Monday, March 12, 2012

Back from Texas

Sorry for the late update, but we've had a busy week. But, we made it back from our vacation to Texas! Miles was wonderful on the airplane. He settled in great on each flight and we nursed and took a nap. The only real challenge was our layover in Houston on the flight home. He got pretty fussy waiting to get on the plane. But otherwise he enjoyed the ride. I think the movement and the white noise from the engines was the perfect combination for a calm baby. And I think nursing him during take-off helped keep his ears equalized with the pressure change.
Must know where the emergency exits are.
"Infant in arms"
"The Big Tree" and Jen's big hair
Beautiful live oaks dominate the natural areas around Rockport. There is one coveted tree simply named "The Big Tree." We actually stumbled upon it as we were driving around exploring. It was fun to get out and see but the mosquitoes were awful. So we didn't linger long.
Take the picture quick Mom, the mosquitoes are draining our blood.
We also got the chance to go on a whooping crane boat tour. The boat took us to some key whooping crane spotting areas around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. We had to go to Walmart to get Miles an infant life vest because the boat tour didn't provide them. Safety first. I wore him most of the time in the Ergo baby and the engine noise and soft rocking boat motion provided good napping conditions. But he did wake up enough to see some cranes and breath in the salty air.
On the boat portion of our adventure

Whooping cranes!!!

On the birding boat tour with our buddy Dave the duck guy.
We also found some fun touristy stuff to do. There was this statue of Madona and child by the sea that we had to stop and take a photo of. We also did some shopping in downtown Rockport. There is a beach park where we walked along in the sand and dipped our toes in the salt water. The water is very shallow here, you can walk out into the water and it stays about knee deep 30 plus feet from shore. It is a great place to introduce a kid to the beach. Maybe if we come back next year Miles will be big enough to toddle out in the water with Mom.
Mom and Miles by the sea

Taking in the salty sea air

Walking on the beach
On our last day in Texas we drove to San Antonio to meet Sharon a friend of ours from Grad School. We met up at a "Get Outdoors" festival that was at one of the historic Missions in the city "Mission San Louis". We got to meet Sharon's little girl Ryia who is about 2 years old. It was fun watching her run around exploring all the activities they had there for the kids. There were kayaks they could sit in and a big canvas that they could paint. Miles was too little for everything, so he just fell asleep in the carrier. We ended up getting a suggestion for lunch from some locals. La Tuna. It was really good food, Aaron had fish tacos again (we ate a lot of these on our trip), and I had a steak sandwich with guacamole and salsa. Yummy.

So we covered planes, boats and automobiles on this vacation. Lots of firsts for Miles. Now we know that travel really isn't too bad with this little guy. We hope to do more of it. I think a trip to Florida is in our near future. And we have to get down to Denver soon to meet cousin Carter. We are for sure headed to Nebraska in July, Aaron's cousin Matt is getting married. Hope to see everyone soon.

1 comment:

  1. Love the pics. Especially, the one of the 3 of you "Taking in the Salty Air". That's just precious. Rhonda :)

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