Hill Country Hyatt

We often get visitors to SA who stay at the Hill Country Hyatt. This particular weekend Annie and Papa Tom stayed there a couple nights and invited Davis. He loves this place, what kid wouldn't? Face painting, buffets at his eye-level, lazy river rides, nightly s'mores, slides, waterfalls, movies on the lawn!

Lazy River fun

Not quite tall enough for the slide...darn

Turning 4 is FUN!

My sweet tiny little baby boy (I gotta get that in there while I still can) just turned 4 last Saturday! I asked him how it feels to be 4 and he said he still feels 3, but already knows what kind of cake he wants when he turns 5. These are the important things in life. 

We had another pool party this year and it was all things sports themed for our very active boy!

Davis in action!

Miss Molly

Cousin Clark

Blowing out the candle!

Kids sitting quietly, in awe of sugar! 

Time for presents!

A new watch!

Check out those skateboard skills!

Pump me up!

The ultimate water-gun!

My mom, grandmother, and sister.

Eating the last bite of cake!

We got Davis a new bike for his birthday and he rode it like a champ all day long! He thinks the orange is "sooo cool" and our neighbors gave him an awesome blue string of lights to wrap around the bike bars. He's all set!

My best friend Kelly came in town to help celebrate Davis' birthday, so we made a weekend out of it with brunch the next morning for my birthday. We went to Anne Marie's Carriage House in the Botanical Gardens. I had never been or even heard of it, but found it on Yelp. It was quaint, off the beaten path, and delicious.

We don't need to capture my age with a candle anymore.
It can just say "OMG"

That look......

Happy 4th of July!

4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. I love July, BBQ, fireworks, floating in the lake, the smell of sunscreen, and being with family and friends. 

This year we were in Austin on Lake Travis with my mom's side of the family for a little Independence Day celebrating. It started off with a fun surprise pinata (more on that later), making Grandma Baird's homemade vanilla ice cream, and ended with a lot of swimming (in a lake that is quickly disappearing - we need a monsoon). 

Keeping the ice cream going with cups of ice! 

Finished product, oh so delicious!

Heading down down down down to the lake, with a golf club!
Davis loves to hit golf balls into the lake.

The 4th was complete with views of fireworks from the back porch. Every direction we looked, fireworks were going off. We stayed up late, sitting in the dark, enjoying the bright lights. Happy birthday America!

Destin Part III

One day of our vacation was spent exploring other areas in and around Destin and visiting family friends at their beach home in Rosemary Beach. 

We stopped in Seaside for some shopping and a snow-cone. It was picturesque with adorable shops, turquoise bicycles, and a line of airstream food trucks. 

We made it to Rosemary beach in time to enjoy the sunset on the beach and a wonderful meal with some old friends from days in Paris. The community they live in has beautiful surroundings...not only the beach but a couple different pools and parks. Davis loved playing at the park and we even met a couple Aggies!

Destin Part II

Ahoy matey! A major highlight of our Destin trip was aboard the Buccaneer Pirate Ship! Davis loved every minute of it!!

As we stepped foot aboard the pirate ship, I was looking for the life jackets as we smiled for a picture with the Captain. Was I the only parent wondering how we could actually take a boat ride with all these kids and not one wear a lifejacket?

If you have young kids and are heading to Destin, I highly recommend a night on the Buccaneer. The kids are entertained the entire time you enjoy the bar and a sunset cruise! They shoot cannons, have water gun fights, swab the deck, paint faces, look for treasure, sword fight, and do all those other piratey things one does aboard a pirate ship.

Davis is so independent when it comes to these kind of situations. He's not shy at all and loves to meet new people. I have to learn to let go...as Forrest and I stood on the deck above him watching and taking pictures...I had to remind myself he can handle it. He can refill his water gun on his own and he can go into the other room to get his face painted without me. Such a grown up 3 year old!

Finding treasure was Davis' favorite activity of the night. The kids all went below deck to hear the story about another pirate, Captain Blackbeard, who was after their treasure. The kids needed to find the treasure first, of course. Davis came back terrified! Telling me that the "black man" was trying to get their treasure. I immediately realized we needed to make sure we corrected his story, I kept telling him, the man's name is "Blackbeard!!!!"

My favorite part was at the end when the kids danced to the Cupid Shuffle and Wobble. Davis was following along with all the right moves...down down do your dance! Reminded me of dancing on a cruise ship my senior year at A&M...kind of :)

Davis went home with treasure, a painted face, a pirate hat, an eye patch....all while shouting, "we are the crew of the Buccaneer, yo ho ho and a bottle of root beer!" Brainwashing at it's best!

Waiting for the cannons to go off!

Water gun fight!

Papa Tom was in the hula-hoop contest!

Listening to the story about Blackbeard! Terrified? Yes

Destin Part I

Vacation: no schedules, no baths, no shirts, junk food, no naps, no bedtimes, no routines, fun in the sun, swimsuits, books, beach toys, sand castles, bike rides, putt putt, and bloody mary's!

With no plans, we hit the Destin beach everyday. For Davis, it was back and forth between the pool and the beach everyday. He loved playing frisbee and football on the beach and building sand castles, then immediately destroying them. Davis jumped waves then rode the waves. He caught fish in his net and kept them as pets for the day. We even buried Daddy. 

At night we enjoyed meals on our balcony or going into town to find the freshest seafood. It was always followed by delicious ice-cream in a waffle cone of course. When we weren't eating, we took Davis to play putt putt and also ride go-carts, huge hit!!! 

Sunscreen mustaches!

Poor Forrest

Putt Putt

Go-carts

RED TOUR

My really cool awesome little sister has some connections to Taylor Swift so we were able to get amazing seats to her Red Tour concert last week. Girl's night out! We started the evening with what every pregnant girl deems a necessity, dinner at ZTejas minus the margarita! 

Who doesn't love Taylor Swift? A little, never ever ever getting back together, teardrops on my guitar, love story, 22, and a little I knew you were trouble. This girl writes about her life which makes her so relatable to my teenage self and all the other hundreds of teens in the audience! The audience was a mix of the tweens, the teens, and the moms. Everyone knew every word to every song and we stood the entire time! 

TSwift puts on a great show complete with dancers and costume changes galore. She's all over the stage, up in the air, and performs a couple songs for those in the back row. We had a fun night channeling our inner teens and I would for sure go see her again (minus the emotional teen who sat behind us and sobbed into her boyfriend's shoulder during a breakup song)!