Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Family Vacation

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.IMG_0385

We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture of these “Oreo” cows we saw on the way:IMG_0401

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. IMG_0407 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)IMG_0411

Line ‘em up and knock ‘em down boys!IMG_0410 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.IMG_0417 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.IMG_0414

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. IMG_0416

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.IMG_0454

Our first day on the beach:IMG_0471

Avery and the ocean eyed each other suspiciously for most of the trip, but she was a big fan of the sand. IMG_0509 IMG_0472

I love Avery’s face in this one. IMG_0477      We ate lunch at a great restaurant that Ken and Brenda recommended called Amberjacks.  IMG_0518 IMG_0520 IMG_0519 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! :)IMG_0526We also did a little souvenir shopping. Here is one of the entrances to one of the shops:IMG_0522 The next morning at the beach, it was, um, not very crowded…IMG_0551

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! IMG_0538IMG_0557 

My (Erin) favorite picture of Avery of the whole week: IMG_0564

The beautiful flowers at the beach house:IMG_0575IMG_0578We 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! IMG_0588After 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!:IMG_0599IMG_0618

Cayden wanted to climb the ‘sand mountains.’IMG_0629IMG_0636  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:IMG_0654IMG_0653IMG_0671I (Damon) thought this was funny.  We set up the umbrella since it was much simpler than the ‘tent’ we’d been setting up, but there was one catch.  Early in the morning, in order to sit in its shade…  IMG_0682

…you couldn’t sit anywhere near it! IMG_0683 IMG_0695IMG_0681a

We ate lunch at The Shrimp Haus and got a HUGE dessert:IMG_0700

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!)IMG_0707

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.    IMG_0737

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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!IMG_0732 IMG_0720

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This is a sign we definitely don’t see is West Texas:IMG_0749

This must be one of those pelicans they warned us about…they seem friendly enough, but something about that vacant stare…IMG_0755

Who knew?  Okay, besides Cory and Nathan…IMG_0753 

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!)

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Watching the Shamu show: IMG_0791

After the dolphin show…It was Avery’s favorite: IMG_0823

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…IMG_0835

IMG_0838 Cayden took our picture:IMG_0837

Playing in the “Waterworks” area for kids:IMG_0844  Feeding the dolphins: IMG_0867

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Looking at the fish/sharks/frogs/jellyfish/etc…(I don’t remember which one in this specific picture!)IMG_0889

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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!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey!!! I loved the pictures! It looks like they were taken for advertising purposes, especially the one of erin watching the show! : )

Hope yall are doing Well!

(P.S this is me avoiding HW, so thanks for giving me something to do.) :)

Maryann said...

Looks like you had a GREAT time! We should meet up in SM some time for some shopping :)

jarcarhar said...

I feel like I got to go on your vacation now! Thank you for the momentary get-away! Love you!