Fun in the Sun. Day 3.

Saturday, there was a free festival going on. We heard and saw Ruben Studdard from American Idol. It was such a hot day with little wind and we couldn't believe that he was wearing a suit while he sang. Incredible. The kids played in the inflatable jumping toys for about 15 minutes. It was all they could handle in the heat. It was a lot of sun and not much fun during the day.
Later that evening, we went back to the festival to see another free concert. Third Eye Blind performed and they were pretty decent. The kids were tired after playing all day, so we only stayed for a while.


This piece is an amazing band organ that is over 100 years old.

Rockin in the free world! Day 2.

Hard Rock Theme Park just opened recently. We've been seeing their commercials on TV and were sold on it. It is much smaller than Disney, but it's a lot of fun. There was hardly anyone there. It was like having it all to ourselves. We would walk right up to the rides and get on. If only every theme park was this way.

They have this splash play land and Sam went wild in there. He was soaked. It was so hot that he was dry in 30 minutes.
Sam got to go on more rides. His favorite is the roller coaster.

Isa was much happier this time on the rides.
Surfin' USA.
This girl is just too precious.

Sam can't wait til he's old enough to have one of these. I say he can have one when Hell freezes over.

First stop...Myrtle Beach!

Last Thursday we set out on a small road trip to the beach. We started out at Myrtle Beach for the first 4 days. It took us about 5 hours to drive there. It was awesome. Rueben likened it to Cancun, except everyone there spoke English. I didn't think it was as shady as Cancun and it was safe to drink the water. After settling at the hotel, we made our way to Broadway on the Beach. Food, entertainment, and shopping all conveniently located. Pour me something tall and strong. Make it a hurricane before I go insane. Here we are at Margaritaville, where Rueben and I both drank some damn good Hurricanes. We also did split a margarita, cause you can't go to Margaritaville without having one. Needless to say, we were feeling pretty good and happy after that!

There was a ferry that would take you from one end to the other. Here we are waiting for it.

The view from the boat as we are leaving Margaritaville. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Hot, humid, and with a cool breeze.

I just need to say that I am one lucky lady. This fierce hotness of a man is all mine. Looking good babylove!

All 3 of us driving motorized boats. Rueben's boat was broken.

This is just but a little glimpse of the carp that eagerly await for fish food. There must have been 200 of them, at least. Freaky and cool looking at the same time.

The flowers envy her beauty.

BEWARE THE JAWS OF DEATH!!

We ended up at Ripley's Aquarium. They had a pirate exhibition and the kids loved it. We couldn't pry Sam off the cannon and Isa keeps saying "AAARGG!". Too funny.

This is what happens when you don't do what the captain says.

These kind of chameleons were prized pets for pirates. They were thought to possess magical powers. I wonder if that is what Boy George was singing about.

We were both very naughty and they shackled us up. Too bad they didn't make small one for the kids. JK!

The aquarium part was absolutely spectacular. They have this long clear tunnel. All types of sharks, fish, turtles, eels and other majestic ocean creatures. Good times!

This pearl is rockin the clam!

After our fun adventures at the aquarium, we made our way to the beach. It was wonderful to see the expressions on the kids faces as they dug their feet on the sand and approached the ocean. The beach was clean, the water warm, and the waves calm. We fell in love with the Atlantic Ocean.

"are you going to comb your hair?"

Here is what Criseida got for asking Sam if he was going to comb his hair today...Just after asking him the question, he came downstairs and said "My hair was kinda long and I needed to cut it". After we told him we needed to fix it, this is the face he made.

After a little boo-hooing Sam decided to get his hair fixed and we went out to the back porch to do a little head shavin'Here is the finished product, note the oh so subtle divot in the middle of his hairline, I used the #1 blade, he didn't use any at all

I didn't want Sam to feel so horrible about his shaved head, so I decided to shave mine too so we could be twins. It was also a good excuse for me, because I've been wanting to shave my head. The sad part here is that after shaving a strip like Sam's you could barely even tell that I did it because the hair on my balding head is so thin..Here we both are, with our shaved melons ready for the NC summer. Hair is overrated anyway, especially when it's 90 degrees and 100% humidity.

Rainy day at the zoo

These are pictures of our trip to the zoo earlier this week. It was rainy and cool, but despite the weather, we made it thru the entire zoo. We ran from shelter to shelter. Our friends The Greenes met us there (thanks for letting us use your umbrella).This is right in the beginning of our trip before getting on the tram. We weren't completely soaked. That came later. I would like you to take a moment now to see that Rueben's mustache is gone. Yes, it is gone and hopefully for good. This is the giraffe exhibit. Sorry I didn't get any in the picture. Rueben is an exhibit all by himself. :) I'm melting!!! This is me being not happy about the weather. I should have known better and not blow dried my hair straight that morning. Oh well, live and learn...over and over and over...Who is that cool little boy?? We all wore sandals and we all had wet feet. Which I think is better than having wet socks. We got all the puddle jumping out of our system. For that day at least.

Cast iron Dumbo giving the boys a perfect spot for a photo shoot. Jackson is almost one year younger than Sam. They ran around like wild boys all day. There was a lot of "no running" "boys you are going to fall" "come back" "quit that" "stay close". We are such parents!

"Raindrops keep falling on my head"

Preparing for lift off.

We were in the middle of the jungle. This is how green the entire state is. Very beautiful! "look at daddy"
These yellow rain ponchos made it easy to keep track of the kids. Most of the time they were but yellow spurts of sunshine on a gloomy day. That is exactly what kids are.

This was right before the Oompa Loompa's came and rolled us away to the juicing area. I wonder what kind of juice we would produce? Better not to ask that question, I guess.

The Blancas family in rain ponchos and sandals. Always good times at the zoo. Hopefully next time will be nicer weather.