Christmas Vacation

Here's the link to ALL of the pictures.

San Antonio Pictures

Corpus Christi and Padre Island Pictures

Stuck in Dallas Traffic

Stuck in Dallas Traffic

Christmas Vacation - Day 6 & 7

Day 6 it was time to start heading home but we wanted to see more of our TX family. So Day 6 we drove to Dallas to spend the night with Ben and Kelly.

Stuck in Dallas traffic. At this moment we truly missed small town Manhattan with zero traffic jams!

We finally made it to Kelly's bakery. She treated us to some yummy snacks like lemon squares, cookies, cupcakes, and whoopee pies. They also have this little picture displayed in the shop. I love my NKOTB!

Aiden loved playing with Tucker. He really wanted to have his picture taken with him, even though it doesn't look like it in this picture.

After Dallas we drove up to Sherman to see more family. We finally got to meet Emily who married our nephew Alex last winter. And we got to meet little Chloe, one of our great nieces who was born a month after Grayson. Unfortuantly, little Elizabeth didn't make it to lunch. So hopefully we will be able to catch up with Hillary and Jake some time soon so we can meet their new gal.

This never happens where Aiden is the one awake and both big boys are sleeping. But it was a long trip! We were happy to make it back to my parent's and relax with some yummy Chinese food.

Christmas Vacation - Day 5

Beach Day! We spent most of the day at the beach. We had breakfast on the beach then went out and played in the sand and the water. (Honestly, the water was really cold and I was too much of a wimp to get in, knees and thats it!)

The boys loved the sand.

Here's Matt with Jordan, Damon and Xavier
Sister toes

We had lunch at a BBQ place called Rudy's. After that Carrie and Matt and Dad and Lois left to go visit my Uncle Tommy and to head home.

After they left we decided to go to the Texas State Aquarium.

My husband is such a cute fish...
Weird dolphin. Anyone know why it would swim upside down?




After the aquarium we went back to the beach. Brenden and Charla took the boys boogie boarding for 5 minutes before the boys gave up. So Charla and Brenden did it instead. I didn't have my camera at that time so no pics of that event. We also walked along the beach, played in the sand some more, and swam in the pool.

After we went to a Mexican restaurant with good food, good salsa that was white with a strong cilantro taste (no idea what it was but if you know, let me know because it was awesome), and really bad service. Our food was good but Charla's and Brenden's weren't so much.

Jax and Grayson's sock that he stole.

Christmas Vacation - Day 4

Our stay in San Antonio was over and it was time to held down to Corpus Christi. First, Adam and I did a little shopping at some outlets, nothing exciting but had to hit a couple stores we never get to go to.

We were able to stay in a Holiday Inn that was right on the beach and lucky for us the temperatures were about 20 degrees higher then normal. So we were able to spend time in the ocean and swimming in the outdoor, heated swimming pool.

That night we went to a seafood restaurant that was right on the docks. It was really good and had a great atmosphere.

Aunt Carrie and Uncle Matt ordered crab legs for appetizers. Xavier was so excited. Surprisingly he could get the meat out.

Damon and Aiden enjoyed it too...
Me and my Daddy with Grayson of course.
Xavier's a goof ball.
This is at our hotel.
The hotel also had a nice gift shop that we spent way too much time in!

Christmas Vacation - SeaWorld Videos

Sharks


Sea Lions and Seals with VERY LOUD Birds in the background


Shamu








Azul show

Christmas Vacation - Day 3

Day 3 was SeaWorld. We decided to pay extra for a tour that started before the place opened. We got to go in at 10:30 although it didn't open until noon. We got a private tour, feed the dolphins and the seals and sea lions. We also got to hold a lizard and had our picture taken with it. It included the fast passes for rides, so no waiting for us. And we got some gifts too. It was a lot of fun. We stayed the whole day at SeaWorld. I think it was the highlight of the trip.

Adam and I had been to SeaWorld years ago. But it was really cool to see it decorated for Christmas.
I think feeding the dolphins was the best part for everyone. They are pretty amazing creatures.




Here was our tour guide. I think her name was Michelle but I'm probably making that up. Adam's asleep on the couch right now so I can't ask him. I'm sure he will remember. If not, then Carrie will leave a comment correcting me. Xavier asked a lot of questions on our tour.
We also got front row seats to the Shamu show. It was awesome...my favorite show!
When we were leaving, the penguin was already up by this tree taking pictures so we jumped in line to get our picture too. Right when she was taking our shot the whale came running up to join us. FYI, a little preview of our belated Christmas cards...

Christmas Vacation - Day 2

Saturday morning, Carrie, Matt, Adam and I got up early to go to the San Antonio Temple. Its a beautiful temple (although I don't think there is an ugly one). It has lots of stain glass and fountains. I also think it must be on the highest point of San Antonio. You can see the whole city from the parking lot. Which would have made a great picture if I would of thought to take one! The other cool thing, a former bishop of the Augusta ward was in our session with his wife. so Matt and Carrie were able to catch up with them. I love when that kind of stuff happens at the temples!


It was sooo cold!
Lucky for us, I read Big Mama's blog who happens to reside in San Antonio. I had emailed her to see if she could give us some good local places to eat. She recommended Chris Madrid's and suggested the Tostado Burger...claiming it was life changing. It was soooo good. Adam and I already have plans to try our best to remake it. It was a 1/4 hamburger with refried beans, cheese, tortilla chips, onions, and salsa. Thanks Big Mama for the suggestion!

After lunch we went to the zoo. No offense, but the San Antonio zoo isn't fantastic. I wish we would have spent the time at the Riverwalk instead.
Adam and I have been to the Ft Worth zoo and the San Antonio zoo and they both stink. We've decided no more TX zoos!

Our boys with Jordan and Jax
This elephant statue was the best part of the whole zoo. We had the most fun taking pictures of all of us on it. I really wanted to dig it up and bring it with me. I have the perfect spot in my house for it!
For dinner we went to the Riverwalk. But it was super crowded so we didn't really enjoy it. Adam and I met a nice older couple at our restaurant that were really sweet. I also thought this building was cool.

Christmas Vacation - Day 1

Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts this year, we decided to go on a trip. The main reason this came about was due to a small inheritance my sisters and I received when our Uncle Bob passed away a year and a half ago. We had talked about doing a family trip for awhile and since we figured we all had the money to go right now, we decided to go for it.

Originally we had talked about doing a more extravagant trip like a cruise or an all-inclusive. But with the two babies in our family we decided to keep it a little more simple just in case. So we decided on Texas! We spent a couple days in San Antonio and then a couple days on the beach in Corpus Christi.

We took a lot of pictures so there will be a lot of blog posts. Here's day 1.

Day 1 is travel day. Our family headed down from Wichita to San Antonio on Friday, Dec 17th. We stopped at a place for "The Best Burgers in TX." Little did we know that it was inside a gas station but they were quite yummy and we could refuel all in one stop!
As we traveled down to San Antonio, we also stopped to visit our niece, Amanda and her family in Georgetown. We have not seen them in a year so it was nice to have a little visit with them. They even bought us pizza which was fantastic! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures!

Finally we made it to San Antonio and hung out with the family a little bit before going to bed.

I did it!

Damon picked a treat from my new book, Cake Pops. I made them for his class today. I'm pretty proud of myself!

Grayson and the Hat

'I love this baby. I love this hat. I love this baby in this hat.

All 4 boys have had their pictures taken in this same hat at 3 months old. One day I'll have to scan in Damon's and Xavier's. Here's Aiden.

Damon's 9th Birthday - Family Party

Sunday night we had Damon's family party. He got a lot of nice gifts that he was very excited about.

Damon's 9th Birthday - Kid Party

Damon wanted to do his kid party at Time Out Corner, which has an arcade and an indoor putt-putt. He had three of his friends along for some pizza on Saturday.
Here's his powercat cake.

We had a good time and Damon has good friends that are pretty easy going. They all seemed happy playing their games and earning crappy prizes with their tickets. We are running out of places to do birthday parties. I guess I'm going to have to start being creative or something.

Decorating the Tree

We decorated the tree on Thursday night. I had done the prep work the night before and while the boys were in school so it was ready for them to put their ornaments up after their piano lessons.

Damon decorating...
Grayson feeling the Christmas spirit...
Xavier decorating..
Aiden getting in on it too...