We turned Simone & Garrett’s San Antonio wedding into an excuse for a little family mini-vacation. My folks came with us, and did touristy stuff with the kiddos while Mack and I worked on Saturday. Then on Sunday, the whole fam went to Sea World! There are no pictures from Sunday, because we didn’t feel like lugging around our cameras, but we did get fun pictures from Saturday morning.

Before the wedding, we drove a few miles and visited the Natural Bridge Caverns. Having been to Carlsbad Caverns, I knew what to expect, but the most fun was watching how Jack reacted to everything. He had a blast! Dottie, of course, mostly slept. 😉

This was also the first time Mack and I busted out a few new toys… a fish-eye lens, and a super wide angle. Both will be fun for use in wedding receptions! We were determined to go flash-less, so the low-lighting in the caverns made for some pretty tricky pictures. But I think we got enough that it’s worth a little mid-week bloggage. 😉

Before we ever got into the caves, I was starting to get a little antsy, because of the size of the bugs. The walking sticks and locusts were flippin’ PREHISTORIC in size. I don’t do well with bugs. Spiders, snakes… I got that. But other insects (particularly crickets) make me go faint pretty quickly.

Check out the size of this guy!:

And, yes, careful observers will notice that the lens fogged up. It was just that humid.

Jack on the trek down to the cavern entrance:

Jack, Mom, Dot & I getting the pre-tour speech. See the cool carrier thing Mom’s holding Dot in? She made it! Super comfy way to lug a baby around. 😉

Now, for a few fun cave pictures. I’m not even going to try and remember what all these things were… but they’re neat looking!

Ooooh, goofy portraits. A family tradition:

That’s a wrap!

Be sure and come back tomorrow morning for a blog post chock full of Simone & Garrett wedding loveliness.

See you then!