ONE LAST TRIP

With school fast approaching.... like the first day is tomorrow, and Matt being so swamped at work and only being home a couple hours each night he decided to treat us to a last minute overnight trip to the beach.  He knows how much the girls love staying in hotels and wanted to do something fun and not too far away so he picked the beach.

The beach is always a win with London and I but Kinley was hit or miss.  Last time we went with my mom she ended up sleeping the whole time and the little bit she was awake, she wouldn't touch the sand.

Well, this time was golden...Kinley loved the beach....sand, waves and all!!!  In fact, she asked to go back in the water and jump the waves.

The girls dug holes and built sand castles....

And..... with a snow cone stand on the beach.... how could we resisit!!!

More sandy fun....

After a few hours at the beach we headed to the hotel to clean up and go to dinner at Rainforest Cafe!  There was a bit of a wait so we did the river ride and the girls loved it as always!!

And no meal from Rainforest Cafe would be complete without a VOOOLLLLLLCAAAAAAANOOOOOO!!!

And after dinner a little hotel fun.... 

and my favorite part of hotels.... room service!!!

the whole reason I think the girls love staying in hotels. 

We took the girls to Moody Gardens and had time to go through one of the pyramids before heading home.  London picked the rainforest pyramid. 

these little tubes were my saving grace.  Inside the pyramid was so hot and humid but these tubes blew out cold air.  I wouldn't have survived without them ;)

 Of course London's favorite part was the butterflies and she even was able to hold one!

 OK, this is the freakiest pic.  Matt was trying to help Kinley touch a butterfly and I tried to snap a close pic of her touching it... well, her arm was directly behind his and it looks like he is holding a baby hand in his hand.  eeerie!!!

 going through the steam...

Kinley's favorite part of the rainforest was the smelly board.  Well, that is what we ended up calling it. There were 6 buttons on a board and each had a little sprayer (see by K's nose) and a picture of a rainforest plant (coconut, nutmeg, vanilla, cocoa, banana, and one other I can't remember).  The purpose was to push the button and make a scent come out of the little sprayer and try to identify it.  I'll just say that Kinley spent enough time smelling and going back to the board that by the time we were able to finally drag her (kicking and screaming) away from the board... she knew what each scent was and which plant matched the scent.  

Of course a failed attempt to get both girls smiling for a pic... sigh!!!

another tube blowing cold air... check out Matt's hair... that shows just hot hot and humid it was.  I'm sure it was extra hot and humid too with it being 100+ degrees outside.

We had a great time on our little trip and are ready for the first day of school tomorrow.  We are so glad we got to spend time as a family and that Matt didn't spend all weekend at the office :)