Monday, June 06, 2016

Riverwalk & More SeaWorld

Back in 2013 when Matt and I went to San Antonio for our baby moon, we ate at The Guenther House for breakfast on the recommendation from multiple people.  It was so good that we made it a top priority to eat there again on this trip!!
Matt and I ordered the exact same thing we got last time.  I got the biscuits and sausage gravy with fruit and a side of bacon.  Matt got the banana waffle.  Both were just as good as we remembered them to be.  The boys split a short stack and some eggs and bacon.  
Our next stop was the Alamo.  I showed Nash this picture yesterday, and even after a week since seeing it, he said "It's da -Aaa-Mo."  Pretty impressive for a two year old!!
While we were there we let Pearson get a Texas fact book from the gift shop.  I feel like a mean Mom for not getting Nash anything, but he didn't really care.  
After we had seen the Alamo, we hopped on a boat for a River Tour.  Once again, Pearson was our little tour guide, taking us all over the Riverwalk.
Nash loved riding on the boat and love seeing all the little ducks swim by us.
Two of my favorite things on the River Tour were this crazy tree growing out of a building…..
….and this building that is an optical illusion making it look like it's a flat building.
Even though Matt and I had already done this River Tour, it was fun to do it again and hear all the interesting facts about San Antonio and the Riverwalk.
We didn't do much else on the Riverwalk, because it was super humid down there.  
We had to snap a quick picture though to show us on the Riverwalk.  I wish we would have walked down a little more and gotten in a prettier area.  
I thought it was fun to see me and Matt over the last 7 years on the Riverwalk. Picture #1 was us on our  1st anniversary trip in 2009 without kids.  Picture #2 was us on our Babymoon.  Pearson (2.5) was in Sherman with Grammy & Grandaddy and I was about 7 or 8 months pregnant with Nash.  Picture #3 is us with our two little munchkins in tow.
We ate BBQ for lunch at a place I can't even remember the name of.  It was nothing special.  Matt and I have come to the realization that we are spoiled to Stanley's BBQ in Tyler.  There is just no better BBQ than Stanley's.  Nash got a quick snooze in the hotel when we got back, then we were off to SeaWorld again for an afternoon in the water.  
When we were at SeaWorld on Monday, Nash really took notice of the roller coasters.  He deemed them "Roasters" though.  Why not? It's a perfect combination of the word roller and coaster! He was thrilled when he finally got to ride a "roaster"!!
Nash was not so thrilled when he wasn't tall enough to right the Shamu Express "roaster".  
Pearson and Matt are in the first Shamu cart here.  
We really didn't know if Pearson would love it or hate it, but he was all smiles when he got off and said he liked the fast part the best!!
He liked it so much that he asked to ride it again.  This time I got to ride with him.
We knew the picture was coming, so we decided to make silly faces for it.  
 Matt and Pearson rode a spinny ride together that I refused to go on because I don't do rides that spin.  I forgot to get a picture of them though.  Our last ride of the afternoon was a Ferris Wheel type ride.  The boys loved how high we got.  We could see the entire Bay of Play from the very top!!
From the top of our Ferris Wheel we could see Elmo and all his friends, so we zipped over to see them and take a picture.  Nash was a little star struck!!
We spent a good chunk of the afternoon playing at the awesome splash pad.  It took both of the boys a little while to warm up to it, but we practically had to drag them away when it was time to go.  
Our final stop at SeaWorld was to see Shamu!!
Such a beautiful & amazing creature.  The boys were in awe!!!
I'm so glad we were able to take them to Shamu's show since it's the last year they will have the Killer Whales performing.  

Saturday, June 04, 2016

San Antonio Zoo

On Tuesday we headed into town to go to the San Antonio Zoo.  Since we are members of the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, we got a 50% off discount at the San Antonio Zoo.  It was only $20……score!!!  It was a really great zoo.  We all loved it!

The zoo was really pretty.  It had lots of pretty trees and ponds and plants.

Nash loves flamingos.  
He was excited to get to see them at SeaWorld and the Zoo.
 Matt was pointing out the little prairie dogs to Nash.
 They had a ton of different kinds of monkeys at this zoo.  Pearson liked the little area where you could climb like a monkey. 
 I loved these huge tortoises.  I've never seen a tortoise move so fast.  These guys were totally motivated to get moving when their keeper came out with collard greens.  
 We really got up close and personal with them!  The trainer told us so many interesting facts about these guys.  Well actually the little one is the female.  
 Once again, our little tour guide of the zoo.  I will say my only complaint about this zoo was that it wasn't very easy to maneuver.  There wasn''t really an obvious path to take.  When we got back to the hotel we realized we missed a few exhibits including the hippos.  We were sad we missed them because we don't have hippos at the Caldwell Zoo. 
 I can't remember what this bird was, but Pearson was the one that noticed there was an egg under it.  Pretty cool! He or she would not move.  They were being very protective over their egg.  
 The boys excitement over each new animal we saw was so cute! 
 Kangaroos are some funky looking creatures, but we sure loved checking them out. 
All three of my handsome boys in their shades checking out the cheetahs, Matt's favorite animal.  
Seriously, how cute are these boys in their cool sunglasses.  
 Currently Nash's favorite animal is a rhino.  
He was really busy eating but turned around and let us get a good picture of him!
 We didn't think to get a family picture until we were just about done and this was the best we got.  The boys were hot and tired.  
 After the zoo we hopped across the street to ride the Zoo Train that goes around Brackenridge Park.  
It was about a 20 minute train ride.  The boys really enjoyed it.  
After our train ride we ate at a really good deli called WD Deli.  It was recommended by a friend.  The best part were the giant cookies we had for dessert.  The Orange Cranberry was to die for!
 This little one was pooped after another busy day.  We made it back to the hotel just in time for a late nap.  
 It was cloudy most of our trip, but the sun peeked out a little this afternoon so we decided to hit up the pool for an afternoon swim.  
 There was a great little splash pad area for the kids.  
The water was a still too cold for me so I let Matt be the cool Dad and get in the water with the boys. 
 Squeeky clean boys and a little iPad time before dinner.  
 Pizza sounded good for dinner.  We were recommended a few pizza places, but when we found out they had a Grimaldi's not to far from our hotel we were sold!  We miss Grimaldi's.  It was so good, as always!
 A vacation with kids is not really a vacation at all.  It was pretty exhausting.  But it was all about making memories with our boys.  And I'm pretty sure we did a pretty good job of that.