Santa Land 2012

Because Keith and I are so good at keeping traditions, we went to Santa Land again this year.  :)  Carli has associated Santa Land with my birthday ever since we went last year on my actual birthday.  She didn't seem to mind that we ate sandwiches in the car instead of stopping at Cracker Barrel.  :)

 

I took a lot of pictures because I have this really awesome new camera - and I still haven't figured it out!  But I got some decent ones of the girls.

Ava really enjoyed the lights this year.  When we would drive through neighborhoods we could hear her from the back seat exclaim, "Oh!  That's just so beautiful!"

 

 

Carli was all smiles through the whole thing.

Despite Carli and Ava's excitement about Santa Claus being at Santa Land, they were not interested in going to visit him.  According to Carli Santa is all knowing and he does not need her to get on his lap to tell him what she wants for Christmas.  He should already know.  :)  So, no Santa picture this year at Santa Land.  But one tradition kept - two years strong!

More Shauntee Antics

While we were in San Antonio we put Naggy in charge of Shauntea.  We thought she would have a lot of fun with her but it turns out it kind of stressed her out a bit!  But she did a good job!

 



Making faces on the girls' toys.

 



Playing Farkle and eating Pez

Got Prince Charming & Cinderella all dressed and ready for swimming!

Trying to sneak home with Naggy and Pappy!

Trying to hang a star on the felt Christmas Tree.

Ahhh, a marshmallow bubble bath.

Drinking some of Carli's milk.

 

Drew mustaches on pictures and the girls' favorite dolls.

Tried to help feed the dogs.

Left Momma a birthday message with bathtub paint.

That gets us through the 15th of December...more to come!

Day 3 & 4: San Antonio

Our third day in San Antonio was pretty fun.  We got to go to Sea World!  I think the adults were more excited than the kids!  Sea World didn't open until noon, so we enjoyed the beautiful hotel much of the morning.

 

We had to take Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan down to see the Kid's Zone.  We pretty much enjoyed most of the morning here!

Before Sea World, we had our little Christmas celebration.  The girls could hardly wait!

And then it was time for Sea World!  It was awesome!  We went and saw the dolphin show first.

And then hands down the favorite:  Shamu!

After a quick snack, the girls enjoyed a carousal ride with Daddy and Naggy.

Ava really did enjoy it, she was just not sure why she got put on the horse again!  They made her ride on an inside horse so we plopped her on this one so I could get a picture.  She was afraid Daddy and Carli were going to leave her!

 

Family Picture!

Catching a ride on Daddy.

The girls fed the dolphins.  We were all surprised that Carli actually picked up the fish and fed the dolphin!  She said this was her favorite part of Sea World.

We were pretty bummed to not find Santa at Sea World.  We did find him twice at the Shops at La Cantera but Carli nor Ava wanted to go visit with him.  What was really cute was we saw Santa in Nordstrom's and Carli got beyond excited and chased him down!  I'll have to get those pictures off Keith's phone and put them on the blog too!

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan had to leave Sunday morning.  We grabbed a family picture before they left.  That night Daddy too Naggy on their annual date night and Pappy took me and the girls on a date too!  :) 

We had an awesome trip!  Thanks so much Naggy and Pappy for all the special memories! 

Day 1 & 2: San Antonio

Every other year for Christmas we get to go on a trip with Naggy, Pappy, Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan.  This is our third trip.  The first trip we had was to New York when I was pregnant with Carli.  Two years ago we went to the Gaylord Texan and it was beautiful!  I was very much looking forward to our trip this year to San Antonio b/c the girls were going to be old enough to enjoy everything and sleep all night!  :) 

 

We left for San Antonio on Thursday morning.  We made a few stops along the way and got there in time for dinner with Naggy and Pappy.  We stayed at La Cantera and it was beautiful!  It had amazing views!

 

After we had dinner and got settled in we all went to bed.  The girls insisted on sleeping in Naggy and Pappy's room.  I didn't argue.  :)  I slept wonderfully!  God bless Naggy and Pappy!  We had an awesome breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant and then spent the morning exploring the hotel grounds.

 

Making faces with Pappy.

The girls favorite part of the hotel was the Kid's Zone.  It was a special room set up for the kids to come play and do little activities.  The whole family had a blast in there.  We visited at least twice a day! 

This place is probably crazy crowded during the summer months.  It is across the street from Fiesta Texas and they had some amazing, kid friendly pools.  Since it was 80 degrees one afternoon we let the girls talk us into a quick swim...in December, outside.  Yes, we are awesome parents!

The water slide was pretty awesome!  Keith and Ava went down the slide first.  Ava was not a fan!  :)  But she was a good sport.  Her sister wouldn't even try it!

The cool thing about these pools is that they weren't very deep and they all had a sloping walkway into the pool.  The girls LOVED it!

We swam for less than twenty minutes.  It was enough to make the girls happy and enough to make us all cold.  :)

Later that night after Uncle Kevin and Aunt Megan arrived we headed down to the river walk.  We ate some very yummy Mexican food and then took a boat tour of the river walk.  We had visited the river walk back in early May when we went to see Uncle Tone.  I prefer the boat tour over walking!  It was really neat, plus doing it at night with all the Christmas lights was pretty cool too! 

I had a hard time getting a picture at night with the new camera.  I have a lot to learn yet.  But this one picture I got pretty much sums up Carli's whole day:  Pure Awe! 

More to come...