We took our first family vacation (and our last as a family of only 3) a few weeks ago. Presley had really started noticing and taken an interest in all kinds of animals, so we thought it would be fun to go down to San Antonio for a few days and take her to the zoo and Sea World.
We decided to leave Austin right after lunch so that Presley could take her nap during the drive down there and wake nice and rested for our day at the zoo.
Well, that didn't exactly happen. We left on time, but for the first time ever Presley did not take a nap. She has never skipped a nap, and will always nap in the car if we're going on a long trip. But she stayed wide awake the entire time. We pulled into the zoo parking lot knowing that we had a ticking time bomb that would explode at any minute.
First stop...zoo gift shop. It had been in the 50s when we left Austin, but was nearing 80 degrees in San Antonio when we got to the zoo (who knew the temperature could be so drastically different just and hour and half away???). I had packed all long sleeve for Presley so we had to buy her a t-shirt to wear. The last thing we wanted was for her to be tired, cranky, and hot.
The first animals we saw were pink flamingos! Presley really liked them, but I don't think she believed me when I told her they were birds.
Next stop... get Presley's blood sugar up to buy us a little more time before the bomb went off. A strawberry popsicle did the trick beautifully! Presley loved it and when she was finished we were on our way to see more animals.
We stopped to see several animals along the way, but nothing compared to the hippo exhibit. Presley could have stood here all day and watched the hippos and fish swimming in the tank. I bet we spent at least 20 minutes in here (which was great because it was indoors and air conditioned).
She did not want to leave! It took a lot of convincing to get her to go back out to see the rest of the zoo.
Mommy and Presley by the lions.
Presley and Daddy...I love this picture!
After about 2 hours at the zoo, it was time to go check in at our hotel and have some dinner. We made it about 3 miles from the zoo when we looked back and saw this:
Our hotel was about 15 miles away, so she got about 20 minutes of sleep. When we woke her up she was not happy! Kaboom...the bomb finally exploded.
She cried the whole time we were checking in, all the way up the elevator, and for quite a while after we got in our room. We decided the best thing to do would be to call room service and order dinner in the room. To go out would have been a disaster, and I would forever feel guilty for the poor people who would have to sit next to us.
So we ordered Presley a hamburger with fruit. While we were waiting for it to arrive, Blaine went down to the hotel lobby bar and ordered Pres a Shirley Temple. She had never had one before but she loves cherries. When he walked back in with her bubbly pink surprise the tears instantly stopped and were replaced with a huge smile. Sure enough, the drink was a hit and she was instantly happy! We had a super peaceful dinner in our room.
Cheers to our first family vacation!
After dinner, we headed outside for a walk around the resort. We ended up at one of the restaurants by the pool. We sat outside and ordered coffee for us and chocolate cake with ice cream and milk for Presley.
This trip was all about Presley, so why not have cake and ice cream at 7:30pm!
She had a blast devouring her cake!
Day 2
We woke up early, went out to breakfast, then headed to Sea World. We thought if we got there right when they opened that we would beat the crowds...we were wrong. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes (with a very patient Presley) we finally got into the park. First stop....gift shop to buy another t-shirt since Mommy doesn't know how to pack very well.
Not sure what we expected, but Sea World did not have as much to do as we had hoped. Most of the shows didn't start until later in the afternoon when Presley would be napping. It's a great place if you have older children, but not too much to do with a toddler. We were thinking about leaving when we spotted the dolphins.
Jackpot!!!
Presley LOVED the dolphins! They came up close enough to touch. I'm pretty sure she would have jumped in with them if we had let her. We stayed there for quite a while. It must have been our lucky day because right next to the dolphin pool was a huge indoor aquarium. After seeing how much she loved the fish and hippo exhibit the day before, we knew she would love this too.
Yep, she loved watching all the fish and even got to see her first shark! I think we might have a future marine biologist on our hands.
We stayed here for a little while. But guess where we went next...
You got it! Back to the dolphins!!!
We stayed here for the rest of our time at Sea World.
We had so much fun on vacation with our little Princess. We decided to make this an annual trip. Next year, we'll be taking two kids on vacation...we can't wait!
We recently had our second family pictures done. After loving how much our pictures turned out last year (click here to see last year's pictures) we decided that we would have them done every fall. It's amazing how much kids change in just one year.
