Road Trip Texas Style!

Our first vacation/road trip as a family of 4!!! We share our anniversary with our dear friends, Dave and Dianna Crest who live in Texas. We all thought it would be fun to spend a week together. Aaron and I decided to take the drive down. The kids did pretty good over all....more to come on that though. 

We took a little potty/stretch break in Helper and the rest stop had tepees, so we took our first pictures!

Sam was more interested in the rocks! 

Vanessa's first selfie!

Then we approached Hole in the Rock....at 5:30...they close at 5 :( But just driving by was cool...the Jeep up on the rock made me a little nervous.

When we got to Monticello, we had to go though the town to change freeways and took a wrong turn, but in doing so we found Mater!

We really wanted to get to Albuquerque, NM and then stop if needed. But because we left later then we wanted to...we didn't even make it there! I can't remember the name of the little town that we stopped in, but we got a room. Well, we didn't bring our pack n' play because the Crests had plenty. HUGE MISTAKE! Sam wouldn't settle down at all. I finally just took him down to the lobby in the stroller and waited there until breakfast so that Aaron could sleep. He stayed up ALL night!!! Within 10 minutes of being on the road Sam was out! (Picture below)

Sunday, we drove and drove! When we drove though Santa Rosa we saw tons of hot air balloons! It was so cool! We saw at least 10!!! 

Then we stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. (I got fried chicken...it was the best I've ever had!) Sam sat and played with the peg game the whole time. It was so good to see him working on his hand/eye coordination!

We got their house Sunday evening. Dianna had made a roast and it was so yummy! We all went to bed early! Monday we took all the kids to the Ft. Worth Zoo. It was so much fun! The zoo is the cleanest I've ever seen and you feel super close to the animals. 

My cute kiddos!

The poor cheetah! It is housed right next to the warthogs! He can see and smell them. He just kept pacing along the fence line!

Sam we super hot, but loved looking at the animals!

This Ape was playing peek-a-boo with everyone!

Finally a baby bigger than Vanessa!! ;)

Aaron didn't want to take Sam out of the stroller! ;)

Vanessa was a trooper...she was so sleepy!

My favorites!

Sam loves ducks! "Quack Quacks!"

He loved feeding the fish!

This bear put on a show for us! :) The camera isn't on zoom!!! He was that close!

I don't do birds...Aaron took Sam in there!

Sam LOVES the penguins! He kept saying "fishes...quack quack!" He really didn't want to leave this exhibit.

After the Zoo, we went to a Mexican restaurant. They make their own Frito chips. Sam loved them and loved dipping them in the salsa...which was kind of hot. He ate about half a bowl of salsa!

Tuesday the 20th, was our Anniversaries. (9 for us, 8 for the Crests) We went to Benni Hanna's for lunch and toured Corporate Frito Lay, then Dianna and I got pedicures. Dave made pizza for dinner and then the boys went golfing. 

These pictures were taken at Frito Lay! They have their own lake!

Wednesday, we took the kids to the pool/splash pad. And then just hung around and visited. Thursday morning we headed home. (We had to be home Friday by 3 PM) We drove all night! Sam had to take a turn driving! ;)

We had such a great time! Aaron and I agree that this was one of our best vacations!!! We sure love the Crests and wish they lived closer!