We survived our first family vacation!

For our first day of vacation, Val stayed with Gigi, so Aaron and I went to Saledo. We stayed at the Stagecoach inn with this amazing mineral fed jacuzzi.

The town of Saledo is slowly dying, but this candy shop was in business!

Drinking some Joe at the Stagecoach coffee shop- really cool building.

Val at the Pink Place! We made it to Port Aransas!

First walk on the boardwalk!

The sound quality will be bad, but here is Vallie's first dip in the ocean!

Vallie loved "jumping over the waves," looking for sand dollars, and collecting seashells.

Vallie being crazy at Kody's. Not the best food in Port A- We preferred the pizza buffet!

First ferry ride for Scion and V!

It was hard to find the Surf Museum in the dirges of Corpus Christi, but it was worth it.

Vallie really dug these toys.

My favorite pic on the surfboard bench!

Required beach shark silliness.

Our Pink Palace

I thought it was really funny that the pool radio was still on at 7:00 in the am and it was playing November Rain while I was packing to leave in the rain.... Riding back was long and made us silly!

First Fireworks!

This was Vallie's first summer to go see the fireworks! I wish I could say she loved it, but I think it was a bit much for her. She kept pointing at them and saying, "No. No. No."

The day started out better because we watched Daddy drive his scooter in the parade. He got this crazy idea in his head about calling the scooter gang "The Stunt Bananas," so they wore bright yellow shirts.

Frenchy was everywhere that day trying to get on the Fresh Traveler's Show!

Mr. Dee-wayne the top banana!

Vallie enjoyed a dance at the coffee shop and wouldn't let go of her candy booty!

Me, V and R for the last four summers.

make a gif at gickr.com

The Museums!

  
We went to see Neto today at the Nasher Sculpture Center. We also wanted to check out Erick Swenson's exhibit as he is one of dad's ole Good/Bad buddies.  Mom thought V would love Neto, but it was actually quite scary to her.  First we had to put on booties and that made her very mad.  Then when we were walking in Neto is was loud and swinging and really difficult to walk through.  It was a very interesting experience.  Vallie asked me why we had to wear the booties, and I told her, "Artists like to make us do weird things sometimes."

What Vallie really loved were Swenson's slugs climbing the beer stein and the headless people in the garden with the large feet. (Luckily she missed Swenson's deer- but it was my fav!)

Vallie kept asking me if we were going to go the, "Museum (she) went to as a baby."  She remembers the trip we made to the DMA when she was 18 months old! 

So Auntie Em and I took Val to the DMA to see some Jackson Pollock paintings.  Vallie really loves Jackson Pollock paintings because of an Olivia book!  At the DMA she made some of her own sculptural art, we saw the Pollock pieces, and ate some lunch.  It was a great day!

Some kids going through Neto:

Dallas Aquarium

Today we went to the Dallas Aquarium.
V was so excited!

These flamingos were cool:

But not as cool as dad's new look!

Vallie liked watching the penguins

She also enjoyed this sea turtle:

 

But she loved this river otter most of all!!  She kept saying, "He likes me! He's silly! He really likes me!"

 

Vallie and Mommy's day on the Square

Vallie and I were not going to go to the city Eggstraveganza, but for some reason we did. Vallie rode in the bike trailer and we cruised down. Things were a little hectic and crazy even before the eggs. We found Redding and V and R grabbed hands and ran all over the park.



The actual "egg hunt" was more like a mad rush of children frenzied with too much anticipation. Parents were scooping up handful of candy, and children were scrambling to beat each other to the eggs. Most of the candy was full of ants, so I'm not sure why people were being so crazy about getting candy. Here is a little video sample of the madness.


We didn't get very much candy, but I don't really want V to have this ant candy anyway!!



Afterward, Vallie and I rode to the Square donut shop and bought some fresh carrot, apple, orange juice. It was muy delicioso.




We even met dad on the square for a picnic! It was a great Square day. The only upset was having a tire blow out on the way home! Can't wait for our next bike trip!




What should we do next?

B-day Post

Val and I made t-shirts for party favors for her bday.

We had a great party! All of Val's friends and family made it for the cupcake party! We had a balloon shaped cake formed with cupcakes and real balloons around too!


V was so happy to eat yummy cupcakes.



She was also really happy to see all of our boyfriends. (Did I mention that Vallie only has boy friends?)



It was a great day and we ended it by playing with bubbles!