VACATION...

So we went to South Texas to visit my husband's grandparents...Mikayla's Great Grandparents, Nana and Papa!

They live in a retirement community...300+ brick and manufactured homes, one 9 hole par 3 course, a pool that is only used on once in the morning and once in the evening for water aerobics, 45 minutes to Padre, 25 minutes to the outlet mall (yippee) and 30 minutes to the Brownsville Zoo... the whole trip = HEAVEN!!!

Mikayla made her first trek to South Padre last year and she loved it. This year was even better! We must have picked up half of the washed up sea shells, played in the waves, fed the sea gulls (greedy buggers) and played in the waves again.

As we were leaving the beach Mikayla said:

Maybe next year we can go to the part of the beach that doesn't have salt in the water...

Don't know that we can accomplish that... *big grins*

She was a trooper both times we hit the outlet mall. Of course it helps that we park right by the Disney outlet. First trip she scored a princess towel, three princess cups, and a set of plastic figurines for the "Sleeping Beauty" movie.
Before we headed to the mall the second time, Papa let her grab a few handfuls of change ($13.40) so she could shop again... this time she paid...all in change... for two more sets of figurines (Cinderella and The Little Mermaid) plus a princess t-shirt (mom and dad had to chip in $12 but it was money well spent). Those little figurines allowed mommy and daddy a few hours of peaceful shopping with a few bribes on the coin operated rides and some skittles. Oh and now the little princess is addicted to Starbucks b/c the lady put her apple juice in a cup then put whip cream on top!!!

Our last day we went to the Brownsville Zoo. A very good little zoo if you are ever in the area. There was plenty of shade (much needed for a south Texas zoo), small enough that we were only there about 2 hours and tons of great exhibits. They had a few "free fly" areas for birds so they would just be sitting on the walkway or flying around our heads, there were camels (cool) and sea lions. The gorillas seemed to pretty personable too! Oh and at the end, Nana gave Mikayla some money to buy something from the gift shop...imagine that!

I failed to mention earlier that Nana and Papa have a golf cart! We pretty much rode in that every day. Some days it was just for the sake of driving, other days we helped daddy "fish" for golf balls, or we used it to go to the pool.

All in all it was a great trip. She was a Super Trooper on the 9 hour drive down and we managed to make it in under 8 1/2 hours on the way back (the trick was taking the toll road AROUND Austin on the way back...more mileage, less traffic!). I will say that in car dvd players with head phones ROCK, on top of me keeping a secret stash of coloring books and movies to keep the drive smooth.