Sandy Toneya

We took the kids to San Antonio for a quick weekend away this past weekend.  We told the kids on Tuesday where we were going and Lia was insistent that it was not "San Antonio" it was actually "Sandy Tone-ee-uh" - I'm not sure if she realized this was a place and not a girl named Sandy.  Either way, she was pumped.

We stayed in an Air Bnb house that was 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms - the "zoo house" worked great for us and Erin and Halle did well sharing a room.  Friday when we arrived, we got settled and then headed out to a fun park I had read about online.  The playscape itself left much to be desired, but the ducks were a total win.  The kids had a blast and even bummed some bread off some nice lady who probably makes it a weekly routine to feed the ducks.

Lia was bound and determined to touch one of the ducks.  I'm not sure if she was ever successful, but she spent most of her time trying to sneak up on an unsuspecting duck and pat it.

Erin and Halle were laughing and smiling the entire time.  They pulled off the tiniest chunks of bread possible for the ducks to eat and just loved seeing them all fight over them.

The rest of the park was really fun - tree climbing, snacks and a fun train ride!

She's a climber!  This was an awesome horizontal tree that Lia immediately gravitated toward - it was about 10 feet off the ground and she went across the entire thing.

That evening we hung out at the house and did some new art projects and played.  It was nice to have some time with nothing to do but be with each other.

The next morning, despite the rain in the forecast, we were off to the zoo!  We arrived and it was drizzling so a quick trip to the zoo gift shop resulted in some pretty fun umbrellas for the kids.  They turned out to be quite useful as the day went on!

My favorite part of the zoo was the butterfly house.  It was so fun to be among so many butterflies and the kids loved being able to get so close.  Erin and Lia were able to have a butterfly land on them and Halle got thisclose! but ended up getting freaked out and shaking it off before a picture could be taken!

I think if you asked the kids what their favorite thing was, they would say the merry-go-round.  I hate merry-go-rounds, but since we have 3 kids and 2 adults, I had to ride too...  Our kids were too little to ride without an adult on their side.  Goody.  As I fought the urge to vomit, Todd got some great pictures.

We left the zoo around 2pm when it became very clear that the kids were SUPER tired and basically done walking.  Erin proceeded to fall asleep in my arms on the way to the front gate and man!  That kids gets HEAVY...

Erin slept all the way back to the house and almost transferred to her bed back at the house.  When I was in with Erin trying to see if she would keep sleeping, Todd took Lia and Halle out for a little afternoon pick me up.

We had a fun night out for dinner and then crashed out early for bed.  The next day we were up and out to go to the children's museum.  This place was amazing.  We were able to get in early because we are members of the Thinkery in Austin (thanks Auntie and Uncle Ty!) and it was great to have some time without all the crowds.

wind tunnel!

 The kids had a great time in this little mini townplace - there was a trolley car, grocery store, bank, car wash, vet clinic, construction site and airplane.  We could have spent hours just in that spot.

Outside they had a really fun playscape and water feature set up.  It was the least amount of parenting I have been required to do in a long while!  The kids were so entertained, interested, and engaged.

This is one of the water tables.  Lia started out on the stool...

Then ditched the stool and was scooting around the edge.

Then said "forget it" and started crawling around inside the thing.  Hilarious.

Ball goes down the ramp and then up in the water spout.  Halle thought this was utterly hilarious.  She stayed at this spot for a long time.

After the museum was done, we loaded up and headed for home.  Erin and Halle quickly passed out for an afternoon nap.  Lia was up and singing most of the way home.  Needless to say, it was a fun weekend.  I wish we would have had better weather, but overall it was fantastic.