooOOoooo motionsick (or would that be seasick? *haha*) that I totally didn't feel like riding anything else. But I'll still show you some pictures, because it's a really cool area. It used to be Camp Snoopy, but it's recently been made over as Nickelodeon Universe. I kept thinking that my niece would LOVE all the familiar characters! 

What's really cool is that because the center of the mall is lit mainly by skylights, at night it seems to get much darker. Which allows all the rides to be illuminated! It really adds to the atmosphere and makes you feel like you're at a carnival or something.

Macy's was having a President's Day sale so we spent some time there. And then we passed New York & Company and saw they were having a $5.99 sale! Holy moly! I got a sweater, a tank top and a long sleeve shirt for just $5.99 each! I couldn't believe it. :)

Since Jeremy had chosen our movie the previous nigh and it turned out to be not-so-hot, he took me to see a late matinee of "Confessions of a Shopaholic" in the mall theater. It's completely girly and silly and cheesy, but I really liked it. :)

Our last stop in the MOA was the mini-golf course. We love putt-putt and never pass up an opportunity to play. (Even though I'm really quite terrible.) It was a nice little course, too!

And then we decided we needed to get back to the hotel, considering we had to figure out how to pack all of our purchases into the very little space we had left in our luggage. Plus, our flight was at 6am the next morning, which required us to be up and gone before 4am to get our rental car returned and to our gate on time. (HENCE, why I was so tired yesterday. "Yeah, hence!" *hehe*) 

So that's it for now. :) If you would like to see all the trip photos, feel free to visit my two Facebook albums (you don't have to be my friend on Facebook to view.)

Part One

Part Two

Mini-Vacation in Minneapolis

Hello blogland! Did ya miss me? I hope everyone really enjoyed their Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend!  We had a nice little trip to Minneapolis with lot's of shopping, sightseeing and *eek* eating. Yes...there was cheesecake. There was movie theater popcorn. There were nachos. I didn't even try to hold back. But we'll get to that in a minute.

I'm gonna break this trip down into three posts: First, what we did away from the Mall of America, then everything Mall related...and finally I'll post about all my goodies I came home with. Here we go!

Day One

Our first stop in Minneapolis was The Cheesecake Factory. How is it that I've been to this place twice in the two months I've supposedly been dieting? Somehow that just doesn't add up. *haha* I had my usual Banana Cream and Jeremy got brave and tried his very first piece of cheesecake EVER. He got a peanut butter/candy/chocolate/somethin' or other flavor. He said it was "ok," but didn't like the parts of it that had "too much cheesecake" in it. Silly boy! I just don't know what's wrong with him!  The nice folks sitting next to us offered to take our picture when they saw I had my camera with me. 

From there we drove to REI which was nearby. Ever since we went camping in the Fall of 2007, we've loved REI. They've got way more than just camping stuff and we both love their clothes. I didn't find anything this time but Jeremy got a couple of shirts. 

Next it was off to their LSS (that's "Local Scrapbook Store," meaning not a chain store like Archiver's.) We had found this store's address online...but look what we saw when we arrived! They were having a HUGE sale!!!

Every.Single.Thing. in the store was on sale! What a treat. And my heart literally skipped a beat when I got inside and saw THIS SIGN:

If you're not a scrapbooker, this doesn't mean anything to you. (Actually, you could be a scrapbooker and this still might not mean anything to you. *haha*) Fancy Pants is an awesome scrapbook company that makes some of the neatest stuff out there. They're quickly climbing to the top of my favorite companies list. I know, now you're really wanting to see what I got. But you're gonna have to wait till tomorrow! :)

By then it was time to check into our hotel. We stayed at The Crowne Plaza in Bloomington, which is basically Minneapolis but just right outside I guess. What an exciting surprise! Since we booked it through Priceline.com, we weren't sure exactly what to expect. But when we got there we found out we had gotten a HECK of a deal! It was such a nice hotel! 

Silly hubby + our rental car & the hotel

The slick, glowing check-in counter

The lobby, bar and cool firepit

Beyond just the normal shampoo and soap bars, we had these goodies sitting on our bed when we arrived: an eyemask, earplugs, lavender linen spray and a relaxation CD.

We decided to head downtown that evening and take a look at their "Skyway." Basically, they've got indoor walkways that connect the entire area so you never have to walk out in the cold. (Oh, did I mention it was really, really cold there? Yeah. BRR!) 

Well everything downtown looked really cool, but much to our disappointment everything was closed! At 6pm on a Saturday night! VALENTINE'S DAY, for Pete's sake! So we walked around in the empty hallways for a while and then decided to call it a night. Dinner was at Boston Market, one of my favorite places on earth. We used to have them here but they're long gone. :( Yeah, I could've eaten healthy there but I had, had, HAD to have the mac&cheese. It was downright heavenly. :)

Day Two

Well as you probably remember, I had every intention of working out while we were on vacation. And I'm psyched to tell you that I DID! Let me tell ya, God really blessed me with that gym. Every worry I'd had beforehand was provided for!

What if they have crappy machines? 

Far from it! In fact, the elliptical machines they had were the same kind I use at my gym, except an upgraded version! And they had TV's attached, too. Spiffy!

How am I gonna get enough water?

I drink A LOT of water in my daily life, especially when I'm working out. So I was a little worried as to where I was going to find all the H20 I needed. Lo & behold, they had a neato water cooler right there in the gym. Thank you Lord!

So I got in a whole hour. It was kinda exhilarating!  At first I was alone, but by the time I was done, every machine was being used, as well as the weight set. It was exciting, all of us there in pursuit of our fitness goals together. :) I even pushed my way through some terrible indigestion, which I'm sure I owed to all the naughty crap I'd eaten the day before. :^/

Guess what's located right across the street from the Mall Of America? Our beloved IKEA! :)  So we went there for breakfast and to take a quick peek around. Little did we know, they were offering FREE breakfast all weekend in honor of the holidays! That drew an unbelievable crowd. I've never seen an IKEA that busy! What's funny is that the breakfast is normally still only 99¢, so why was everyone so downright excited about getting it free? *haha* 

While walking around the store we spotted a display room that had paired OUR couch with OUR rug. I took that as validation that it must look good together. *haha* (It's not our exact couch...we have the version without the sectional attachment. But it's definitely cousins with this couch.)

To be continued...

Mall of America fun!

Valentine's Day Vacay!

For those of you that have lost track of time, as I have, we leave tomorrow morning for our Valentine's weekend trip! It still hasn't really sunk in...being that the entire idea was rather spontaneous. But today I've got a bunch of stuff to do in preparation, including packing and dropping my poor, unsuspecting doggies off at the kennel.  But before that, I plan on taking them on a nice, long walk to try and make it up to them. Think that will work? Probably not, but it will make ME feel better.

I'm really excited about this weekend! I've been looking at some different Minneapolis websites and happily discovered that there are other things to do there besides just the Mall of America. (Although the Mall of America should never be referred to as "just" anything. It's HUUUUGE!!!) And yesterday, look what arrived in my e-mail inbox:

What's that? Archiver's is having a SALE this weekend? And what just happens to be located inside the MOA? *bwah-hahahaha* (The "bwah" makes that an evil laugh, in case you were unaware.) I also found another scrapbook store in the general vicinity that Jeremy has promised we'll track down. Hooray!

I was looking at our hotel's website the other day and found out they have a gym. Now, I've never, ever considered working out on vacation before. In fact I've thought in the past that people must be nuts to use those hotel gyms. *haha* But I know I'll be taking in quite a few extra calories this weekend so I've decided to FORCE myself to workout each day we're there. I'm bringing workout clothes & shoes and everything. Wish me luck! 

Obviously, I didn't start my "Flashback Friday" idea today. And I also won't be able to do my random question thing on Sunday. How 'bout I start that next week? :) 

"Cel-e-brate good times, COME ON!"

Guess who was able to fit into her "skinny" jeans today?!?! That's right, ME! (Clarification: There's really nothing skinny about these jeans. They're still a size bigger than the smallest I've worn. BUT, these were the jeans I bought last Spring after dieting and working out, but then quickly grew back out of. THESE jeans:)

Two weeks ago, I tried these on and I couldn't even get them up past my...erm...hindquarters. They stopped at just above the knee and wouldn't go any further. But not today! I got them all the way up aaaaand with a little sucking in, I even  got'em buttoned! *haha* Oh yeah! Woohoo! :) I'm especially psyched, because last year it took me January through mid March to get into this size. Well, after gaining all that weight back (and a smidge more *phooey*), I was starting completely over this January. And here it is, EARLY February and I've gotten into these jeans already! Talk about encouragement. I am so, so happy.

Something else fun happened today. Jeremy told me that he was looking at Priceline.com and found an excellent travel package for Valentine's Day weekend. You know, one of those plane, rental car + hotel deals where they name when you leave and where you stay and you save like 60% or something crazy? Well, he's taking me to Minneapolis! I know, I know. Minnesota in February? Going to be a tad more than chilly. But I've got three little words for you: Mall Of America. We'll never even have to go outside! *haha* I'm very excited! We went there as a family when I was younger, but true to my family's vacation style (due to my Dad's gung-ho leadership) we saw the entire mall in a single day! I hope this time we'll get to spend a little more time browsing (SCRAPBOOK STORES!) and eating (SPLURGE!) and riding some rides (MOTION SICKNESS!). Yay!