We were very lucky in that on Saturday morning they had the first release of the season of baby sea turtles on South Padre Island. We got up at 5:30 to call the informational number to find out if they had hatched the night before. When we found out that they had, we headed over to South Padre to see them being released at 7:00 am. There was some condensation on the lens in this picture, but thought I'd post it anyway.
Got there a little early, so Colin and I walked on the beach looking for shells.
The turtle rescue volunteers roped off an area on the beach so that the turtles could be safely released.
There were 3 nests that hatched. Over the just over 300 eggs, 287 of the baby turtles hatched. They were brought down to the beach in coolers.
The volunteers were great about carrying some of the turtles around to everyone so that we all got an up close look at them. They were even smaller than I had imagined, and very cute! We weren't allowed to touch but got really close to them.
Then they released them all, and they headed down towards the water.
These little guys were the fastest of the bunch. Here is the first one heading into the water. They walked down really close, and then it was like they stopped and just waited for a wave to come pick them up.
They would get carried into the water, and you could see them start to paddle. They were so cute!
Colin was with me, and then Ciara was in a spot a little bit away with Boo Boo. She was a little tired because it was early and a little shy because of the crowd.
There were a few stragglers in the group, so the volunteers would pick them up and try to "wake" them up a little bit and then set them back down. Here Colin is waving to one.
Ciara loves turtles normally, but she wasn't quite sure what to make of this little one :)
After seeing the turtles, we grabbed some breakfast and then headed to the beach for some play time. Later in the afternoon, we took the kids to Build-a-Bear at the Brownsville Mall because it was too hot to be outside. Ciara chose a monkey, and Colin a snow leopard. We still had the gift certificate that Tina sent the kids for X-Mas, and Boo Boo covered the rest.
Stepping on the pedal to get his snow leopard filled up.
Giving his leopard a bath.
Ciara's favorite part was giving her monkey a "bath".
Colin picked out a very cute outfit for his snow leapard. He named her "White Cloud".
Ciara was very happy with her monkey. She walked all around the store with her.
That evening, we did a little fishing behind the condo. I caught what we thought was an eel at the time. Then a couple days later, Uncle Peter saw a picture of it on a poster in a restaurant, and we discovered it was actually a Cutlass Fish. It was definitely one of the meanest looking fish I've ever seen. Uncle Paul said it looked "prehistoric", and that fit perfectly. We all got a good look at it, then we cut him loose.
We went down to Laguna Vista in south Texas to visit Boo Boo & Grandpa and have a mini-family reunion with Tai Boo, Uncle Peter, Aunt Brittany, Ella, Blake, Uncle Paul & Lisa. We got there Friday afternoon. This is the kids doing some fishing off the boardwalk behind the townhouse we stayed at. We just had them sit in the stroller rather than worry about them being on the edge of the walk without any railing.
Playing a serious game of Pokemon :)
Didn't get as many pictures as normal this visit. Time flew by and we were out and about a lot of the time. We will be visiting them down in South Texas next weekend, though, so will be sure to get more pics then.
Boo Boo, Tai Boo, Blake and Grandpa visited for the weekend. Colin had a lot of fun playing cars with Blake.
Kids went in the sprinkler again on Monday afternoon. They're favorite game was to fill their watering cans with the sprinkler and then water the grass. Ciara still didn't want to go in the sprinkler so she got Colin to fill her can for her the first couple of times. Then I convinced her that she needed to do it for herself. So, she slowly inched her way into the water, then decided she liked it.
On Sunday morning we went for a hike at Barton Creek Greenbelt in Austin. It was a really pretty hike, and had some really cool rock walls.
A neat snake I spotted at the base of a rock wall along the trail.
Colin wanted to post on top of this rock
Got the kids this new sprinkler. As you can tell, Colin was very excited to try it out. Once again, Ciara wasn't so keen on getting sprayed.
Look at my muscles!
Mommy & Daddy even ran around in the water
On Saturday morning we took the kids to the Wild Connections Butterfly Farm. This is the butterfly house. It was really neat with water running through and lots of flowers and butterflies. They provided pieces of cantalope so you can lure a butterfly into your hand.
Ciara really liked the fish and the turtles in the water
There were a couple hiking trails going through the woods on the farm grounds. This was was the first hike where Ciara walked the whole thing by herself (1.3 miles). She had a good time picking up rocks. Daddy and Colin walked up ahead a little bit, and I walked with Ciara, so I ended up with more pictures of her.
Butterfly along the trail
Took the kids to Perdernales Falls State Park. Back in our A&M days, this used to be one of our favorite spots but haven't been back since then.
This is a spring that we checked out.
A baby turtle we spotted in the water. We also saw a couple of baby snakes along the rocks, but didn't get a good picture since they were pretty quick to hide away in a rock crevice when we approached.
We spotted a cave, so Colin & I checked it out. Daddy had Ciara on his back in the pack, so he wouldn't fit.
We spent a lot of time just climbing over rocks, checking out the water, and of course, playing in the sand.
Then we did some hiking on an actual trail. Along the way we stopped for the obligatory snack.
After the hike, we went to a swimming spot in a different section of the park and let the kids play in the river. Colin and I walked in the river a lot to find semi-deeper spots to play in. He liked finding what he called the "wavy zones" (small rapids) to sit in.
We took the kids to the San Antonio Zoo on Saturday. They had a lot fun. There is a really cool area just for little ones, so we spent a lot of time there. Unfortunately, it started raining so we couldn't try out the water part, but we'll check that out next time.
We continued our sampling of Central Texas BBQ with a stop on the way home in Lockhart to try Smitty's Market.
The next morning we went hiking with Uncle Tony, Aunt Shana and Gabe at the Ft Worth Nature Refuge.
Taking a snack break
Running with Uncle Tony
