Let's Take a Vacation!

The Neal Family decided that we would like to take a vacation!  So we ALL hoped in our car and headed south...

We left late (this momma gets carsick) and drove all night Sunday July 4th.  Our first stop was Corpus Christi, TX.  We wanted to frolick in the beach and make sand castles.  (The sunburns were a bonus!)

Because of the hurricane, the beach wasn't so pretty!  There was a lot of trash and seaweed everywhere.  But we made the best of it.  I don't think the kids even noticed!

Brady and Ainsley builting castles in the sand!

Ainsley's very 1st sand castle

Joe, Ainsley and I strolled a ways down the beach to see if there was a more clean spot.  (There wasn't!) So we strolled back.  Sometime in the walk, Joe's and my feet were stinging.  I don't what it was...but it got us!

Joe got a sting on the top of his foot and I got one on my ankle.

Yes, I took a picture of it.  On a side note, a lady heard us talking and just told me that the water was really stinging today and that was probably it.  I was polite and just smiled...but I wish I could have told her that the ocean just doesn't pick ONE spot on your foot to sting, nor does it leave a scab.  But that's beside the point!  :)

The kids were a little nervous about the water at first...but it didn't take long for them to run and jump through it.

Ainsley loved it!  But true to form, after an hour she was wanting to go home.  It was too hot and too sandy! 

So we washed off and changed clothes. 

We grabbed some sandwiches to eat and were packing up to head to San Antonio when we thought we would feed the pretty birds.  The birds were actually not aggresive at all.  The kids threw bread in the air and the birds caught it.  I tried to get a good picture...

And off to San Antionio we went....

My best friend, Smalls, lives in San Antonio.  She had a crazy work schedule, so she wasn't going to get to spend much time with us.  But she met us at the hotel and played with Ainsley while I got ready and just hung out with all of us.

Baxter, Ainsley and Brady waiting "patiently" as we got all checked in

We decided that we wanted to get dinner on the river walk and Smalls suggested we got to Casa Rio.  It was a great choice!

We had a short wait, but took this time to take pictures of ourselves!

It didn't take very long before we were seated.  Of course, with 10 adults and 3 children, we were the biggest table in the place!  It was reasonably priced and we proportioned.  I can definitely see why it's a popular place.  And the views were fabulous, as well.

And after a good night's sleep...we were up and ready for SEAWORLD!

Ainsley, Joe and I were up before everyone else, so we decided to go downstairs for breakfast and let them get up.  On our way back upstairs, Ainsley posed in front of the elevator door which had a picture of Shamu on it! (and all of u that know her well, know this is the closest it's going to get!)

And finally we made it!

Candice, Joe, Leslie, Ainsley, Jay, Ashley, John, Stacy, Baxter, Brady and Papa Jumbo

Our first stop was the dolphins!

This was Ainsley's favorite thing to do at SeaWorld!  You can just sit and watch them. 

We walked around for awhile, and ended up going on the log ride.  The log ride was only 1 of a couple Ainsley could ride.  But I was sure she wouldn't go!  When she said she wanted to...I thought "let's see how long this lasts".  But she did it!!  She waited for an hr in line and rode the ride!  I'm still such a proud momma!!

We watched a show in the afternoon, but I had one cranky girl and had to convince her that she would like it.  Of course, she sat on my lap, but in the end she really liked the show.  It was called Azul and here is a description: "where beluga whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, colorful birds, and human acrobats come together in a celebration of sea and sky"

It was a really good show.  Afterwards, it was really hot so we headed to the water park inside Sea World. (which I think is the coolest idea!)  We definitely needed some cooling down and playing in the water made Ainsley is a TERRIFIC mood!

She even made a friend to play with.

This little wading pool was right in front of the wave pool...so every 20 minutes there would be a rush of people run to the wave pool and then slowly trickle out!  They made fun waves for us to play in!

We had to get out of the pool in time to go and get seats to see the Shamu show.  There is only 1 show a day, so the line is super long!  So we went early and not only got good seats, we got to watch them do some practice tricks.

This is a mama and a baby!  Ainsley loved that she saw a baby whale!

We sat just close enough to see really well, but never got wet.  But we still didn't take our camera out, just in case!

There was lots of videos/dancers/rock music to go along with the show.  Ainsley really liked the colorful videos...and of course, kept asking to see the baby whale.  ;)

It was time to head home after that...we started heading to the car and soon realized that no one else was with us and we didn't have any keys.  So we hung out in the parking lot until they came.  Ainsley was nice and played with her little penquin she got today.

DAY 2!!

On the second day, we decided to go back to let Daddy ride some rides.  I just planned to walk around and do whatever Ainsley wanted to do.  As soon as we walked in, she spoted a "baby dolphin" (stuffed of course) and wanted to take it home.  I asked her to wait until we were leaving so we didn't drop it or lose it.  She agreed, but barely!

Then we headed to see the dolphins, again.  But this time, we got to feed them.  I didn't know if she would cooperate, but she did FANTASTIC!  I did my best at trying to hide my distain for touching fish-and it worked. She didn't hesitate at all to feed them!

 

We watched Brady, Bax, John, Stacy, Jay, Ashley and Candice feed dolphins, too.  And while we were watching, a dolphin jumped up at us!  Mouth open and everything!  It startled us a little!

This is what we saw...

There was even one that did a jump and soaked us!  I guess they liked that we had food for them!

Afterwards, Ainsley and I took off by ourselves.  We went and saw the penquins again...and cooled down.  (It's the coolest place in the park!)  I asked her what she wanted to do and all she said was that she wanted to get a baby dolphin to take home.  So I headed to the gift shop!  There was no need in making her wait if that's all she wanted!

But it was getting a little hot and there a little kids park we hadn't been to yet.  She wasn't tall enough to ride the rides, but there was a splash pad that looked fun.  I had my doubts that she would participate with so many people there, but she did just fine.  She had a couple mishaps with kids and their splashing...but momma was there to put the "smack down"!  (LOL Not really)

While we were there, it did get much busier, so we decided it was time for us to go. Ainsley wanted to go and look at the dolphins...AGAIN! So we headed back that way.  The dolphins were very playful today..and Ainsley wanted to take some pictures. 

She took these, so u can see just how close they were to us!

Daddy called us soon after and we met him back at the little pool.  We played for a little while to cool down and then we met up with everyone else to head home.

We stopped for gas and a bathroom break...and Grandma bought the kids vanilla cones from Dairy Queen.  This was Ainsley's first ice cream cone EVER!  It was an interesting moment...

We drove with the fam to Ft Worth and helped them get checked in to a motel for the night.  We went in and used the restroom and talked for a bit-I think the kids were tired of sitting because they were CRAZY when we got in the room.

Soon after, we headed home.  It was was so nice to be home. 

But Ainsley is already asking to see the dolphins again!  Thank goodness Smalls lives there so we can make another trip!