Howdy Y'all!!

We had an AMAZING family vacation (ROAD TRIP) to Texas this year! Our kids are such GREAT travelers! On Thursday April 1st we loaded up my parents suburban and off we went. We left about 5:30pm with the hopes of making it at least to Denver. We got stuck in a horrific snow/wind storm going from about Evanston to Cheyenne....it was insanely scary, but we made it thru and got to Denver safely.

The next day (Friday) we drove to just outside of Dennison, TX. Pretty boring stuff - the kids watched a lot of movies!!

Saturday morning we got up and went to breakfast with Matt's Grandmother & Paw Paw Dean. It was this tiny little place that Paw Paw eats breakfast at every morning! Good ole southern cooking!! Then we drove out to their house to see where they live and spend a little more time with them. That afternoon we drove to Six Flags over Texas in Dallas where we spent the rest of the day! We didn't go on any of the big roller coasters because the line was too long and none of our kids were big enough! But, we had a lot of fun there anyway!

Sunday was Easter. That morning when the kids woke up they discovered that the pesky Easter Bunny decided that since we had forgotten our baskets he would hide all of their Easter Treats. Some were in drawers, the fridge, the microwave and some in the bathtub. Silly Easter Bunny!

We drove from Dallas to Austin-area that morning. We spent Easter at Matt's Aunt Kathy's house, and with his dad's side of the family. That is something he hasn't done in a VERY long time. It was really great to see everyone again. They had tons of treats for the kids and let them participate in their annual easter egg hunt! They were climbing trees, playing with the hose, and generally having a great time! We then spent that night at Donna's house. She was so amazingly kind to let us take over her house like that! Especially since when walked in we had four very muddy kids who stripped down and went straight to the tub, and then proceeded to pull down her shower curtain rod! She was probably ready for us to leave right then!!

Monday was spent at the park with Donna, her daughter Heather and Heather's two awesome boys Dayne & Major. They are just around Blaine's age, and they all had so much fun playing for hours and eating pizza.

That evening we went out with Donna's son Bennie & his wife Anne. We went to Congress Bridge in Austin (where Matt's cousin Heather met us there too) and watched the bats. I guess that all the bats live in the bridge, and every night around dusk they come swarming out! Hundreds of thousands of them!! Funniest moment of the trip was when Maveri wanted Matt to take her down by the river and he said "no, you're two, you're too little" and she argued "no, I'm three" so he said "if you can tell me when you're birthday is, I'll take you" she then proceeded to look at him like he was dumb and say "july...july twelf daddy...let's go!" And off they went! We all got (and still get) a good laugh out of that one! Little smarty pants!!

Tuesday morning we got up and drove down to San Antonio. We spent the day at the Alamo, Ripleys Believe it or Not museum and the Riverwalk. We took a boat tour of the Riverwalk and ate Tex-Mex. Fun fun day. Only problem was that the Women's NCAA basketball championships were going on there, so hotel rooms were few and far between so we thought "let's just drive a half-hour down the road and see what we find". Turns out - NOTHING. So we ended up driving all the way to Corpus Christi that night.

The first day in Corpus was a bit windy, cold and rainy so we went to go see the U.S.S. Lexington. It is a retired Naval aircraft carrier ship that you can go on. It's all self guided tours and it's GINORMOUS! It took us about 4 hours to see the whole thing. We then got lunch on the boat and thought it would be so cool to go eat it out on the deck...that is until we were swarmed by seagulls and one of them took off with my sandwhich!! So, we ate inside, and it was still cool!

After the Lexington we went to the Texas State Aquarium, which is always fun because I love aquatic animals!! We ended that day with a yummy meal at Landrys! Gotta love fresh Seafood.

Thursday was BEACH DAY! We hit a beach store before hand where Matt got a really cool new swimsuit, the kids got some beach toys, I got a swim shirt...and we were set. It was REALLY windy, which made for cold when you got out of the water, but as long as you stayed in it was great! The kids loved finding seashells too! After that we grabbed lunch and drove back to San Antonio. That night we took the kids to see "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3D. GREAT MOVIE... the kids all loved it, and so did the parents.

Friday was SEA WORLD, which turned out to probably be the kids favorite part of the whole trip. We fed the dolphins, saw Shamu and a few other shows - of which I think the Sea Lions one was the favorite! Can't go wrong with Sea World. LOVE IT.

From there we drove to Round Top, TX to go to Royers and eat gourment food while hangin out with J.B. That, my friends, was the highlight of the trip for me (and I think Matt too). I cannot say it enough BEST.FOOD.EVER!!!!!! Love it there. Love the food, love the atmosphere, love the people...LOOOOOOOOVE IT.

After Royers it was back to Austin to spend one more night at Donna's before heading home the next two days.

The drive home was long and uneventful, which I'm glad for.

Such a great trip - memories were made, fun was had! Pictures will come when I get a chance to upload and organize them!!