Ayden's Texas-Sized Birthday!

On Friday (April 3) we woke up late (7am, we were still on NC time) and we got ready to go eat breakfast at the hotel. Then we drove to downtown San Antonio and walked around the RiverCenter Mall. It wasn't open yet, so the boys and I took a detour to THE ALAMO!

Then we decided to grab some lunch and then we headed over to Fort Sam to wait on Clay. Clay wasn't quite finished for the day, so the boys and I played Super Mario Bros. Wii in the PX for 45 minutes. We stopped back by the hotel and let Ayden unwrap his gifts from Clay. Then we all got ready to head out for a night out on the town celebrating Ayden's birthday.We headed back towards the RiverCenter Mall did some birthday shopping and had Ayden's birthday dinner at Hooters.

Then we walked on the Riverwalk and ended up taking a Riverboat Cruise later that evening. We were so tired from our big evening out that the boys fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel. The boys need a good nights sleep because Saturday we were going to SeaWorld.

We're back from Texas.....

We've been back for about 2 1/2 weeks and still on our travel high! We had an amazing time, Clay had to "work" on Friday and Monday while we were there, but he was able to join us following formation each evening for dinner.

Thursday-Our flight landed at the San Antonio International Airport around 11:00am. We had a minor problem to address while there-no carseats. Long story-short: I about cussed out a flight attendant for not allowing our car seats on board that were in fact "suited for airplane use", so I sent them back home with Margaret (my step-mother-in-law, she had a gate pass and helped us through the terminal) in-lieu of having the carseats thrown under the plane without a bag or cover. (Gross!) We got our rental car and I got directions to Wal-Mart (which is 3 lefts from the rental place) that I couldn't find even with a GPS.

So, I drove to Fort Sam and prayed that I wouldn't get a ticket at the gate for not having Chris and Ayden properly restrained. We passed through the gate-sans ticket-and preceeded to the Px for our first purchase in San Antonio...booster seats! We ate a light lunch in the food court and then off to find the HoJo's! Well, my GPS lied and took us too the Quality Inn (HoJo's had moved 5 years ago). We found our hotel, but couldn't figure out how to get on the one-way access road. Finally, we got checked in and unpacked. We hung around for a bit and then off to Fort Sam to pick up Clay for dinner.

We ordered pizza for the boys, Clay & I had delicous Chinese from King's Palace $30 worth (yummy!) and watched "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". The Easter Bunny had sent a card to us in Texas with a picture of the boy's Easter basket and "shipped" two of the movies they got for us to watch that evening. We finished up the movie and took Clay back to the bay and returned to the hotel room for some much needed sleep!

We're flying!

Here we are ready for take off on our first plane ride! The boys were so excited and just thought it was awesome! As soon as we started to take off, Chris and Ayden both fell asleep! We landed in Atlanta, took a "train" to the next concourse for our flight to Texas. We had round-trip un-eventful flights, no turbulence. Ayden & Chris enjoyed the snacks served on the plane.

Dinosaurs in Texas!

On Saturday morning, before we left for SeaWorld we ate at the IHop in downtown San Antonio. We're getting out of the car and walking towards the resturant and Chris says : "Mommy! Daddy! Look a dinosaur! It's a T-Rex!" Clay and I both thought that Chris was pulling our leg, but sure enough there was a T-Rex across the road. He even moved! The Witte Museum had an exhibit called Dinosaurs Unearthed. We never made it across the street to see the exhibit, but we'll remember the T-Rex across the street from IHop! Next time we go back to Texas, we're stopping here and going to Dinosaur World and Dinosaur Valley State Park!

Shamu!

Here we are watching the Shamu show "Believe!" with the Dages Family (of course we didn't take a single picture of the boys playing together or even one of me and Tiffany. Oh, well!) We sat in the "SPLASH ZONE", basically the 50-yard line of the Shamu show and had high hopes of getting splashed. We left dry and Clay left disappointed because the trainers no longer swim in the tank with the whales due to their safety. Bummer. However I did get to see Big Bird (from far away) I wish that I could have taken a picture with him.

Fish!

Here's Chris and Ayden sitting in a porthole window at the Shark tank at SeaWorld San Antonio. This was a really neat exhibit! It smelt way better than the penguin and puffin exhibit (barf!).

Going to see Daddy!

We're leaving soon for Texas. We're so excited about flying and going somewhere new! Wish us luck on our journey!