Pump It Up and Children Museum

For a few days we got to take Austin and Alijah to a bounce house called Pump It Up. The last time Austin got to go to a bounce house it was a few weeks after I had Alijah so Louie had to go with Austin and that was almost a year ago. He loved it then and he loves it now. He really enjoyed all of it. He was also big enough to do it all himself. He was up the steps and down the slides over and over again. A few of them Louie or myself was able to chase him and race him through the obstacles and he loved it. It was a lot of fun for all of us. It also helped wear the boys out for nap time. Alijah even got to enjoy it. Louie and I would carry him up and slide down with him. His face going down you would think he hated it but he always had a smile at the end and enjoyed it. They also had enough room on the floor that Alijah got to be down and crawling and explore what he wanted to.

They also had two rooms. One room was a black light room and the other was just a regular room. Which room had different inflatables and toys in them. We played in both but I think our favorite was the black light one.

 

By the last time we went here Austin had mastered doing all the obstacles and slides by himself. He loved it!!

We also headed to the Children Museum. There they had all kinds of different rooms and each room was set up with something different that the kids could play with. One room they had babies and Dr coats a long with sink for bathing and scale. They also had beds and Dr tools to play with. They had an ambulance that has sirens and lights on it and then in the back was a bed and paramedic tools back there. Another fun room was the grocery store. There Austin filled his cart with all different kind of foods. He also got to bake a cake and check out all his food himself. There was also a banker room, building room, painting room, astronaut section, and even a kitchen house play area with play costumes. Then outside they had a whole area to play. They had a big water table that had different sections that did different things with the water. They also had a sound area where you could bang on different drums. They also had a building area with huge foam building blocks. Austin and Alijah really liked it here. They loved being able to touch and play with everything.

 

Last to come is our trip to Sea World San Antonio. There will be a lot of pics with that post.

~Kim

USS Lexington

Since it was so windy at the beach and neither of the boys completely loving it, well except Alijah loving to eat the sand, we decided to find something else to do in Corpus Christi. We could see from the beach a Battleship so we thought we would check it out. There was only an hour before they closed but we decided to go ahead and go through it. It was a self guided tour with lots of signs telling you where to go and what everything was.

We first went up on top of the deck. There it had several planes up there that was pretty cool to see. Austin was loving the planes and wanted his picture taken by them. There was a lot of areas for you to explore. Since we only had an hour we did as much as we could fit in. Louie and Austin did a lot more then Alijah then I just because he was done being held and well I could let him crawl around either.

 

After we check out all the planes and the other areas around the top of the ship we headed back down to the area where we came in. At that point I had to find a chair and feed Alijah so Austin and Louie went off searching for fun stuff to see and get into. They found a jail and Austin loved it in there. Louie had a really hard time getting him out of it. There were a few other areas that Austin could get in and play with.

 

I wish we had more time. There was a ton that we missed out on seeing just because we ran out of time. The ship is massive and we didn’t even touch the service of it.

 

~Kim

Corpus Christi Beach

We decided to try the beach again this year. Last year when we went to San Diego and went to the beach Austin hated it. He would play in the sand as long as he stood on a towel and he didn’t dare go anywhere near the water. So we were hoping he was over part of that and he would enjoy it. He now loves the water and pool so we thought maybe he would enjoy the ocean water.

Well it was very short lived and not very fun again. We talked to Austin and told him all about it all week and the week before so he would be well prepared. He said he would play in the sand as long as he had shoes on so I did buy him water shoes before going. So when we got there before we even pulled into a spot to park Austin started freaking out and did not want to go anywhere near the water. I really thought if I could just get him in the water he would enjoy it and be able to play in it. Nope not at all. Louie and I walked him to the water with him dragging his feet and fighting us the whole way. Luckily it wasn’t very far of a walk. Hey didn’t want his feet anywhere near the water. When we finally got him by it he picked his feet up so you wouldn’t touch. So water was a total bust.

The sand on the other part was a great time for Austin. He loved playing with in it and covering up his Daddy’s feet and legs. He really enjoyed the sand which was good. He didn’t even really mind that there was 30 mile an hour winds. It was crazy.

Alijah loved the ocean and beach. He had no problem at all playing in the water. He even sat down and let the waves come up and get him wet. He also played and ate the sand. He did really well and loved the beach. I think Alijah will be mommies beach bum.

We didn’t last too long on the beach between the 30 mile an hour winds and Alijah eating the sand he only stayed on the beach for about an hour or so. Since Corpus Christi was a 3 hour drive from San Antonio we had to find a few other things to do while we were there. So off we went to figure out what else there was to do.

~Kim

River Walk

So I have to admit that we should probably have not done this last. It was getting later in the evening and we just finished earlier in the day the Zoo and just got done at Tower of Americas so it had already been a really full and busy day. Since it was right there we headed down to it. We didn’t do to much there since it was late though. We walked down to the mall area and ate dinner and took a few pictures and that was about it. It would have been nice to take a boat ride but just couldn’t fit it in.

 

Austin did really well walking all the way. He even had a ton of steps to walk up. We said we would race so off he went. Alijah I carried in a side sling so he was good to go anywhere. He did really well in it and I carried him like that most of the trip. He would get a little restless here and there just because he wasn’t able to be down and crawling around like he normal could.

~Kim

Tower of Americas

After the Zoo we decided to do the River Walk and Tower of Americas. Aunt Pat got us a groupon to go up and check out the Tower of Americas. Since it was just a few minutes away from zoo we decided to fit it all into one day.

We headed to Tower of Americas. We really didn’t know how this would go over with the boys since they only got a 15-20 minute nap in the car between the two places so it was either going to be a good experience or a cut short trip. After parking we went down to the tower. It was super nice down there. They had several water falls a long with some great art on one wall. We got a few pictures down there before heading up to the clouds.

 

The boys loved it up there. Austin wasn’t so sure watching us go up in the elevator but once we got out there he really loved it. He really liked seeing the little people (ants) and our car. We could actually seeing it even from being so high. About 3/4 of it was super winding. I didn’t know how Alijah would do with it but as you can see in pictures he didn’t mind at all. He really like it out there and did really well as well. We actually went out there 2 difference times before we actually came down. It was pretty neat seeing the town from being up so high. Our next stop for the day was the River Walk.

~Kim

San Antonio Zoo

Austin loves animals and the zoo. I think he could go to the zoo everyday and see the same animals and still love it. We decided to head to San Antonio on Memorial Day hoping that it wouldn’t be a super busy day there. As we headed to the zoo it was only suppose to be a 20-30 minute drive that turned into not being sure we could even get there. The day we came in to San Antonio that had received a ton of rain. So there was a lot of flooding around town. The one part of highway that we needed on was flooded so we got off there and tried another way to the zoo. That road came around a bend and then came to a stop when we basically ran into closed road sign and water up the road. So we had to try a third route to the zoo. Over the river and through town we finally made it. It was crazy right across from the Zoo entrance the river was flooded out and you could even see benches in the middle where it was once part of the park.

This day was a perfect day to go to the zoo it was not too hot but was warm enough. We really lucked out on how great the weather was while we where down there.

Once we got in there we headed to check out all the animals. The first few that we saw were bears. There was a Sun Bear and grizzly bear. We of course got to see most of the animals sleeping but I think I would be sleeping in the middle of afternoon while everyone was watching me.

After the bears we jumped right into all the Monkeys. There was a ton of monkeys, but we love monkeys so it was great seeing all of them. Austin and Alijah loved them!!

After the monkeys we headed to go check out all the fish and other animals they had in that area. We first found a ton of alligators and crocodiles. They even had mini alligators.

While looking at some fish Austin noticed some Hippos in the water. Louie totally missed them and was trying to get him to move on to the next thing and Austin wouldn’t leave. We quickly realized why he didn’t and he had the perfect spot for him to see both of them.

After the Hippos we grabbed some lunch then back we went to finding the animals. The park was very nicely spread out. There wasn’t too much space between each area so it wasn’t a ton of walking. Most of the zoo also had areas on both side of you so you could go back and forth from side to side looking at all the animals.

We found more Monkey’s on our journey. These super cute little monkeys decided they wanted to share a cracker with Austin. (not sharing of food happened) Austin was eating a cracker was we went past 4-5 different small monkey area. One monkey really took interest in Austin and jumped right up on the cage to get really close and just eyed us down. Then about 30 seconds later the second monkey jumped over to us and hung out on the cage as well just staring at Austin and the cracker. Austin loved it!! He kept saying how the monkey’s wanted his cracker. It really was the cutest thing.

After these super cute monkeys we headed to the kid area. This area was pretty neat. They had a lot of hands on play stuff. They even had a beach area who kids could play in sand and water. We unfortunately didn’t make it to this area until the end and right before they were closing so we didn’t play much but it was cool seeing how they really had stuff for kids. They had a campsite area where you could play in a tent and pretend fire and even a small little river. They also had a turtle shell and eggs the Austin went through and tried to get the eggs out of the ground. He said they were stuck.

This was our trip to the San Antonio Zoo. The boys loved it and we all had a great day there.

~Kim

San Diego

Last year we tried to go to San Diego, but things fell through when changes happened at Louie’s work. So we had to cancel our plans and just wait and see when we would be able to go again. We were then able to schedule our vacation to San Diego for this past May. We had decided to go at the end of May beginning of June so that it would be warm enough for beach and Louie would have Memorial Day off and not have the extra vacation day to use. During this trip we knew there were some have to do’s and these are the things I’m going to talk about. If you ever get a chance to go anywhere I would highly recommend San Diego.

First thing is of course the weather. It was absolutely perfect. The highs were never above 80 degrees and the lows where right around in the 60’s. It was sunny most days with a few cloudy days but there was no rain and almost no humidity. Coming from the midwest where it is almost always super humid it was really nice.

Second is Sea World, I could not wait to go to Sea World. I think I was more excited about going here then anyone. The park had many different shows but were spaced out enough that you had time to get from one to another or pick and choice which ones you wanted to go to. Because we went on Memorial Day they had special night showings of a few animals which was different from the day performances which was nice. They also had many interactions with the animals that you could do.

• You could have breakfast or dinner with Shamu.
• You could swim with the dolphins or you could just reach over in their water and try and pet them. (If they swam by you you could touch them)
• They had manarays there that you could reach in and touch.

I think my favorite show was the Dolphin show. They interacted and swam with them, along with had divers who dove and did different tricks of very high platforms. This show also had birds that would fly low right above our heads from behind us across the stage. Austin really enjoyed this show as well.

The Sea Lion was pretty good too. It was a comedy act so it was pretty entertaining. They did a good job of entertaining us while we waited for the show to begin. This show had a sea lion and a otter that performed.

Sea World was entertaining enough that we ended up going to the park 4 different times. We went to almost all the shows twice and each time was different then the last. The last time we went Austin got to actually touch the dolphin. We had tried all week but they never came close enough. This is well worth the money!!

We then went to the San Diego Zoo. I was super excited to go here but was a little disappointed on the size. I thought it was really big and they would have a ton of different animals. I thought we would need all day to get through it thinking it was really big but it wasn’t too big. We got there at open around 10 and was done by 3 in the afternoon. This was even going back to some of the animals. I felt like it wasn’t a ton different from the Kansas City Zoo which took us longer to go through.

Some of the animals that we really enjoyed seeing were the monkeys. Austin loves monkeys and makes the noise all the time. It helps that we have always called him our little monkey. We also go to see a polar bear that swam right up to the glass right next to Austin and Louie. They also had 2 panda’s that we got to see. One panda just gave birth just a month or so back which is pretty cool. There was many more animals there but those animals where our highlight.

While in San Diego we decided to catch a Padre’s game. We could get decent tickets and Austin was still free so we went. The night we went we got free jerseys and bandannas. Austin enjoyed bits and pieces of the game. He would stand or sit and watch a little then go back to either trying to climb out of our laps to play on the steps or play between the seats from Louie to the other person sitting in our row about 4 seats down. We said all baseball games we need to make sure we have 3 or 4 seats next to us open so we can play.

We also made it to the beach one day. We ventured down to Coronado Beach which is rated one of the top beaches in the US. It was super clean and huge. It was a pretty long walk from the side walk to the ocean through sand but I didn’t mind. I love the sand and beach so I was just super glad to get to go. I thought Austin would love it since he love the water and playing. Well, not so much. He would not put his feet in the sand at all. We had an extra blanket (luckily) that he had to stand on and play in the sand off of the blanket. He also didn’t want anything to do with the water. We took him down close and he just held onto us shaking his head. So needless to say we didn’t get to spend as much time as this momma wanted to at the beach. Hopefully sooner then later he will learn to like the sand and beach because I love the beach.

Well here is just a few places that I highly recommend if you ever get the chance to go to San Diego. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

I hope this helps anyone who is trying to figure out where to take their next vacation or who is heading to San Diego on a couple have to go places. We even did this trip with Austin being 17 months old and I was 8 months pregnant with Alijah. It is a very family friendly area.

~Kim