Our Texas Adventure...Visiting Family

We concluded our Texas Adventure by hanging out with some family.  We celebrated John's grandparent's anniversary with a luau.

Of course, I didn't get pictures of them.  But, I got a lot of my kids.

All the kids had such a fun time playing together in the backyard.  They were so busy.

I had to get a pic of Charlie's belly!  Look how full it is!  Hilarious!!!

Uncle Charles played baseball with the kids.

Love this!  Look how Carter has his hand out to catch the baseball.  He can hang with the big kids just fine!

Grace and Aunt Cindy

(You thought that was Grandma didn't you?  Nope, it's her twin sister.)

After the luau, we went to my brother's house.  We love hanging out with them.  Jenna and Grace had so much fun together!

These girls are blessed to have a daddy that will dance with them and treat them like princesses.

Sunday, we all got ready for church in the usual Sunday-Morning-Rush kinda way.  We didn't really even have time for me to take this pic.

We went to Sunday School with the youth so we could see my little brother in action.  He did a great job!

We had a short and sweet visit with the Taylor's and then we were homeward bound!!!

Our Texas Adventure in Dallas

The kids were so excited to stay in a hotel!  They could have cared less where we were.  The hotel was exciting enough!

We went to Ikea!  It was our first trip there and it was awesome!  (It was apparently super bright and my sunglasses were lost somewhere near the Alamo...tear!)

Carter loved Ikea too!  We made him a comfy bed inside the shopping cart.

Grace had fun playing, making friends, and dreaming of a pink bedroom!

This was a super cool place and we loaded up!!!

We accidentally found the American Girl store right by our hotel.  So, we HAD to go!

Grace wanted a pic by her favorite doll, Marie Grace.

She had such a hard time deciding on one thing to buy for her Bitty Baby, Hannah.

Carter found a Bitty puppy lovie!

Awesome store and it will be more awesome when she gets a little older!  She FINALLY decided on a backpack carrier for Hannah.

Our hotel had a pool which Grace and Carter loved!

We had a yummy lunch here!

Our next stop is Kilgore/Longview to visit with some of our family.

Our Texas Adventure in San Antonio

So, I kinda left you hanging in the middle of our Texas Adventure.  Sorry, but "School Jenn" is back and she is EXHAUSTED!  Hopefully, in the next few weeks, life will calm down again.

While in San Antonio, we visited the Alamo. 

I can really tell you nothing about it except there were these cannons everywhere that the kids played on. (Uncle Charles was worried Carter would fall off...cute!)

John loved it and wished the kids and I weren't with him so he could have stayed longer.

Sorry John, I'm not really a museum-kinda-girl especially when I'm trying to keep 2 kids quiet, happy, contained, and hands off stuff with a funky-wheel-cheapo-stroller.  We had fun in the gift shop.  Ha!

We did have an awesome time at the River Walk!  It was so pretty!

We had fun on the boat tour!

We saw this.  (I can't remember what it is, but I took a bunch of pictures of it.  Maybe, it was in Miss Congeniality or did it have something to do with a war?!?)

I know what this is!  It's one of Aunt Cindy's McDonalds!

After the boat tour, we walked around.

We got some ice cream and ate it right on the river.

Carter got a lot of attention from all the people walking by.  I mean, he is pretty cute!

This duck joined us for our ice cream treat!

We stopped by the Alamo again to see it lit up at night.

Before bedtime, Grace FaceTimed with Lily and she was so excited to tell her everything that we had been doing and to show her everything in our room.

Our next stop...Dallas!

Our Texas Adventure in SeaWorld

We were all so excited to go to SeaWorld and we were also excited to be greeted by Shamu!

Grace immediately took the lead!

First, we got to hang out with some of our favorite friends from Sesame Street.

Carter was hilarious to watch.  He loved seeing his friends, but only from afar!  He kept his hands on me and Grace for the entire show!  Grover came by and tickled his nose and oh my!  He did NOT like that!

Grace and Abby Cadabby

Our lovable, furry, old pal!

The girls and Zoe

"Me want picture!"

We rode a bunch of kiddie rides and loved every second of it!

Just in case we hadn't spent enough time with Elmo, we watched a 4-D Sesame Street movie.

It was actually really fun and a nice air conditioned break from the heat!

Grace was so excited that she was tall enough to ride Atlantis and she wanted me to ride with her.  She is a little thrill seeker!  She was one of the smallest kids that I saw in line and I kinda felt like a bad parent letting her ride.  But, she LOVED it and rode again with John!

We saw the awesome One Ocean show with Shamu! Amazing!

And, guess who Shamu splashed?!?

Next, Grace and I rode a "big" water raft ride.  She was barely tall enough to ride, but she WAS tall enough.  We stood in line for 30 minutes to ride.  Grace even got a few compliments on her patience in the looong line.  But, the wait was worth it because she giggled throughout the entire ride and she got soaked!  John and Carter checked out an awesome (that's what I hear) waterski show while they waited.

These folks were troopers!  Grace's batteries went out (her way of saying that she is tired of walking) every once in while and she GOT to ride in the stroller and John or I GOT to carry Carter Man (he is so heavy).  

It was about time to hang out with our Sesame Street friends again!  This time we saw Elmo Rocks!  Carter clapped along for the entire show.

I kinda loved this a lot too!  Sesame Street has always been a favorite of mine.  Who wouldn't love Cookie and Telly singing a little hip-hop?!?

Carter loved the sharks in the aquarium...lots of pointing and clapping!

Grace did not!  Ha!  (Actually, Aunt Julie, this pic is for you!)

Somebody thought it was time for more rides and Grace rode her first roller coaster with her Daddy! 

Wheeee!

She rode it a couple more times after that.  I think this was her favorite ride even though she won't admit it.  "Because she loved all the rides!"

We were exhausted!

They were not!

I loved this day!!!