We got home Monday night from our family vacation. We had the most amazing trip and we wanted to share some (ok, a lot of) pictures with you.
We started our trip by driving to San Marcos to spend the night with Erin’s aunt and uncle, Ron and Viki.
We made pit stop in Fredericksburg to let the kids play at the park playground.
We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture of these “Oreo” cows we saw on the way:
Once we got to San Marcos we met Viki and Ron at Centerpoint Station that had great burgers and it had a really cute shop inside too. 
Cayden really loved playing games with Ron and reading books with Viki. Here is a picture of Cayden with Ron, but I didn’t get one of Viki! (Sorry, Viki)
Line ‘em up and knock ‘em down boys!
The next morning, we went to the Outlet mall in San Marcos and found some great bargains at the Old Navy, Disney Store and Stride Rite. I may need to make this a yearly trip so I can get Christmas presents! I FINALLY found a cute Texans shirt too. We had to be closer to Houston to find one, I guess! (If you don’t know, our family is a Texans family!) Here is a pic of the kids in the Disney store.
Here’s Avery making friends with the Old Navy dog. I think she’s not entirely sure it’s not somehow a real dog sitting very, very still.
And here’s Cayden riding a coin operated 4-wheeler while making the face that any boy would make while riding an imaginary 4-wheeler. 
After shopping, we drove the rest of the way to South Padre Island. We were so blessed to have my uncle/2nd cousin, Ken and his wife Brenda let us stay at their beach house there. We had the most amazing time on the beach and resting at their house. Here are some pictures of our time there:
Sunrise and the ocean off of our back balcony.
Our first day on the beach:
Avery and the ocean eyed each other suspiciously for most of the trip, but she was a big fan of the sand. 
I love Avery’s face in this one. 
We ate lunch at a great restaurant that Ken and Brenda recommended called Amberjacks. 
Then we went to a really neat kite shop that was on the same street as the beach house and Cayden got a new kite…(the only one he has that isn’t from Dollar Tree) Maybe this one will last longer! :)
We also did a little souvenir shopping. Here is one of the entrances to one of the shops:
The next morning at the beach, it was, um, not very crowded…
Here’s the kids ready with their goggles on! Did those goggles ever get wet? Of course not…both of them hate getting their faces wet! 
My (Erin) favorite picture of Avery of the whole week: 
The beautiful flowers at the beach house:
We had dinner that night at a restaurant called Scampi’s and Cayden’s “thumbs up” is because the waiter put a cherry on top of his cup’s lid. Cayden talked all week about wanting to go back to the place where they gave out cherries! 
After dinner we went and explored the north end of the island and played again on the beach. I realized at this point that my (Erin’s)favorite time on the beach was going to be early in the morning and late at night because it was cooler and we didn’t have to mess with sunscreen!:
Cayden wanted to climb the ‘sand mountains.’
We got up early the next morning to go back out to the beach. Seeing the sunrise was really cool; the reddish-purple sun in the distance looks like something out of Star Wars:
…you couldn’t sit anywhere near it! 
We ate lunch at The Shrimp Haus and got a HUGE dessert:
We had shrimp again for dinner at Dirty Al’s. We ate here twice during the week because the fried shrimp was the best we had ever had! YUMMY!! We even got to meet Dirty Al… (Yes, the sign does say bar, restaurant and BAIT…you get a good whiff of bait as you walk in through the first door before going into the restaurant!. That didn’t keep us from stuffing our faces with that yummy shrimp though!)
We went out to the beach one more time the morning we left. They were having some type of marathon run so the beach was filled with runners. 
This is Avery “swimming.” She enjoyed going out a ways into the water (where the big bad waves didn’t capsize her) and then start saying “My! My!” which translates into “I’d like to attempt swimming on my own now!” She’d close her eyes and kick her feet and giggle and laugh right up until the instant that she got a face full of salt water. Then she’d spit and sputter and do it again!
This is a sign we definitely don’t see is West Texas:
This must be one of those pelicans they warned us about…they seem friendly enough, but something about that vacant stare…
Who knew? Okay, besides Cory and Nathan…
We drove back to San Marcos that afternoon and the next day we went to Sea World. It was very hot, but we had a really great time! (Except for one little mishap…a bird bit Cayden’s ear while we were in the aviary feeding them!)
Watching the Shamu show: 
After the dolphin show…It was Avery’s favorite: 
This lady talked during the penguin presentation. From the way the birds are watching her, you can just tell either they really love and respect her and feel the utmost appreciation for all that she and her crew do to provide for her well-being, or they’re patiently waiting for her to slip and fall so they can pounce on her and eat her. Cute and cuddly, boys…cute and cuddly…
Cayden took our picture:
Playing in the “Waterworks” area for kids:
Feeding the dolphins: 
Looking at the fish/sharks/frogs/jellyfish/etc…(I don’t remember which one in this specific picture!)
We spent one more night at Ron and Viki’s house and then headed home on Monday morning. We had a such a great time! It was our first official family vacation with the four of us!
