Texas Vacation part 2, Aquarium

Yes we have been home over a month and I still haven't finished our blog post. I have no excuse just haven't sat down and done it.
Tuesday of our vacation we got up and headed off for Corpus Christi. Brett & Heathers friends let us borrow their car as they were on vacation while we were there, it was so nice of them plus it had Utah plates so we felt right at home :)
Last year on our vacation we never left the Rio Grand Valley or as locals refer to it the valley. This was quiet the experience. As we left the valley we came up to what Brett and Heather said would  be a check point where we would be asked where we were going and if we were USA citizens. They failed to explain that this was a serious operation not just a few boarder agents. MANY, MANY boarder patrol agents, drug sniffing dogs, cameras and lots of guns everywhere. You have to remember the town we were visiting is just miles from the Mexico/USA boarder so they are constantly on alert for illegal immigrants and drug traffic so it makes sense but it was different than what I pictured in my head. Trying to explain it to a three year old year old was also interesting, finally we settled on it was kind of like a police station and they were looking for bad guys. I was trying to explain it to him when the agent was talking to Mark so I hope I my explanation gave him something to smile about for the day.
From there it was smooth sailing other than a gas & drink break. We discovered the hurricane like weather bring out giant beetles/cockroaches that were everywhere including in the convenient store. Extremely nasty.
We arrived in Corpus Christi and found the Texas state Aquarium with out to much trouble. Brett hooked us up through his job, he is a report for a station in the valley.

These two got along great. I think arranged marriages should come back I mean seriously look at how cute she it!

We got there just in time for an animal encounter. Noah got to pet a snake 

We had lots of fun looking at the animals

 We actually fed the sting rays, they were super excited about eating. One even tried jumping out of the pool at us. It was kind of freaky.

Watching the dolphin's was really fun. The kids liked being able to get close in the viewing room. The adults liked the air conditioning and being out of the humidity. It was so humid our sunglasses would fog up when we walked out of buildings. 

We were also able to enjoy the bird show. It featured fun animals beside bird also. Noah seemed to enjoy it

 Noah was our pre-show entertainment, we couldn't hear what he was saying but he was telling us all something.

  

The dolphin was show was really fun. They were doing an Olympic show so the needed judges. Heather got picked out of the audience to be a judge.

 The dolphins didn't appreciate the scores the judge next to Heather was giving and showed them by spraying them with water.

Not sure why we thought splash zone and kids was a good idea but we did and as you can tell he didn't appreciate it. Even though it was in the 90's

He got over it and life went on. 

    

 Brett demonstrated to Noah how you could climb in the bubble to see the sea horses up close. Noah actually went in and looked it surprised me a bit as he is usually timid about these things.

 Sea Urchin

 This fish just sat and looked at the kids it was kind of freaky

The porcupine was awake for a feeding. His face is so cute! 

The exhibits were fun to wander around. 

Noah loved the jelly fish, we had to go see them more than once.

Sister Angel

This week has been an interesting one on many levels. You know how you have days you're sure you should just go back to bed and try tomorrow? Well that's been my week. Trying to not complain I tried to do everything I could and just couldn't do it all. Today I can home from a long day at work to the smell of corn chowder cooking and a freshly vacuumed/swept floor. My sister/angel had paid a visit and I could have just cried for her gracious service but when i cry it worries noah so i didn't. She is truly wonderful and I am so blessed to have her.

P.S. she is probably cursing me for writing this but I don't care she's amazing and I needed to share it with my world! 

Texas vacation

Sunday 9/15 we loaded our car and headed off to Salt Lake where Aunt Karen let us crash for the night. We had a 6:20 am flight the next day so we really appreciated her letting us crash there. Noah has so much fun playing with her dog Hannah, he has always loved her dog and she tolerates Noah well.

Monday we got on our flight with no trouble and had an airport breakfast of champions, giant muffins!

We spent most of the day at the Dallas airport waiting for our connection to McAllen. We got to meet up with our friend Greg & Nancy for lunch, it was so fun to catch up with them. I forgot to take pictures :(
Dallas is actually not a bad airport to spend the day at. Noah loved riding the train from terminal to terminal watching airplanes out the window.

McDonalds also had a play place he actually enjoyed, video games! He doesn't like the traditional play places so this worked out well.

They also have a blue glass maze type thing that apparently plays music if you run in the correct direction, Mark & Noah never figured it out. Noah did manage to run right into the giant wall of glass, he gets his gracefulness from his mom.

We were worried about getting to McAllen on our because of the hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico which is about an hour from them. Luckily we had no trouble getting on. We made it to McAllen  in good time where Brett picked us up in a rather intense rainstorm and headed back to their house.

It was wonderful to see Brett, Heather and Kayla, such an adorable family. Heather and I met 10 years ago at ISU and were roommates for a few years and I couldn't imagine life without my close friend! 

Stay tunes for day 2 of our trip. 

Homecoming

We started our day out by loading up and heading to Main Street for breakfast with family while waiting for the USU homecoming parade to start. Top left: Noah, grandpa & grandma. Top right: Noah sharing his banana with cousin Lucy. Bottom left: Mark & I enjoying our breakfast. Bottom right: our fun cousins; Katie, Sara, Lisa, Anna and Lee.

We love our Aggies! Noah was all cowboy today for the parade and even got extra candy from a girl who loves cowboys 

Noah was so handsome getting ready for the flag to pass

Even better we WON the game tonight! 

A wonderful word....

VACATION! Today starts a week off from work for both Mark and I. We started of this vacation by heading to the Utah State Fair. 

Noah was so excited to see the goats. I think he would have been content to just pet the goats all day. 

This little boy decided he could hold a goat for Noah to pet it. He was all farm boy and it was fantastic! 

After the goat building we wandered over to the sheep building. The sheep had all be sheared and washed, sheep are much more adorable that way. A lady had a couple of sheep that were super friendly and Noah enjoyed it.

Unlike the Idaho state fair Noah enjoyed the chicken building. Except the giant turkey, he said it was a scary bird. I have to agree, I didn't even want to take a picture of it

While wandering we found a clown making balloon animals. Noah just wanted a green balloon, he didn't care what it was. He finally decided on a sword

Noah lead us into the dept of natural resources building, it was fantastic! They had lots of fun different things. Live animals/reptiles, fish and lots of furs for people to see and touch. 

I told Noah to make a bear face by this sign and this is what he did 

From there we headed off to find some food and maybe avoid the darkening skies. We found a stand that had a sign advertising authentic German food, we got really excited. We both enjoy German food immensely. However when we walked around it they were selling cotton candy and crepes. We were disappointed. We did find a cute little polish lady selling food and had a very delicious polish sausage and some chicken wings for Noah.

To get out of the rain storm that hit we wandered through some buildings. It's always fun to see what people make and display. Like a sculpture out of butter, yep butter! It was titles "beam me up Bessie" and had aliens attacking a farm. 

Grandma H was nice enough to loan us their giant umbrella as we left this morning, it actually kept us dry and covered most of the stroller too!

What would the fair be without some fried food. We had a snack of mini donuts, super yummy!

We found a building full of fun activities for kids. 

Giant bubbles

Floating balls

Balance challenge

Build the shape tables

Giant blocks

A nail wall, don't worry they were plastic and not sharp 

Noah's body imprinted in the nail wall

We wandered the fair grounds a bit more

and found the area "a day on the farm" Noah got to do lots of fun things and collect stuff in his bucket 

Feed and help milk a cow 

Pick apples

Drive tractors 

Brush a sheep 

And make a cow mask 

Before heading of we had to have one more treat, chocolate covered fruit kabobs.....amazing! 

Noah just had to visit the goats on the way out. I still have no idea why but they are his favorite thing.  See he is so happy to be around them. 

As we tried to hurry out the gate Noah informed his dad he had to "talk" to the sheep so we detoured.

It was a great family outing and we even stayed dry in the heavy rain, we actually went prepared! If you have a chance before it's over go visit the fair!