Vacation Update 1

Well, no pictures today I'm afraid, but plenty of adventure. Yesterday morning we picked up a rental minivan to use for the trip. I wanted us to have a little more room for stuff and people. We got a Pontiac SV6 from Alamo. Their price was a good deal less than most of the others. There were two that were cheaper. One had reviews so poor that I didn't think it was worth the risk and hassle. The other would have rented a Ford Freestar and there's no way I'm putting any money into one of those. The Pontiac has been better than I expected. It came with a rear DVD entertainment system as well as an active XM radio. Denali has loved the DVD. I think I'm pretty well certain we'll have one when we get a minivan of our own. The XM radio has been usuable. I would have prefered an connection for my iPOD, but those are few and far between.
We got into San Antonio yesterday afternoon with plans to catch the late day rate at Schlitterbahn in New Braunsfels. Jen was too tired, so we rearranged things a bit I and took Denali to the Castle. She had her birthday party there back in April and we promised to go back. She and I played games, rode the race cars and the bumper boats. It was a fun afternoon with just the two of us. In the evening, we all went to Los Barrios for dinner and ate well. There was a singer performing and Denali and Little Ed danced for those waiting in the lobby. We came home and were done for the day. The night went poorly. Little Ed did not adjust well to the new sleep arrangements as was up often during the night. We slept in to make up for it.
One thing Denali asked to do on our vacation was ride horses. So, after much searching, we found some short rides available at the Guadalupe River Ranch near Boerne. Jen and Denali each took turns on the Corral Ride and I got plenty of video and pictures of each of them. After that, we returned to my Parents for a while to rest and have lunch. Then came the big event of the day.
I have never been to Schlitterbahn, a fact the Jen has teased me about for years. Well, we corrected that today. Jen, Denali, and I went to do the late day admission to the park. We spent all our time on the west end of the park and did just about every ride and went in every pool in the area. And when I say we, I mean Denali, too. We pushed her a bit and she was the youngest kid going on several of the red diamond tube rides that we went on, but, once we got her over her initial fear, she had a great time on all of them. We went on the Raging River and Hill Side tube shoots, as well as the hardest one for Denali, Der Bahn water slide. We stayed until about the time the park closed and we all exhausted. Once again back to my Parents to get Denali settled and fed. After the kids were put to bed, Jen and I went out to a rare dinner with just the two of us. All in all, a pretty good first two days on the vacation.