Monday, August 1, 2011

San Antonio Trip Summer 2011


This was seriously just a great little trip for our family. It felt close to home, yet it felt far away. It felt like a long trip, but it went by fast. Does this make sense? Probably not. Anyways, my point is, it was perfection. Every second of it was great.

Friday July 29th 2011

We started off late morning on Friday. Our first stop was Buc-ee's, which is like a Texas staple. If you are passing a Buc-ee's you must stop. It is a requirement, which apparently everyone knows because it will take you twenty minutes just to get out of the parking lot. Oh well! It was fun to get some special snacks and take some pics. Where is Alexa in these pics? Well she is preteen now, so pics aren't her thing anymore. Or maybe this is when she was filling up her slurpee cup with three different flavors!?


Ethan Loved Buc-ee! He knew exactly who he was because he already owns a Buc-ee's shirt. Super excited this little guy was!

Back in the car to our destination: Hotel Contessa on the Riverwalk, San Antonio, TX. This hotel was gorgeous and our room was perfect! It had a living room and a seperate bedroom, which made Alexa feel like she had her own room. The room itself had some pretty cool design elements and the view was awesome.


My girl is gorgeous!


After we checked out the room, we headed outside for a nice stroll along the Riverwalk. This was fun and stressful at the same time. We left Ethan's stroller in the car, which we later got out for a second stroll on the Riverwalk. Back to the first outing though, Ethan had a ball chasing the ducks and just running around. What two year old doesn't love to be free. It really is beautiful. I love all the little shops and restuarants. Without kids I could probably spend hours strolling.



Ethen kept saying "come mere duck, come mere"
the duck of course wanted nothing to do with him.

"bye, bye duck"

We then headed back to the hotel to get our suits on and swim in the roof top pool. It was very cool! Both Alexa and Ethan loved it:



My little jumper. Ethan loves jumping
in the pool. Mommy gets some
lounge time!

After a nice swim, we went back to the room and got dressed. We walked the river, with stroller this time, and found a place to eat. You can't beat some coconut shrimp, steamed veggies and a beautiful river side view. Oh yeah and Ethan fell asleep. Which made dinner that much more peaceful. We were in for the night after that. Great first day of vacay.

Saturday July 30th 2011

My husband and I woke up early and did some cardio in the hotel gym. Who could resist running on a treadmill with a view like this



A little word of advice, if you are going to Seaworld after you exercise, you could probably skip the exercise.

We then ate at the hotels breakfast buffet. It was a really nice buffet and my husband says it was one of his favorite parts of the trip. Haha! Really though, it was pretty darn good.

Next stop: Seaworld San Antonio. What an adventure that was. We have been planning this trip for about a month now, so Ethan has been totally obsessed with dolphins. He has been talking about dolphins all month long. So of course the first thing we did was feed the dolphins. We bought some dolphin food and headed to dolphin cove. The kids both loved it! Ethan was beside himself! We bought him a stuffed dolphin after this and he is still carrying that thing around.







Off to the shark tanks, where Ethan kept saying "Nemo! Nemo!"


Next stop: rides! Ethan and I waited while Layne and Alexa rode the log run. Fun! I thought this was them, but it wasn't. It was hard to see.
 Of course we had to get splashed by the ride too!
We caught the Elmo show part way through and took some character pics. Ethan adored this part. I can't believe how much he loved the characters. I would have thought he'd be afraid. No sir! He loved them all!





We played in the Elmo's adventure land for a bit. After we went and watched the Azul show with the beluga whales and dolphins. The divers where amazing. We then walked towards more rides. Ethan fell asleep, so Alexa and I where able to ride a rollercoaster together. Then Layne went on a couple by himself. Alexa was scared of the roller coasters for some reason. So not like her. I wish I could of taken a pic of her face on the one we went on. It was priceless! She said she was trying to smile for the camera the roller coaster takes, but she was scared at the same time. the result was hilarious. just picture her with a fake smile, her eyes popping, and her face being pulled back by the force of the coaster. Funny!!

After some rides we headed to the water park. We stayed there for about an hour and we were all spent. We spent almost 8 hours at Seaworld and we still didn't see and do everything. It was an awesome time. Of course we couldn't leave the park without saying goodbye to the dolphins.

We then headed to New Braunfels to Layne's cousins house. They have a gorgeous house in the country on a couple acres of land. The deer come in their front yard and Ethan loved running over there. They ran every time, but came back five minutes later. He spent quite a bit doing this over and over. He would sneak up on them, so he thought, but they ran everytime. He helped feed the deer and even got to ride on a four wheeler with his daddy. He was super apprehensive about this. It actually took him an hour before he agreed to get on, but once he did. He didn't want to get off. Alexa didn't want anything to do with it at all. I guess she isn't my little dare devil anymore. I guess that's what happens when you get older.





We stayed up until about midnight just hanging out with my husband's cousin and his wife. It was really nice. They are awesome people to hang with. Both of them have really upbeat happy personalities.

Sunday July 31st 2011

We all slept in. It was nice. We were all tired from our long day at Seaworld. We had planned to go to a water park on Sunday, but we decided to keep it low key and just hang out a bit more. We had a great breakfast, made by our hostess. When I asked for the recipe she said "spicy sausage, eggs, and tortillas" Who knew! It really was super good. I will be making this soon.

After a lazy morning we all headed to Gruene to check out the little town and swim in the Guadelope river. It was a perfect end to our little family trip.










Goodbye San Anotnio. We had a great time and made some amazing family memories together.


1 comment:

Krysta said...

I am so glad your doing this!!! It was fun to read about your trip. You will love looking back on these posts! I could picture everything. It made me laugh. :)