Thursday, April 7, 2011

Family Vacation

This year for Spring Break, we packed the car and hit the road for San Antonio.  We were only gone a few nights, but we hit up two main attractions:  the Alamo and Sea World.  The plan was to get up early and hit the road before sunrise and let the kids sleep most of the way in the car.  Yep.  That did not happen.  Sure, we got the kids up early, but they did not pay attention to the part of the plan that called for them to fall asleep.  So everyone was awake the whole time on the way down (though I may have dozed off for a moment or five).

Our car is a little old-school in that it does not have built-in DVD players for the kids, so we had to entertain the kiddos the old-fashioned way, through lots of songs and stories.  Since we were en route to San Antonio, I figured why not teach the kids the good old Texas classics.  We spent a great deal of time singing Deep in the Heart of Texas.  I could not remember all the lyrics to Yellow Rose of Texas, but I managed to teach the kids a modified version.  We listened to Johnny Cash's version of Remember the Alamo a number of times, but I opted not to teach the kids the lyrics -- we'll wait until they're a little older.  Of course I had to regale the kids with the story of the Alamo (somewhat edited, of course, to accommodate the 3 year old and 5 year old in the car).  M was totally engaged in the history of the battle and was, of course, reverent when he entered the shrine.  I was very proud of my budding historian.

Overall the trip was a success - fun was had by all.  The ultimate highlight was the visit to the Alamo.  M and L had already seen it once, but it was Steve's very first time.  I suppose that makes him a true Texan now.

Ooooh look!  An old cannon!   
Yep, they're brother and sister.
Happy visitors!  Lauren was clearly still saddened by the loss of the heroes.

2 comments:

  1. Awesome! Thanks for sharing your refreshingly old-school trip...it made me smile. We could use more singing and story-telling these days. Perhaps we should encourage it in Congress. Hey, it worked in 1776! Noticing Steve's shirt: how 'bout them Rangers?

    ReplyDelete
  2. How 'bout them Rangers! Undefeated like the Reds (last I heard!) I'm so glad that the kids liked the history part of the trip. We knew they'd like Sea World (jumping dolphins, fun rides, funnel cakes), but we weren't 100% certain they'd care all that much about the Alamo. The historian and Texan in me is super-excited that the kids were super-excited about the Alamo.

    ReplyDelete