Day Trip to Austin, Texas

Some friends from nursing school and I decided to head up to Austin, Texas for a little site seeing and shopping. Austin is about 45 minutes away from where I live.

Kristy, Me, Patty, and Mary at a little candy shop on Congress Street.We toured the state capitol which was really impressive. I would recommend it to anyone visiting Austin.
This is the view of Lake Travis from the restaurant we ate at.
This is us in front of The Oasis, which is the restaurant we ate at. It had really good food and an even better view.

Memorial Day Barbeque at the Jensons

Our friends the Jensons invited us and some other friends (The Bartons and the Hills) over for a barbecue on Memorial Day. They made some really tasty Carne Asada. The kids had a lot of fun with the sprinkler and water guns. Thanks for the barbecue Jensens!

More beach fun in Corpus Christi

Ashlyn with her friend Adyson
On our way home from our week in Brownsville we met up with some of our friends in Corpus Christi. The Bartons, Scotts, and Jensons all decided to meet us at the beach for a day of fun. It worked out perfectly because Corpus Christi was half way home for us. We had a lot of fun. The best part was boogie boarding in the ocean, except for when a little crab clamped onto my toe and scared me half to death!

Gladys Porter Zoo

Thank goodness for the wagon rental! We forgot to bring our stoller on this vacatation. That was a mistake we have regretted quite a lot this past week.
Ashlyn was kind of scared of all the animated dinosaurs, while Austin wasn't scared at all.
Austin loved climbing on this statue. He actually stood up on it. He was so proud of himself. He is quite the climber.

Dolphin Watching Sunset Cruise

Ashlyn with her cheesy smile.
Austin playing peek-a-boo.

We saw a lot of dolphins!

The sunset was really beautiful.

We would definately recommend this cruise. It was two hours long and only cost $13.00 per person. We saw a lot of dolphins and the scenery was great. The kids just thought it was fun riding on a boat. The sunset was the icing on the cake.

Andy Bowie Park

Austin snoozing on the beach.

We had a much better beach experience today. We tried a park that was further north on the island (Andy Bowie Park) and it was a lot less crowded. The best part was that we didn't have to wait in line for a shower at the end. The park we went to on Monday was Isla Blance Park which is on the southern tip of the island. We would definately recommend Andy Bowie over Isla Blanca any day. Ashlyn had a lot of fun on the boogie board. She couldn't do it on her own without flipping over though.

Shopping in Mexico

Today we went shopping in Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. Ashlyn was excited about a couple of necklaces she got while we were there. The necklace featured in the bottom picture was purchased with the agreement that it would be for dress-up only!

Scrapbooking Overnight Trip

L to R: Monique, Alisha, Janae, and Me
Janae and I

This post is a little late because I was waiting on Alisha to email me the pictures. On May 9th some friends and I headed downtown for a night of scrapbooking. We got a hotel room and scrapbooked all night (Monique and I were the only two to stay up all night). The pictures above were taken at a Mexican Restaurant where we ate dinner. We had a fun time and I got a lot done.

Aren't vacations supposed to be fun?

A very crowded beach
One of the few moments Austin was actually happy today.
The end result of going on vacation.


We left home yesterday for a "relaxing" week long vacation in Brownsville, Texas. Brownsville is at the southern tip of Texas right next to the Mexican border and about 20 miles away from the coast. Today didn't turn out to be the picture perfect vacation day though. Austin woke up last night with a fever that persisted throughout the day. He was very cranky all day. We decided to spend the day at the beach on South Padre Island. We didn't end up having that much fun. The sand on South Padre Island is very fine. It sticks to everything. We were there for less than an hour when Ashlyn got sand in her eyes and started throwing a big fit. Her eyes were red and the kids were both cranky so we decided to leave the beach. When we got in the car it wouldn't start. We sat there for an hour doing different things trying to get the car to start. It was a hot day today so the wait was especially miserable. Thankfully the kids both fell asleep in the car which was a huge relief. After an hour Santiago finally told me to call for a tow truck. The wait was going to be another hour. 30 minutes into our wait for the tow truck, Santiago finally got the car to start. That was sure an answer to prayers. Hopefully tomorrow ends up being a better day.

Goofy Goggle Girl

Ashlyn put her daddy's swim googles on and then wanted her picture taken. She is so cute isn't she?

Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

The kids had fun at the wildlife ranch. Ashlyn was still a little scared of the zebras due to a previous experience at the ranch of a zebra sticking its head in the car and grabbing the whole bag of food out. Austin was so excited about "driving". Ashlyn's favorite part was the goats at the petting zoo.

Cinco de Mayo Party

We had some of our friends over for dinner on Cinco de Mayo. Santiago cooked the whole meal (too bad that doesn't happen more often!). We wrapped up the evening with the kids decapitating a Dora pinata. It was a fun evening.