Texas Spring Vacation!

Just just got home from a wonderful vacation. This was Princess's first vacation. We've taken her on a plane and long car trip to visit my husband's parents but we've never taken her on a family vacation. We took Blue Rock everywhere! I think living in Germany made it easy to travel. We decided to go on vacation now while I'm still in my 2nd trimester and before it gets too hot. We were gone for 7 days/nights. Our main attraction was taking the kids to the beach and Sea World. We also planned to see some friends along the way and that really added to our trip! The kids did great and seemed to both enjoy our vacation. We bought a new van two days before we left and our van did great! It's a Honda Odyssey and I think it's both of ours favorite vehicle we've ever had.

Our first night we spent the night in New Braunfels, TX. We ate dinner at the Gristmill and met up with our friend, Naomi and her daughter. Her husband and other kids were unable to make it due to soccer practice. Before that we stopped in San Marcos and showed our kids our college campus and where Collin proposed to me. Texas State has continued to really grow!

The next morning we headed to the coast. We spent the next two nights in Corpus Christi. The day we arrived it was raining hard. Thankfully our hotel, the Omni, had an indoor pool, racket ball courts, and a great view of the ocean. We stopped by the beach briefly before dinner but didn't swim the first day.

The next day after breakfast we went to the beach. We were going to visit a little nature park but the mosquitoes were swarming our van so we decided not to get the kids in that and went and bought some bug spray for the beach, just in case. We drove to Padre Island and got a parking pass to park on the beach. The beach was surprisingly really nice, especially for a Texas beach. The sand was nice, we didn't see a lot of jelly fish. Blue Rock loved collecting sea shells. The kids played in the sand some, build a little sand castle, Blue Rock and I got in the chilly water a little. We got Princess's feet week. Hubby enjoyed sitting in the back of our new van tailgating out of the sun with Princess and feeding the seagulls with her. We had a great morning. We ate lunch at a cute German bakery and then Blue Rock wanted to go back to the beach. So we went to another beach for a little bit that afternoon. For dinner we ate at a restaurant on a Pier and met up with our friends, Elizabeth and Kevin. Elizabeth was in our wedding.

Friday morning we headed to San Antonio. We were debating visiting Sea World Friday or Saturday but it started raining a little on us so we went to the River Walk, ate lunch, took a boat tour, and then went to the Alamo. There was a big party called Fiesta, going on around downtown San Antonio. It had the longest parade I've ever seen. It seemed like the 5 hours we were there it was going on the whole time! We were going to meet up with my friends for dinner but by the time we got to the hotel and looked at the traffic we were going to be stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and our kids were done for the day. 

Saturday we went to Sea World. It was really fun. The shows were great, Blue Rock and Princess both got to ride a ride, Blue Rock and husband road a lot more rides. It was perfect for kids. I got Blue Rock a free pass and was able to get all day dining for husband and I for the price of our tickets. Princess was free. 

After spending 6 hours at Sea World, we went to visit with my friend, Lauren, whom I've known for many years, and her husband and two girls. Then we went to meet our friends, the Springers, for dinner. They have two boys, one is a year older than Blue Rock and one is a year older than Princess. They were good friends of ours in college. 

Sunday morning we went to church in San Marcos, where we used to attend in college. We got to see some friends there. Then we drove up to Austin and met up with David and Jessica. David was in our wedding and is a really good friend of Collin's. We like his wife and 3 kids as well. We went to their house and then took the kids to a really cool indoor playground. We ate dinner there and hung out with them the rest of the day. The next morning we went to their house and watched their kids so David could go to a doctor's appointment for some poison ivy he got in. Blue Rock loved playing with their kids. They have twin 5 year olds and a 3 year old. 

Around lunchtime we headed to IKEA in Austin and got some things and let Blue Rock play in the playground. Then around 3pm, we headed home. We had a wonderful vacation. There were so many more friends we would have loved to see. There is so much to see and do in all of these areas that hopefully we will add this to our list of fun family Texas trips. The driving was great, only about 2-3 hours per day. Here are some of our favorite pictures. 

Where I was proposed many years ago!

Checking out the college campus