Life as a Yowler

This time we had no warning whatsoever. We had no idea what was coming. We woke up last night at 4:00 to a horrible storm. At first they were saying it was just straight line winds, but we later heard it was actually a tornado. The weather man came to camp and checked out the damage and told us it was a tornado that touched down. The whole camp was without power a lot of today. I talked to some other campers this morning. Apparently last night, most campers were running for the bathroom building, which seemed like a safer option than staying in campers. Us in our limited wisdom, decided to stay put. We have two showers in the RV and those are what we chose for our shelters. Honestly by the time we woke up, the weather was so awful we couldn’t have left the motor home if we wanted to.  It was so windy and scary. The whole motor home was shaking. Honestly, we thought the motor home was going to tip over on it’s side. I’ve never heard a storm so loud in this motor home. The RV usually blocks sounds, but this was unblockable.

The kids and I walked around camp this morning while Brandon went to his training. Joah said “hey mom. That’s not too bad. Let’s still go swimming.” 🤦‍♀️

I’m case anyone is wondering, no we did not go swimming.

This poor campground’s fence took a beating.

I didn’t get a ton of pictures of all the fallen trees. I meant to go back and take more pictures, but honestly it was too crazy of a day. There were so many fallen trees. There were three campers that got damaged. Thankfully everyone stayed safe.

After our traumatic night, we tried to take it easy this morning. It was SO hot and humid this morning. I cut up a watermelon and the kids ate almost the entire thing.

I also broke out the popsicles.

While Caed was the only one of us who didn’t have a traumatic night(he’s the only one of us who slept through the tornado) he had a rough morning. He stepped on a fire ant hill. He got bit several times. He screamed and screamed. A lady camping next to us came running, thinking he was dying. Poor little guy keeps talking about the ants who tried to eat him. He calmed right down after I brought him inside and turned on Barney.

Today was rough, but I did catch this adorable moment. I caught Joah reading his new chapter book to his little brother. I left out  this picture, but Joah had to go to bathroom in the middle of reading. He brought Caed and the book with him and kept right on reading.

Yesterday we had a great day at Sea World San Antonio. We had never been there before, but had been to the Orlando one several times. It was very similar, but yet also very different. We loved it. We rode tons of rides. The crowds were not bad at all. The very longest we waited on anything was 10 minutes. The park was only open from 10am-5pm. I thought there is no way we are going to get everything done. Let me tell you, we did! We got literally everything done that we could do. I’ve learned by now how theme parks go with my husband. He does absolutely NO planning or thinking ahead of time. We show up and he grabs a map and looks at the day’s events. He, being the professional strategizer that he is, literally plans the entire day in around 5 minutes. He navigates us through the park all day(as I would get us all lost). This is how we’ve always done it. We always run ourselves wild and leave the park exhausted, but we get every single thing done and make lots of memories.

We saw every single show of the day except the Pets Ahoy show. We opted to skip that, since we’ve already seen it twice. We loved the beluga whale and dolphin show.

My very favorite was the killer whale show. They are some of the most beautiful creatures. Brandon snapped this picture from up high, where he was sitting with his dad and the youngest two kids. I didn’t want Isla’s head getting wet and Caed was afraid.

Joah, Brielle, and I did something I’ve never had the chance to do. We sat in the splash zone only three rows back from the water. It was incredible. We saw the whales up so close. Joah kept saying “I had no idea they were that big.” We also had no idea the water was so deep. We could see them swimming underwater between tricks, and they went so deep.

We realized something else….they call it the splash zone for a reason. The three killer whales splashed us good. We were drenched. Joah and I were laughing so hard. Brielle did not laugh until it was over.

Isla is going great overall. She’s acting like her normal self. She loved all the shows at Sea World. She loves animals. Papaw Bill bought her this cute little flamingo that she’s clutching. I had her sleep with me night one after she hurt her head. I was so worried about a concussion. She has been totally fine. I’m so thankful for that.

She did a decent job keeping her sun hat on at Sea World. She doesn’t seem to have gotten too much sun. We tried to keep her in the shade as much as we could, since I had to avoid sunscreen on her.

It’s good to reflect on the fun we had yesterday. Tonight we still have 5 hours of driving to Oklahoma City. It’s been an exhausting day for me, but even more so for Brandon. He had two store trainings today. He also drove his dad to the airport. Plus we changed a flat tire on the van trailer. We’ve had a few bumps along this trip, but it’s all working out. I’m trusting God will continue to take care of us and protect us. So thankful for these opportunities and memories.