Family Vacation

We had the chance to go on a wonderful family vacation. I took off a day from work and made it a three day weekend. After searching for an exotic vacation getaway, we found the most exciting place in the world (within driving distance from Houston that is)! 

San Antonio!

Allie was ready for a well deserved family vacation.

Like all good family vacations, it started out with a bang. In the form of explosive vomiting in the car about thirty minutes outside of Houston. No matter, everyone was okay, so we soldiered on accompanied by the wonderful new fragrance Allie created for us. We didn't want to let one little accident get us down.

Friday we went to Allie's new favorite place, Sea World.

We stared at the large birds.

 Got really excited to sit in the arena with lots of other people.

 Sat entranced as the whales came out into the pool.

And cheered when they splashed the people in the front row. 

She loved the whales that would splash! 

There were a lot of fun shows and a few roller coasters to ride (I tried them out by myself, to see if it would be worth coming back when Rach wasn't pregnant). But the family favorite was the Shamu show, so we had to see it twice.

They had lots of other animals to look at and feed. We decided to feed the birds, since it looked like a good idea to start with.

There were a lot of hungry birds, that would land on you to get some lunch. At first Allie was a little scared by them all flying around so close.

After a few minutes Allie calmed down and had lots of fun.

She even let one hang out on top of her head. 

Dad learned that the red ones are devil birds.

(One bit me on the finger while I was trying to feed it)

On second thought, maybe feeding the birds wasn't the best option.

Allie liked all the big tanks of fish. She could watch them for hours.

The next day we decided to become official Texans. We made our obligatory stop at the Alamo, and toured the grounds.

Notice the sweet Texas flag right next to the birthplace of Texas pride!

It was smaller than I expected (surprising since this is the state where everything is supposed to be bigger), but still quite interesting. We listened to the guide explain what happened and the importance of the Alamo.

After our pilgrimage to the Alamo, we wandered around the river walk for a few minutes. (Side note: the river walk is kind of neat and has a lot of good restaurants, but is a lousy place to take a kid in a stroller. Way too many stairs and no railing by the water.)

Allie managed to endure about three hours in downtown before she decided we had to go back to see her new best friend Shamu. 

Allie had to have her picture taken by Shamu. She didn't want to leave, but after some kicking and screaming we convinced her there were other things to see.

This time after the Shamu show (time number 3) we went to the Sesame Street playground area. Allie got super excited to see all her favorite characters. She really wanted to go see them all, but would not go the final three feet to get there.

Terrified of Cookie Monster. She kept back peddling into my lap.

A little closer with this one (I have no idea what her name is, there are too many new characters since I was little).

With mom she got close enough to touch Grover.

Another fish picture. Did I mention that Allie liked looking at the fish?

After three full days of excitement we had to come home (Boo!). So to ensure we had complete closure on our fun family adventure, Allie managed to provide some homecoming fireworks (Another episode of explosive vomiting), but this time we were ten minutes from home.

And at the conclusion of a wonderful family adventure, we all need a vacation to rest and recuperate (too bad there is work tomorrow).