We have just reached another milestone in our Mize family history. Our family has never been on a real life family vacation. We have gone on trips where we visited family members or friends, but have never taken a vacation trip. (Now that I think about it, I take that back. We did go on a trip when Grace was our only child. Long, long ago, in a land far away...) As my Valentine's gift, Shane was able to get off the entire week of spring break (gasp! Since he is always running camps when the kids are out of school, this was a huge deal! His boss has already told him that this will never happen again. Evidently, things were a little rough while he was gone.) and we decided to go to Corpus Christi. Our kids are not the best at sitting for long distances in the car, so we decided to break up the drive and spent the night with Pampaw and Memaw in San Antonio on the way down.
Hayden with Memaw.
Here is Pampaw. Gibson was taking lots of pictures of everyone.
Hayden turned four while we were there. He got to open a couple of gifts for his birthday.
Then we hopped in the car and were off!
We got to our hotel in Corpus and the kids were immediately sitting on a ledge that was up behind the sofa in our little suite. We had a great room and the kids had a blast hanging out in there. As soon as we got settled, we headed to downtown Corpus and the beach.
We kicked off our shoes and were in the sand.
There was a cold front blowing in and the wind was incredible. The kids were loving their first sight of the ocean.
Gibson could hardly stand to stay with us.
Of course there were sea gulls everywhere and our kids got a kick out of chasing them. In downtown Corpus Christi, the ocean front is one large public park, so there were lots of people enjoying the water, running, walking their dog, and lots of fishing. The marina was also full and provided Shane with lots of opportunities to want other people's boats.
We walked out to the end of that pier and Shane got splashed with a great big wave. The kids all thought that was pretty funny.
Of course everyone had to get in the water. It was pretty cold. Landry showed off her red neck skills by immediately stripping to her diaper. She tried to take that off too. Shane went back to the car to get her swimsuit so that we could keep her clothed!
Here was Landry before she stripped to her skivvies.
Loving the ocean!
The next day was rainy and pretty cold from the front that had blown in the night before. We got the kids up and started to go the Texas State Aquarium. When we got there the line was stretched out the door and down the walk. We decided to wait and went to their science museum instead. There are no pictures because as a vacation newbie, I forgot my camera charger and it was dying. (And we realized how incredibly spoiled we are by our own museum. There was no comparison.)
After the museum, we rested and then headed back to the aquarium. We got there around 5 and everyone was leaving. We had the place to ourselves. It was great! There was a large tank with a huge shark and lots of other big fish. There were divers in with the shark and Gib was a little worried that they were going to get eaten. We saw the dolphin tank and that was really entertaining for the kids. They were swimming right next to the glass and showing off.
The dolphins were right behind the kids. Very exciting.
The aquarium was definitely a highlight. Gibson and I went back in for one last look at the shark and actually talked to the divers that had been in the tank earlier. They were standing outside the exhibit and Gibson was so in awe he could barely say anything. We also saw the sea turtles and got to touch a sting ray.
'Nuff said.
While we were there we also visited the USS Lexington. This was a must see and after I got over my fear of my kids falling and cracking their skulls on any number of industrial, hard, metal things in there, we all had a great time. This really wore the kids out with all of the walking and climbing. Kudos to Shane, we got there early and beat all of the crowds.
The highlight of the trip for me was the Padre Island National Shore. This was my first national park and it was beautiful!
Once again, we managed to hit it at an off time and had the beach to ourselves.
There was lots of wildlife and the dunes behind us were gorgeous. The kids were up and down looking for shells, birds, tracks, whatever they could find.
Grace was rock-starring it up...
This was a trip full of memory making opportunities and we enjoyed every minute of it!
Until next time...
