Moody Gardens Minivacation

As soon as we finished the day of partying at the boys’ school, we loaded up and headed to Galveston.  I must say, traveling with 3 kids just keeps getting easier.  We made it fairly quickly, but it was still quite late when we arrived. We had reserved 3 rooms, one for us, one for Granny, and one for my sister Randi and her husband Dan.  But our friend, the manager of the hotel, had surprised us with an update to the suite. Wow! It was SO nice. 

Three little monkeys plus their animals in the bed…

Chance checking out our view from the room.

Mom enjoying the view with her morning coffee.

This was the view.

Aunt Randi and Uncle Dan.

3 boys, 3 different directions. Story of my life.

Saturday we spend half of the day exploring the Rainforest pyramid. I LOVED that we could get so close to the wildlife.

Including the butterfly area…

As we were leaving the butterfly area, I realized that Charlie wasn’t with us. I looked back to see he was teaching these boys how to hold a butterfly. Proud Mama moment.

I don’t know that you can tell from this photo, but the bats there were huge compared to the little ones we have in Central Texas.

Chuck got up close and personal with a monkey.

Checking out the exhibits.

 

There was an awesome display of chrysalis. Charlie and I sat mesmerized by them for awhile, watching them wiggle and shake.

It felt like such a paradise…

We also spent some time checking out the penguins – Chance and Chandler are about the height of Emperor penguins. Too bad they don’t waddle like them…

I have always wanted to see an Aquarium through a tunnel like this. So fun!

That evening we took the boys to a hibachi grill for the first time ever. While it didn’t have a playground (our usual requirement for eating out), it had great entertainment and the boys did great.

 

After a great meal, we checked out the Festival of Lights. When you first walk in, they have an area to sit and listen to a narration of the Nativity, complete with lights that lit up with each portion of the story…

It was like the Trail of Lights in Austin, only they also had ice skating. This was a highlight of the trip for me, since I LOVE ice skating. And Chance especially caught on, and he and I skated together for nearly 2 hours.

Trying to teach Charlie. He did fairly well, but he really doesn’t like when I teach him things, and he doesn’t like trying something that he can’t easily master…so he didn’t last quite as long.

What a day – from rainforests, to penguins, to Oriental culture, to Christmas and Ice skating! It was so much fun!  The next day we did more sight seeing, but I didn’t get many photos (and Chuck and I had lunch with a friend, another highlight of the trip!).

That night we headed to Granny’s to crash before driving back to San Antonio the next day.

We crammed a lot into a weekend, but had a blast doing it, and I could definitely see going back!