Family Vacation 2012

Ok. Y’all.

Yesterday as I was trying to finish up my post, I encountered a little blogger problem.

The dreaded 3 GB limit.

For most of you, this probably means nothing. It sure didn’t mean anything to me until yesterday, when it wouldn’t let me upload any more pictures!

Turns out to get more gigabytes, I’m going to have to fork over some cold, hard cash.

No bueno, to say the least.

So I spent a little time going through and deleting unused pictures (and hopefully I left any pictures actually used on the blog intact!) and got down to 2.4 GB.

Better, but not great. Gotta slow down on the picture inserts for the time being.

BUT, I won’t let that stop me from sharing a few more pictures from our little family vacation last week. Yesterday you got to see the amazing bed and breakfast we stayed at, today I’ll give you a peek at a few of the things we did while we were in the Wimberly area.

One of our first sight-seeing stops was at the Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio. Chris has been to caverns on the east coast, but this was his first Texas cave. Naturally, he came prepared with a mag light (he keeps those big pockets fully stocked!) and spent most of his time ignoring the guide and shining that little light all over the place.

I’ve been to several caverns before, but this one seemed especially incredible to me. I was completely in awe at the beauty of God’s creation, even 180 feet under the earth…He just thought of everything didn’t He?!

Another item in Chris’ handy-dandy cargo pockets was our Flip camera. After the caverns we went to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Park, one of those places where you drive through and can see / feed that “wild” animals. I use the term “wild” loosely because most of these animals were so fat off of hand-fed food from tourists driving through…but it was cool nonetheless.

Chris can’t do anything without adding a little flair of drama to it, so as he recorded he attempted to make his own  “Serengeti You-Tube” video. Most of my appreances on the video were simply me shaking my head back and forth in disbelief of his silliness. 😛

Our trip took place mid-afternoon, so obviously it was pretty darn hot. A lot of the animals, especially the bigger ones, stayed in the shade…but you can see from these pictures how close some of them were. None of them tried to jump in the car with us (I’ve heard stories of that happening!) but we did get the chance to feed several of them, so that was cool. 🙂

After our outing to the Natural Bridge, we opted to channel our inner senior citizens and eat dinner at 4:45. (Hey, don’t judge us. The restuarant was on our way back to the B&B…it wouldn’t have made sense to pass it and then drive back to it a little while later.)

We found this really cool pizza place called “Brewster’s Pizza” in Wimberly. I *loved* the decor (that’s why I included a picture for you guys!) and the pizza was so yummy…you’ve gotta stop in if you ever get a chance!

Our other stops included a yummy Mexican food restaurant, Fizoli’s, Krispy Kreme donuts (*soooo tasty!)…hum, guess I’m hungry, since the first thing to come to mind were all the places we stopped to eat. 😉

Of course, we also went to Schlitterbahn. I got a tan, Chris got a sunburn…but we both had a really fun time together. He’s a slide junkie, I’m a lazy river lover…so we met in the middle and did a little of both. Good times!

I know the burning question for those of you who read Friday’s post is…”So did you come back with any extra money?!”

I’m happy to say that the answer is yes! We conquered the vacation on a budget, and had a great time!

KEEP CALM & VACATION ON A BUDGET!

Vacation on a Budget

Happy Friday!

As you know, we’re really tring to cinch up the ol’ belt around these parts.

So, when vacation time started rolling around, I knew I would need to pinch pennies, budget, and have enough cash on hand to not use any form of plastic. Obviously, this took a lot of prior planning.

One way I keep myself organized is with my handy-dandy binder. I found this before we went on our honeymoon, and it’s been very handy for all of our travels since that time.

I believe I found it at Wal-Mart…it’s a plastic binder, with plastic folders inside. Each folder has a pocket on the front and back…so there’s plenty of storage space.

The first folder has the directions to our Bed & Breakfast destination, along with our reservation paperwork. The little pocket has our gas money in one envelope, along with the cash I used to buy our lunch food.

Yep, that’s the first step I made towards saving money. I borrowed a little cooler from my parents and stocked it with sandwich stuff and bottled water. Then I loaded up our newest pinic basket with chips, bread, oreos, and paper goods. The plan is to eat a picnic lunch each day we’re gone…I figure this will save us somewhere around $50!

As for our bed & breakfast, I cashed in a Groupon for the “Serentiy Farmhouse Inn” in Wimberly, TX. Valued at $511, I paid only $199 for a 2-night stay, complete with a farm-fresh breakfast each morning and fresh flowers in our room.

Oh, and yes, also in this folder is a coupon for the cute little brick-oven pizza place we’re going to eat at on our first night. score!

The second folder has our plans for the second day. We’re going to visit the Natural Bridge Caverns and Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch near San Antonio, TX. Besides our directions, I have the tickets I paid for online for the caverns (they had a discount that way!), the cash we’ll need, and a coupon to use for our admission at the Wildlife Ranch.

Love those coupons!

The third folder has our directions, tickets, and cash (in a plastic baggie of course!) for Schlitterbahn. I was able to get a fairly decent discount on Schlitterbahn tickets through my teacher association. I’m also excited that they’ll let people bring in coolers w/ food and drinks, so that will save us a lot of money while we’re in the park!

After Schlitterbahn I booked a hotel room for us at a La Quinta about 30 miles up the road. That little bit of distance saved us about $40, plus I was able to get an additional discount through my teacher union. Woo-hoo!

The most exciting part about that pocket is the envelope of cash to pay for our hotel room. It feels awesome to be able to pay with cash for a room!

The last pocket is directions to get us back to my parents house so that we can pick up our little pup and visit with the fam for a couple of days. We so appreciate them taking care of Huxley for us…they aren’t “housedog” people, so it really means a lot.

The last envelope includes a few additional coupons I found, in case we need them, and an envelope of cash for our food money. My goal is to come home with some cash leftover…wouldn’t that be sweet?!

Most of the trip was funded by the earnings I made working at camp a few weeks ago, supplemented by some of our grocery and gas money that was already planned for this pay period. I estimate (only because I’m not feeling like doing anything above kindergarten math right now) that the 4-day trip will cost somewhere between $500-$600. Perfect, since I earned $605 from camp!

I know others could have probably taken this trip even cheaper, but for me…it’s a start. (Especially considering last year our vacation cost over $1000!) I’m looking forward to getting away with the husby and showing him a little more of Texas.

And I’m pretty proud that the vacation won’t follow us home. (i.e. – no credit card bills to pay it off!) 😉

KEEP CALM & TRAVEL ON A DIME!