Texas.....the final days...

On our final days in Texas we said our tearful (yes, there were more tears than I care to admit) goodbyes to Annika and wished her well with her new life in Texas.  Raquel and I then set off with our boys and headed towards San Antonio.  My first order of business was to stop by and say "Hi" to an great friend who moved to Texas, who I don't see as much as I'd like, Nate!  We go pretty far back and have days worth of stories!  Nate is Great.....even though he is Canadian!

 After the boys were growing rambunctious, we headed into downtown to see the Alamo.

It is such an amazing place, loaded with fun stuff for the kids to look at and tons of history for your average adult to geek-out on.  One huge bummer was we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the building.  Too bad because they had the original door with all the bullet holes and the rooms in tact where they stored weapons, including where the women and children hid to stay safe.

There were several fountains and water features of which the boys had to touch, ( in Jace's case, taste) every one.

We then headed across the street to the ever famous Riverwalk.

The Riverwalk was just what we needed on a day with temperatures of 104 and over 90% humidity... yeah, we were dying.  So the cool mist off the water and shaded areas felt very welcoming.

Love, LOVE, LOVE the Riverwalk!  It was a huge waterway throughout the city with shops on both sides.  You could walk along the sidewalks next to the River or hail a water taxi to get where you want to go.  Seeing how this location was water based I tried to calm my need to take pictures of everything that had water in it or around it (which was EVERYTHING) and just take in the scenery.

Koen is in green, Kael in brown.

We walked around for quite a while and loved every step.  The boys were going crazy with all these new things they've never seen before.  And you couldn't help but love the live music of all varieties being played around every bend.

Since the boys seemed to get so excited every time they saw a boat pass, we decided to take a tour.  We were SO impressed with the beauty and history that encapsulates San Antonio.  I just sat there in awe (probably even with my mouth wide open) and enjoyed every meticulously sculpted and beauty ridden inch of it!

After the boat ride we stopped off at an ice cream shop.  And not just ANY ice cream shop.  The Blue Bell ice cream shop.  I have heard nothing but praises about this ice cream from anyone that I've known that has come from Texas.  I've gotta say.....it's OK....  Nothing magical or life changing about it.  It IS just ice cream, what did you expect?  Afterwards we were really wearing down, especially us desert folk who aren't used to this climate.  Several hours straight did us in so we went back to the truck and set our sights on Albuquerque, New Mexico!

We decided to stop there since it was about half way-ish and plus, my cousin lives there!  She is so awesome that when I called her up just the day before (when I got this brilliant idea) to tell her we were headed her way and she was able to accommodate us on such short notice.  Angie, who sadly I really didn't get pictures of because we just all sat and gabbed the entire night and following day is nothing short of awesome!  She has all boys so imagine how fun it was for them and how great it was for us that they entertained themselves the entire time!  Here's the shot! 

Tramp time!

Thanks Angie, we love you! The next day we made it home after about a ten hour drive. There are many tales on our days we traveled far. The boys kept us pretty entertained on the road. They all traveled so well and played, ate, watched movies and made plenty of time for goofing off! And there were four days we put in a good 10 hr+ drive. I couldn't have asked for better passengers!

For a look on the same trip through another lens just click here!

Texas Continued...

The plan for day 4 was to drive down the Galveston which is a small island just off Texas in the Gulf. Here's the boys playing air hockey in the game room while waiting for the girls to get ready.

This is the boys' first time seeing the ocean and as you can tell... they LOVED IT! For future reference Koen is in red and...

 Kael in blue.

The water was in the 80's and temps over 100.  Beautiful scenery and warm bath-like water.  We couldn't get enough. 

Koen kept skipping through the waves...

...and what better toy to play with in the water... why Jace's stroller of course!  Jace even hopped in and Koen tried pushing him around in the sand.... they didn't get very far...

After we could convince the boys to leave the beach we headed out to catch a ferry.

The boys loved being on a boat but we quickly wanted an air conditioned environment after hanging out on the beach all day, so we headed inside the ferry and chilled next to the dance floor and were fully entertained by the tiny dancers.

Goofy Koey inside the ferry.

We then drove around the rest of the island which is rich with history.  Galveston is packed with stories melded with beautiful architecture with a big helping of beach front property.  Kael loved watching this tugboat pull into the harbor.

As beautiful as this harbor was I was sick with worry seeing how everywhere I looked down was dark waters with jelly fish.  It made me so nervous watching the boys on the docks.  I immediately went into crazy mom mode and wouldn't let them get farther than 3 feet from the railing.

Definitely a day for the books!

Texas, Day 2 and 3

No pictures were taken on day 2.  It was a day of travel.  We the alien country of Roswell, New Mexico and pulled into Richmond, Texas around midnight.  We were lucky to stay with Annika's uncle in a gorgeous house that one day I hope I can afford at least a quarter of that house.  So we'll just say our stay was VERY comfortable!!! 

The next day we woke up and drove out to Houston to spend the day.  Our first stop, an aquarium downtown.

We wrist banded up and headed in!

Jellyfish! The boys are fascinated with jellyfish and we're surprised to find out that they actually existed in real life and not just on the Spongebob cartoons!

A river boat picture spot right in the middle of the amphibian section. Kind of reminded me of "Swamp People." LOL...

This aquarium was AMAZING! There were so many cool things. Koen was in awe because the tank went up over his head!

Now for the hands on section.... I think they were petting some sort of crab-by thing here. Not the coolest thing to be petting in the tanks.

The "Coolest Thing to be Petting" award goes out to the sting rays, hands down! We hung out there for a while, watching and petting the sting rays.

They would swim right up to you and even come up out of the water for a little attention. They were VERY friendly rays.

You could go underneath the tank and watch them swim right over you!

Koen, old school diver-style.

Kael, ecstatic to be "swimmin' with the fishes!"

Now, I don't know how white tigers fit in with sting rays, sharks and other aquatic animals, but hey, I'm not complaining. It was awesome! They had a little picture area and the boys were scared to get close.

...and if they weren't cool enough to look at, the tigers had an "argument." We used to going to the zoo and seeing docile animals who look half dead, but this... call it a trip to the aquarium/zoo/thing, on crack!

Yes there is a piece of glass between child and animal. I'm impressed with their glass cleaning skills. This particular white tiger loved Koen. He sat there for a few minutes and just looked at him... so cool, creepy, but cool.

SMILE!

We hopped on a Ferris Wheel-style ride that took you pretty high up.

Jace is not too excited by the height.

All aboard! We hopped on a train to sharksville. (that's not really the name, I just added it for entertainment purposes, you're welcome.)

The train stops in a tunnel where you're surrounded by various kinds of sharks.

Even amongst the sharks they manage to keep their cool...

Onto the Carousel!

...and just when you thought the place couldn't get any cooler you find this! After a very hot (and humid) day we let the boys unwind in the fountains...

Koey

Kael dousing Jace

We worked up quite the appetite so we headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe, and no, we didn't get a t-shirt.

We had so much fun we dried off and went through again! Here we go!!

All aboard!

Shark Tunnel

The Shark Train

Koen driving the boat...

Kissin' a croc.

When we went back to the sting ray exhibit we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So we spent another hour chillin with some rays.

After a VERY eventful day we went back to the house and crashed!