Texas State Aquarium, Corpus Christi

On Saturday of Marc's visit, we went to Corpus Christi which is about a two hour drive from where we are. We started at the State Aquarium. In the way of aquariums it was pretty good but not the best we've ever been to. Not only did they have the aquarium exhibits inside displaying water habitats of all kinds like coral reefs, the Amazon, fresh water and so on, they also had outdoor exhibts with dolphins, sea turtles, and river otters. The Texas Alligator exhibit is just being built so we missed out on the "crocagators" as Aaron calls them.

This was a cool picture with the light coming up illuminating the boys with the fish behind them.

The next picture was fun. In this one room the lights were aimed at the wall to make the walls look like water. Marc and the boys were pretending to swim.

Here was the touch pond. I was taking pictures, Richard was making videos, which left Marc to touch the hermit crabs with the boys. Andrew, of course, had no problem picking them up and looking at them, but Aaron was a little more leary. Finally, "Uncle" Marc put a crab in a large shell and Aaron was okay holding it that way.

Another cool thing they had was the "bubble" as we called it. It was a tank in the corner of the room with this doom in it. The boys had to crawl into it from underneath and stand up so they could be inside the aquarium. Really cool.

Here is my family outside the State Aquarium. Of course this picture was taken at the beginning of the day before I was tired and frazzled. We were there almost all day. At about 2:30, Richard and Marc decided to go over to the USS Lexington which is right next door to the aquarium. The boys and I stayed to shop at the gifr shop and play on the playground for a little bit. Later we headed over to the beach next to the Lexington to play in the sand and wait on Daddy and Uncle Marc.

After we all met up again, we ended a perfect sea-side day with a sea-food meal at Joe's Crab Shack on the Bay. The view was awesom! What a great day we had.

busy, busy, busy

Wow. Things have gone from some ole, same ole to really busy in the last few days. Richard actually managed a 4 day weekend and we've been taking full advantage of it. It's mostly been about Andrew since this is the weekend of his birthday and also the first year we haven't been able to have a "small"(LOL) family party for him. We wanted to make it special for him...although Aaron and Zoey managed to make a few appearances in there as well. Friday we went to the beach at South Padre Island. We took Zoey for the first time ever to the beach. What fun that was she did a lot better than we imagined she would. And for being a retriever, she's not very fond of water, that is, not until she discovered the ocean. The dog loved it! We had to keep her close to the beach because she would go out where she couldn't touch and get tossed under by the waves. There was a strong under-tow that day so i was a little nervous about letting her go out too far.

Enjoy these short movies.

Then on Saturday we finished game 3 of a mid-Season baseball tournament in the town/city of Hildalgo (which is about 10 miles from Mission). The boys didn't win but they played hard. The final score was 9-8. Bummer. We all thought they had it, too. While we were waiting at the field for the games to start, Aaron and I would go to the playground and wait. This is where Aaron makes one of his appearances. I call these pictures "GIVE YOUR GRANDMOTHERS A HEART-ATTACK!"

On Saturday we went to a fun place in McAllen called The Zone. The inside is kinda like Chuck E Cheese, but the outside is really cool, especially for boys. They have a go-kart track, batting cages, bumper boats, and miniature golf. Andrew took a friend, Darren, ANd the rest of our family went. I had the most fun on the bumper boats. Aaron really wanted to ride the boats so i took him in one boat, Andrew and Darren each had their own boat, and two other kids I don't know had their own boats. NOW, I'm the only adult out there and poor Aaron is stuck with me. What we didn't realize was the boats had a button to squirt water at other boats. YEAH. LOL. Even the two kids we didn't know where spraying me with water. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time and i think i was wetter from this than any water ride at Disney or Sea World! We had a blast! And thank goodness Richard was there to take pictures.

Today is kind of a restful day as Sunday should be. Richard took Andrew to the movies to see IRONMAN While Aaron and I are chillin'.

I know this weekend was about Andrew, and I didn't really tell you much about him, but I'll do that in another post.

I hope you have all had a great weekend and I pray that the Lord poured his blessings on each of you as he did us this weekend.

Beach bums and Sunsets

(how do i rotate this?)

Yep, we went to the beach again. i love being this close to it. it's a little over an hour, but it's totally worth it. it was cooler this weekend and very windy. Richard and andrew said the waves weren't as good, but Aaron and i didn't care. we were having fun in the sun and sand! Aaron is really overcoming his fear of the water. he actually took a few tumbles in the waves and went under afew times. he didn't like the way it tasted, but he kept going back for more.

We also have great sunsets right out the window of our apartment. we have to go up to the second floor to see the whole thing over the fence, but wow, they are beautiful. i don;t think i'll ever get tired of seeing them.

anyway, that's about all for now. I did get some really cute picts of the boys playing out front, so i'll try to get those on also. Love you all and miss you more!