Birthday Trip 2008!!

As most of you know, we were convinced my our dearest friends that "birthday trips" are the way to go. Since we technically had taken a birthday trip when Little Miss A and Mr D were 2, we decided it was only natural to continue the trend with a trip every other year with a party in between. One of our favorite cities in Texas is San Antonio. Since our Little Man is constantly asking when we can go to San Antonio, it seemed the perfect place to go. However, since we do go so often, we thought it would be more fun, exciting and memorable to see a different side of San Antonio and do things we hadn't done before.

With Halloween on Friday night, we packed things up after a fun filled day/evening and hit the road after trick-or-treating. With a super busy day on Friday, it was really nice to take it easy Saturday. We took in new sites of the city and of course, the kids LOVED the River Walk. No trip to the river walk is complete for D without a "light saber" so, of course, our Buddy Boy got one of those and Little Miss A found a light up wand as well. :)

We took the kids to an IMAX while we were there. The options I narrowed it down to were Deep Sea and Dinosaurs. A & D both chose Dinosaurs. I should have known when the intro states that parental discretion is advised that we may have made the wrong decision. But from the kids that have seen their share of "shows" thought that maybe they'd be okay. That was half right. Little Allie, though she had to sit in my lap, was fine through most of the show looking and commenting on the cute little babies and trying, fruitlessly, to grab at anything that jumped at her. D, on the other hand, sat in Daddy's lap with his head buried, saying "I just don't wuv it!" Poor buddy. Although when asked if he wanted to leave, he said no. I guess we may need to start previewing these shows prior. Oopsie!

We took another river cruise. They are both always so mesmerized by the boats, I think we seriously need to start contemplating a "boat" purchase so we can join our BFFs in weekend boating trips.

Our MAIN goal for the weekend was the zoo. Ranked one of the top ten zoos in the country, the San Antonio zoo was amazing. (Boy, did that sounds like a commercial.) I am so sad that was our FIRST trip to that zoo. It was really was AWESOME!!! Their exhibits were great. Little Miss A and Mr D definitely loved it all. They had a great "Tiny Tots Nature Spot" filled with lots of hands on learning experiences for the kids. I think A & D could have spent the ENTIRE day in that area alone. A's favorite area of the zoo was narrowed down to two: the monkeys and the elephants. D's favorite animals at the zoo were all of the "ocodiles". Boy, they sure were a lot of them, many varieties I had never even heard of. (I was actually kind of shocked that D didn't mention the elephants in his "favorite things" of the zoo trip. While we were visiting the "elephant house," as A kept calling it on her map, the trainers were basically having one do "tricks." Well, while trying to get up, she "tooted!" You can probably guess what kind of reaction this got from the kids. D, as loud as he can, says "oh my gosh, that elephant tooted!!!!" I didn't think he was going to stop laughing. A wasn't quite so sure about the whole experience at the time, but it apparently came out on top regardless. :)

What an awesome way to spend quality time with the kids!!! This is definitely going to be a standing tradition in the Caswell house. :)