Celebrating 8 Years of Us - Galveston Trip

Better late than never, here's the recap of our anniversary celebration this year!  I know I say this every year, but it's hard to believe it has been 8 years since we got married.

8 years, 2 precious kids, and lots of adventures later, here we are!

Since our anniversary was in the middle of the week, we made a weekend trip to Galveston beforehand AND had a date night on our actual anniversary.  I have been known to joke that our favorite thing to do in Galveston is board a Royal Caribbean ship, and while that is said as a joke, it is true that Galveston is not our usual weekend getaway place - San Antonio usually wins that spot.  This year however, we were a little extra exhausted, it's been a crazy year, and the thought of traveling only an hourish to our getaway was really appealing.  Then I realized that Galveston's Dickens on the Strand Christmas Festival was close to our anniversary.  Since I've thought that sounded like fun for several years now, but we never actually make it over to check it out, that sealed the deal.

We arrived Friday evening and settled into our condo for the weekend.  Grayson loved his cool bunk bed that was built into a cubby in the wall!  (And yes, I know what you're thinking... who takes their kids on an anniversary trip???  That would be us. :)

Saturday morning the kids were up bright and early, as usual.  So after a quick breakfast...

...we gathered up all our winter gear and set out for Dickens on the Strand.  I was soooooo excited about the cold weather!  We're talking highs-in-the-upper-30s-cold that weekend!  Not only did the cold weather make it actually feel Christmasy at the festival, but it made the "snow yard" feel more realistic!  Could not have asked for more perfect weather for our weekend plans!

The first place we planned to visit was the snow yard, but we got sidetracked when we passed by the BEST hand bells we've ever heard.  Seriously, this was amazingly beautiful Christmas music, never heard hand bells played so well.  When we made it to the snow yard, Grayson ran right in and had a blast playing in the snow.  Harrison insisted on joining him just on principle (Harrison's motto right now is "Me too!!"), and he was curious about the snow, but he was also cold & just plain not sure about the whole thing.  He kept saying "Me snow!  Me snow!", then a minute later it'd switch to "Mommy hold me!  Mommy hold me!"

By the time Grayson was finished in the snow, we were all chilled to the bone, so we browsed inside a few of the shops on the Strand to thaw out.  We spent the next few hours exploring the festival.  There were lots of people wearing fun historical costumes, carolers strolling down the streets, several musical groups and choirs performing, yummy food, and all sorts of crafts and art to browse.  I think all the Christmas music was everyone's favorite part.  Every group we heard, choral or instrumental, sounded great - I especially loved all the choirs singing Christmas carols on the street corners.

And another thing that was better because of the cold weather was the hot chocolate!!

Although poor Grayson spilled his hot chocolate all over the sidewalk right after this picture!

We had a lot of fun, but by mid-afternoon, both kids were exhausted and ready to call it quits... but there was one more thing we knew we wanted to see before leaving.... The Queen's Parade!  Grayson loved the whole thing, but especially the artificial snow they had shooting out from the tops of the buildings during the parade, and Harrison loved all the horses pulling the carriages.  It was a fun wrap-up to the outing before heading back to the condo for a little rest before supper.

As you can see, Harrison was more than ready for some rest after the parade!!

Since we got in after dark the night before and headed straight out to the festival, this was the first good look we had at our view of the gulf.

After a little down-time, we decided on Rainforest Cafe for supper, which was a new experience for all of us.  We had a blast!  The kids were thoroughly entertained by the animatronics and thunderstorms, and we could not resist the cake with "fireworks" on top.  Yum!

Both mornings, this is what we found when we got up...

He couldn't get Harrison out of the pack-n-play himself, but he could climb in & keep him company!!

The second day, we had planned to visit the heated indoor portion of Schlitterbahn, and we decided to go ahead with our plans despite the frigid temps...

And we all know a cold day at the waterpark calls for...

Christmas toesocks!! :)

Needless to say, it was not crowded!  We found out that Schlitterbahn is somewhat dependent on the sun for a greenhouse effect to help keep it warm in there, and not only was it very cold that day, but it was overcast.  We found it was warm enough to play, especially in the kid's pirate ship area - warmest spot by far - but it wasn't the advertised 80 degrees either.  Since it was warmest in the area that the kids most wanted to play, we really didn't mind and had a good time, and especially enjoyed the fact that we almost had the place to ourselves.  However, early afternoon they decided to close for the day early, due to not being able to keep it up to their advertised 80 degrees and so few people being there.  So this day turned out to be the best of both worlds - it was warm enough to enjoy a few hours of water play with the kids, then they also gave us vouchers for another day because of closing early - can't beat that!!!

Have I mentioned that Harrison loves Doritos???

Back at the condo, we snuggled on the couch for movie time, then had a little Lego time, thanks to a stop at the Lego store after Daddy's training in Houston the week before.

Monday dawned a dreary, rainy day, but it was time to head home anyway.  So we said goodbye to our view of gray gulf and boarded the ferry for the ride home.

When our actual anniversary got here, Mom & Dad had arrived for their Christmas visit, so we were able to go on a real date, including Olive Garden, a coffee stop, and a movie that was not animated!!  That is one of the longest date nights we've been on since having kids, and it was soooo nice to have several solid hours to reconnect!