Another Holiday Season...

It happens every year, and it goes quickly every year. The boys had a great Christmas, with an overabundance of presents to scatter around the house. It definitely hasn't been a white Christmas in Texas, though it has dipped down into the 50's a few times... I know, almost arctic weather. We took a little trip up to Austin and San Antonio to see some Christmas lights and a few other things, but before that we got a few holiday shots of the boys. Hopefully everyone's holiday was as happy and bright as ours!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Thankful for Turkey Day

The holidays are upon us! It's always hard to believe when we get to this part of the year, because it always seems like it all flew by so fast. This Thanksgiving we stayed in Texas and were visited by Grandparents from Missouri! The weather wasn't always the best, but we did get out to do some of the usual things. I finally got to hike over the Harbor Bridge, something I'd been saying I was going to do since we moved here but hadn't ever gotten around to. I figured I'd better get to it, because the new bridge is already under construction and the old one will be gone before long. It was an easy hike, but a pretty good view from the top. We also made the drive to San Antonio so the older ones with us could check out the Alamo, a must for anyone visiting Texas. Here are the highlights:

 

Gotta have Whataburger...

 

The view from the top...

 

Now they can remember the Alamo...

Tricksters & Treat Eaters

Halloween has come and gone again. There seems to be an overabundance of candy in the house... at least for now, since I'm sure it won't last long. This year we had Slender Man, Spiderman, and Venom in our house. And of course, there was pumpkin carving, because there's always that. The weather was fantastic and there were plenty of porch lights on and candy handouts. Can't beat that.

Looking more like a hero than a villain...

Definitely a "slender" man...

Eat it until you're sick...

USA vs. Mexico

These days there's a lot of talk about the border, but I guess that's actually been going on for a while. As in, ever since there were people living in Texas. While we were in Brownsville a few weekends ago, we stopped by Palo Alto Battlefield, pretty much the only battlefield in the United States related to the Mexican American War of the 1840's. After the Texas Revolution (Remember the Alamo!) and subsequent annexation by the United States, Mexico believed the southern boundary of Texas to be the Nueces River (here in Corpus Christi), but the United States believed the boundary was farther south at the Rio Grande. Of course fighting broke out, mostly taking place near Brownsville, before the rest of the war was mostly fought in Mexico. There wasn't a lot at Palo Alto, but there were some hiking trails, a nice visitor's center, and obviously some cannons.

Check it out! A cannon!

 

Only a little bit of sprinkling on an otherwise nice day...

Farther South on Padre Island

Padre Island is the longest barrier island in the world, the second largest island by land mass in the United States (after Long Island), and it stretches from Corpus Christi almost to the Rio Grande. We've spent a significant amount of time in Port Aransas, Mustang Island, North Padre Island, and the Padre Island National Seashore (which are all basically the same island), but we'd never ventured down to South Padre Island, which is generally regarded as the nicest beach in Texas. So it was about time we did. We went to Brownsville first and checked out the zoo, then hit the beach in the evening. Honestly, it wasn't all that different than North Padre Island and all those other names they call it, but it was definitely more developed. There were a lot more condos, restaurants, hotels, and of course, people. We ate at a pirate themed restaurant and had to hit the beach for a while.

The zoo was surprisingly pretty big... but it hadn't been updated in a while. In a lot of ways it felt like taking a step back in time to the early 90's... but they did have a lot of cool animals.

A couple of strange looking fellows...

And a couple more strange looking fellows...

Cooling off in the October heat...

Avast, ye land lovers...

Beach life

Please don't throw sand... Nolan... NOLAN!!

Life's not so bad on South Padre... hope it's still sunny and warm wherever you are!