4/11/13

Family Vaca!

Bob took some vacation time last week and we enjoyed every minute of it! For Ella's birthday last month, my parents and Bob's parents gave Ella (and the rest of us) Sea World season tickets and a few nights at a hotel. It was perfect timing with Bob's time off coming up so we packed everyone's bags and had the car loaded Easter morning. Ella knew that Sea World was happening, she just didn't know exactly when. So after we hunted eggs with our small group we loaded the girls in the car to surprise them. 
This is an Ella story to go down in the books. As I'm putting Ella in the car I tell her to look in the back. It was full of pillows and suitcases. She guesses right off the bat that we are going to Sea World and is glowing with excitement. But then about 30 seconds later she gets a serious face and quickly asks me a few questions. "Did you pack the shirts Mamie got me?" Yes Ella I did. "Did you pack my swimsuit from Jo Jo?" Yes Ella I did. Here comes the kicker. "Did you pack my mirror?" I'm confused by this question and my first thought is that maybe she is referring to her little makeup mirror. I ask her what mirror she is talking about and she replies back like I shouldn't even question which one. "My pink mirror in my room mom!" Guys, the pink mirror in her room is a FULL LENGTH MIRROR! The kid is so fashion obsessed that she was panicked she wouldn't have a full length mirror to look in every morning! My mouth dropped opened and I was about to go into full mom mode and give a lecture about how what we look like on the outside isn't whats important, yada yada yada. Nothing new to Ella, we have this talk a lot. Bob knew it was coming and calmly said, let me take this one. He just simply told Ella that she didn't need to worry, Mom packed everything and the hotel had mirrors. All was good again and we were on the road to San Antonio! 
The hotel we stayed in was so wonderful! Very kid friendly (and it even had mirrors). Hyatt Hill Country.
We got there on Sunday and headed straight to the river walk. The girls wanted to ride the boat that goes up and down the river. As we are walking alongside the river, it gets lower and lower. Turns out there was a miss communication somewhere and someone opened one of the emergency flood gates because they thought they were going to get some heavy rain. This dropped the river 4 feet leaving the boats that were out stuck. So they had to shut down the tours for the rest of the day. It was weird to be able to see the bottom. Super random. 
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We ate dinner and then enjoyed a horse and carriage ride. So much better than a boat anyway.
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The next day was our Sea World day and it was perfect! To start things off, Ella was wearing tennis shoes. This is very rare and made me so excited. I'm totally ok that she has her own fashion sense but sometimes you gotta go with what makes sense. 
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We went to all the shows and rode all the rides. Well Bob and the girls did. I am the mom that gets motion sickness if I turn around in a circle too fast. Bummer. It wan't ever really this bad until the last couple of years. At least I got to get some pics:)
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We took Ella to Sea World when I was pregnant with McKenna and she wanted to ride the roller coaster then but wasn't tall enough. We were all so excited that she got to ride it this time!
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I love her face in these pics. She was nervous but loved it so much! She would have ridden it over and over if she could've.
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We ended the day with a Shamu and a diary.
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The hotel had smores and a movie on the lawn every night. It was magical. McKenna of course never made it through an entire movie but loved watching a couple seconds and then running around on the lawn.
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Bob's way of coping with the hotel choosing Tangled over the Ranger's game involved a slightly smaller screen
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Every morning there was a craft in the lobby for the kids. They colored their own hats one day and were very proud. 
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The hotel had a lazy river that was heated and a little sand beach area. It was a huge hit!
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We ended up going back to the river walk on our last day to ride the boat. 
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McKenna felt the same as me. 30 minutes sitting knee to knee with strangers. I'd rather be laying down in a comfortable spot.
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It was such a wonderful vacation with great memories and I am so thankful for being able to do it. Thank you mom, dad, Dawn and Billy for help making it happen:)

4 comments:

Misty said...

Ella is hysterical!!!! Masyn is sitting here writing letters to everyone while I was reading this- We just went to sesame street live last week {& to a carnival that was a little scary that I almost didn't even blog about lol}, so I showed her the pic of Elmo & the gang & the rides. She said we need to go THERE! I agree! I haven't been to sea world in ages & I love it so much. Looks like you guys had a wonderful vacation! Kenna's smile is PRECIOUS!

The Rodriguez Crew said...

I love your cute sunglasses with the blue rim up top! What kind are they? Cracked up at the mirror story... that girl! And she rocked those tennis shoes. :)

The Savage's said...

I love all the pictures! But the one with Bob and the girls on the carousel is absolutely precious! A framer for sure :)
What a fabulous vaca!

Leslie said...

Sounds like your vacation was wonderful and with Great memories!

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