Our San Antonio Weekend Part 1: Sea World

About 3 weeks ago, our family packed up and headed to San Antonio, well Helotes to be exact, for the weekend.  My sister who lives there is about to move out of state, so this would be our last trip to their house before their big move. 

 

We got there Friday afternoon, unloaded, picked up my nephew, and headed off for an afternoon of fun at Sea World.  Now, it has been years, and I do mean years, since either CJ or I had stepped foot in Sea World.  When we arrived, we needed to eat.  After renting a stroller, which I totally recommend due to the fact that strollers are not allowed into any of the shows or into most attractions (I’m not all about leaving our good stroller hanging out unsupervised), we headed to the nearest restaurant.  You want another one of my recommendations?  If coming to the park around lunchtime, eat before you get there.  The line was crazy long and the food, well, it was park food.  Once we were done eating we went to find the sharks.  From the minute we told her we were going to Sea World, Haylen had been so excited to see the sharks.  We found the shark exhibit and it went a little something like this…   

 

“Mommy!  Look at that guy!

And that guy!!!

Mommy!  Daddy!  LOOK AT THAT GUY!!!!”  All while jumping up and down.

Needless to say, the sharks might have possibly been her favorite attraction.  From the sharks, we walked all the way across the park to the Shamu show.  Remember how I said we hadn’t been to Sea World in quite some time?  Well, let’s just say, the Shamu show isn’t as exciting as I remember.  Now that the trainers aren’t allowed in the water with the whales, it’s just not the same.  Kinda boring if you want my honest opinion.  They tried to spice it up a little with big screens and videos, but really all the whales can do is swim around the tank, jump out of the water a little, splash the crowd, wave, and repeat.  Gets a little old after a while; however, due to the crazy standing room only crowd you’d never know it wasn’t that exciting.  The best part of the show was watching Shamu and his family swim around the tank after the show was over and everybody had left the stadium.  This was the part Haylen enjoyed the most.

From the Shamu show, we went right on over to the next show.  The show we really could not miss, Elmo Rocks!  Haylen loved this one! 

Elmo, the Sesame Street crew, upbeat music, did I mention Elmo?

Who knew Ernie could be so cool!?!

We took a little break from the shows and went to see the sea lions after Elmo.

I seriously think she could have watched them for hours.  Maybe that was due to the fact she found a great place to see that wasn’t packed with millions of people.

We watched one last show before leaving the park, and I have to say, I am so glad we did.  This show definitely made up for the lack of entertainment Shamu provided.  The Azul show did not disappoint. 

The show was funny, exciting, entertaining, AND the trainers were allowed to get into the water with the animals.

I’d highly recommend going to see this show.  By the time Azul was over, Haylen was fading fast.  We stopped at the gift shop on the way out for 2 t-shirts and a stuffed Shamu, and our sweet girl barely made it out of the parking lot before crashing in her carseat.

A Day at the Farm

Memorial Day weekend, we decided to head about 45 minutes down the road to Jollisant Farms to take Haylen strawberry picking. 

Our girl absolutely loves strawberries, so I thought this would be a great little adventure for her.  Not only would she get to pick them, more importantly, she was going to see where they really come from.  I guess I want my kiddo to know that fresh fruit doesn’t just come from a plastic container at HEB.  We actually went at the tail end of strawberry season…not exactly the best planning on our part.  The berries were small and we had to search for them, but that didn’t deter her.  She had so, so much fun picking her strawberries, and of course, tasting them.  I’m pretty sure she might have sampled more than she actually put in her basket.  

Now, since it was Memorial Day weekend, Jollisant Farms had a bit of entertainment going on.  They had live music (well, they had a guy playing a guitar under a tree), a bouncy house, a petting zoo, a few games for the kids, and pony rides.  Haylen loves horses, so she was drawn to those ponies like a moth to a flame.  Well, we paid our $5 and our girl was able to ride a horse for the very first time.  She even named her horse Mae Mae, after the horse that took us on our carriage ride through Santa’s Wonderland back in December.  She had a blast riding that little pony!

The afternoon at the farm was a hot one, but the memories that were made were well worth putting up with a little heat.  To this day, Haylen will still ask when we get to go back to the farm.  Until next time…

Mini Olympics

May 17th, the day after we went to Fiesta Texas, (I know, still playing catch up here) Haylen participated in her very first Mini Olympics.  The Mini Olympics is like the end of year recital at her gym.  Now I must say, this was quite a busy day.  After going to Fiesta Texas, we spent the night with my sister in Helotes.  We woke up early Saturday morning, which is nothing new for our family, Haylen is quite the early bird, because we knew we had a 3 hour trip ahead of us.  But, before leaving San Antonio, we had to stop at our favorite breakfast joint, The Magnolia Pancake Haus.  You just don’t pass up a chance to eat at this place. You just don’t!

After breakfast we packed up and headed back home.  We had just enough time to stop at home, unload the Tahoe, get Haylen in her leo, and head out to the gym.  This was our very first Mini Olympics, so we really didn’t know what to expect, but the gym didn’t disappoint.  They had the big gym set up for showing off what the kiddos had learned on each apparatus, bars, beam, floor, vault, rings, and trampoline.  The kids went through three rotations on each apparatus for all the parents and spectators to see.   Since Haylen had been in the Mommy and Me class, I went through each rotation by her side.  At the end, each gymnast was given a Mini Olympics t-shirt and a trophy.  Here are a few pictures from her performance.

Showing how she can walk OVER the beanbags on the beam.

A big five from Coach Barb!

Showing off her skills on bars.

Check out that handstand.  Look at those strong arms!

High fives from her coach Miss Miranda.

On the vault, she didn’t want anything to do with poor Coach Julian, (I don’t know why, but she has always been very shy with guys) so Mommy had to help her instead.

Haylen on the rings showing how she can swing in a tuck.

Jumping on the trampoline about to show off her seat drops.

Up on the podium at the closing of the ceremony.  She was a little unsure of the crowd, as you can see by her face. 

Me and my little gymnast.

Wearing her new t-shirt and holding her new trophy.  She even got a flower from MiMi and Poppa for doing such a great job.

Showing off her trophy to Aunt Missy and Uncle Mike.  She was so proud of that trophy, but she couldn’t wait to take off the t-shirt because it covered up her new leo. 

I’d say her first Mini Olympics was quite a hit!

A Little Taste of Paradise

Today was one of those days that you just can’t help but appreciate the fact that its summertime.  As a family, we were able to get a few things accomplished, but most importantly we had some fun!  We all went for a walk this morning, and there was a breeze blowing that was actually somewhat cool.  We played at the park.  Haylen got registered for her fall gymnastics classes.  In the words of our daughter, “We took our new new Tahoe to get a bath.”  FYI, our new new Tahoe isn’t really “new new” anymore.  We’ve actually had it since December; however, Haylen has referred to it as our new new Tahoe since then, and I have a feeling that she may still refer to it as such 10 years down the road.  So there you go, it is, and probably always will be, our new new Tahoe.  Whatever you choose to call it, that bad boy is now spotless.  I love a good detailing!  But the best part of our day had to be our little jaunt to Bahama Bucks for snow cones. 

 

Haylen will readily tell anyone who is willing to listen that her all time favorite color right now is blue.  So, when we got to Bahama Bucks she asked, “Mommy, I get my own snow cone? Then very excitedly she added, “I want a BLUE ONE!!!”  Needless to say, today was the first day she actually got to pick out her very own snowcone without any help from Mommy.  Our sweet girl is growing up!  We each ordered our own favorites and headed out to the patio to enjoy them. 

She may or may not have looked like she was turning into a Smurf by the time it was all said and done, but for her that snow cone was her very own little taste of paradise!