Super Bowl Sunday

Last night Van Go drove back to the Hasz Lodge for a Super Bowl party! What a game! The Steelers and Cardinals both played amazingly well, and as the Smiths were pretty evenly divided over who they were "going" for, the cheering was... er, a little loud. Grammy and GrandDad made some great Super Bowl snacks (like caramel corn, brownies, pizza, and little h'ors deouvres thingies). In the middle of the Super Bowl, a huge thunderstorm blew up-- and at one point, we thought Van Go might have been struck by lightning! Fortunately, it was not (or we'd probably be sitting at the auto repair shop right now). The impressive storm did not knock down the dish either-- thank you Lord! I guess God wanted us to see the Steelers win :D !!

Today, Van Go will probably not go anywhere, as the Smith family will be doing school at home and cleaning up. However, Van Go's smaller friend, the Millenium 2000 (Dad's little white car), drove off to take Dad to his first day of the new job! Yay!!

Home At Last

Taco Bell
Below: Van Go sights the Aliens (again)

Van Go has returned home!! We are all so thankful to be back at home, and to finally be able to scan the pictures from our cameras onto our computers! On the way back, Van Go stopped for one final adventure as it spotted the same alien crew it met on day one. Apparently the friendly aliens were stopping by Earth for a flying saucer trade-in, and we photographed the aliens with their new hybrid starship (lower carbon footprint plus 3,800 lightyears per gallon) before we went our separate ways. Live long and prosper, everybody.
Van Go also stopped at Taco Bell and Braum's for a special treat, and at the Kwik Car Wash for a car shower. Ahhhhh! Back at the Smith house, Van Go completed its wash when the kids and Mom deep-cleaned out its inside. Home at last!

The journey is over. Van Go is parked outside the Smith House, resting peacefully in the cool breeze. The Tour of Texas is over!

On the Road Again!

By the time you read this, Van Go will be on the highway headed back to Frisco, Texas. Last night we hung out at the mall and made a few small purchases. JonMichael got a Broncos pennant, Tori got a sign that says "Denver Broncos Drive", and Caitlin got a shirt that says NO EGO (EGO stands for Edging God Out of your life). Haley also got a pair of new Airwalk shoes that look really sharp. We then hung out and ate pizza and watched Man vs Wild until 9:30 or 10. Whew! This morning, we got up bright and early at 7:45 and will head back home right after breakfast. What an adventure!

What city does T-N-I-A-S-U spell?

Austin! After spending most of the day at Enchanted Rock State Park (a totally AWESOME place!) Van Go headed off to Austin, and is now resting comfortably outside our new hotel.

Enchanted Rock was so much fun!! It was a moderately hard trek to the top of the HUGE rock, where the older six found the famous Enchanted Rock Fissure quite by accident and had some fun exploring the caves before we headed back down. It was great to get some exercise climbing and hiking! So much fun!

JonMichael also added another "squooshed penny" to his collection-- he now has one from the Witte Museum, Natural Bridges Caverns, the Zoo, and Enchanted Rock. These are great souvenirs because they're cheap, fun, and easy to store (a pressed penny takes up about as much space as two unpressed pennies and costs 51 cents. Much better than the $6.99 chintzy stuffed gorilla!)

Van Go is probably heading off to someplace else tonight too... I will try to update the blog before we go to bed tonight!

Yesterday-- San Antonio Zoo

Oops!! So sorry I forgot to update the blog yesterday! Well, better late than never, right? Yesterday we had a blast at the San Antonio Zoo, where we spent the day walking around and looking at the amazing animals God created!! We were especially taken with some Japanese ducks, which were very strikingly colored, and Dad had a great opportunity to tell us how God's glory is revealed through His varied creations, including colorful ducks. The kids had a great time in the petting zoo, although JonMichael got taken hostage by some goats! JM had a great time squawking at some birds too-- every time he squawked, they would squawked back. And Buddy discovered some magpie geese that really liked him-- whenever he walked away from their exhibit, they started honking for him to come back (either that or they were rejoicing in the fact that he had finally left them alone!) While in the Reptile House, however, we discovered that Abby has some- er- misconceptions about snakes. While looking at the 17-foot-long python, Abby remarked, "Oh look! That's a nice one. If I saw that one in the wild, I would go up and kiss it." Mom corrected her, "No, Abby, I think you'd probably want to run if you saw that one in the wild." "No," Abby said. "That's a nice one. He would like me to hug him." Later, while Dad was explaining how Komodo dragons kill their prey, Abby announced that they, too, were "nice ones" that would like hugs and kisses. Pretty brave coming from a kid who can't stand bugs or spiders!

Another favorite animal was the hyena, which was rather scary up close. Dad told us that, contrary to previous opinions, hyenas are predators more than scavengers, and that in Africa hyenas are considered more dangerous than lions (there are so many of them, and they live almost everywhere, so the chances of meeting a hyena pack are much greater than meeting a lion). Dad told us that many mysterious deaths are now being chalked up to hyena attacks. Yikes! And up close hyenas are much larger (and much uglier) than they look in pictures.

Back at the hotel that night, we all played charades. It was great, and when Josiah drew "hyena", it didn't take us long to guess what he was acting out! Other favorite charades included JonMichael's act as "Ripley's Believe It or Not", Tori's act as the Alamo, and Josiah's version of Indiana Jones (Josiah is really becoming a good actor). We all hung out and had fun before heading to bed... at 10:00!

Natural Bridge Caverns

What a day! At about ten-thirty we drove to Natural Bridge Caverns, a FANTASTIC underground monument to God's glory as seen in the beauty and intricacy of creation. The formations were absolutely awesome. The stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, etc. had combined and overflowed each other to make weird and beautiful formations with descriptive names such as "Bomb Burst", "Fried Eggs", "King's Throne", and "Fairy Castles". After the walk-through tour, we got to pan for gems, and Josiah found a baby emerald. The kids had a blast.
We had lunch in Van Go as we headed to Guadalupe State Park, where we were the only ones around. The river (most scenic in Texas, after Big Bend) was magnificent. We played all along the river bank, and the older kids all rolled up their pant legs and waded into the freezing water to climb the rocks in the middle of the river and fish. After a while, everyone's feet got numb and they waded out to play on the bank. The boys and Caitlin discovered a hollow tree with a "critter hole" in it and tried without success to locate the critter. Ana, Abby, and Buddy had a blast playing on the nearby playground, and Tori and Haley skipped stones and built rock artwork. It was great.
For dinner, we stopped by the hotel to change out of our wet clothes before heading to the Cracker Barrel for dinner.

And, in the saga of the digital cameras... all the cameras:
A) have dead batteries
B) are broken
C) both of the above

We did get some great pictures today, but as it's kind of hard to get pictures on the blog when the cameras all have no power, we'll have to wait till we stop at a Wal Mart tomorrow before we put more pictures on here!

More Pictures from the Mexican Market

It's about ten in the morning, and we're taking it easy this morning, working on schoolwork at the hotel and resting before we move on to more fun and adventure in Van Go. But I thought I'd post some more pictures from the Mexican market and Alamo... oops, time to go!! I'll write more later!