Texas Vacation- San Antonio Pt2!

Every time I go to San Antonio I make it a point to visit at least one of the missions there. We have Missions

San Jose, Espada, San Juan, Concepcion and of course The Alamo.

I love the grounds so much, I feel as if I can feel something pulling at my soul when I am at the missions,

it's really a beautiful thing. This is where my Ancestors come from. 

If you'd like to read more about any of the Missions, you can go here.

My mom actually grew up on the grounds of San Juan but had to move when she was young because they were making it into a national historical site.

 There is also a  little house at Mission San Juan where my great great grandfather Julio was born.

On my father's side of the family, my Grandmother always told us that we were distantly related to the man who carved the Rose Window at Mission San Jose.

Here is a photo of the Rose Window, they were cleaning it up and restoring it that day.

Needless to say every time I am there I can feel the connection. <3 p="">

I was sooo happy to share this place with Sophie and Josh too!

This time around we went to visit Mission San Jose

I love this part of the wall, it's amazing to imagine that the stone building I've come to love was actually covered in this pattern and color all those years ago.

 Here is a look inside the church.

The Rose window from the inside

Surrounding the mission are many small rooms where the priests and Native Americans once lived.

This is a photo of their "kitchen"

This photo was snapped in a few seconds, their faces are hilarious!

I adore the trees that grow there.

Sophie reallly LOVED San Jose, she said that she really needed to find the King that lived there

(she thought it was a castle) and thank him for letting her visit, because it was so awesome!!

While in San Antonio we also attended The battle of Flowers day parade 

and the Fiesta Flambeau night parade.

I miss being around for Fiesta Time!

Sophie was in awe because Cinderella was there!

These horses are so majestic and gorgeous.

I couldn't believe the beauty and detail of work that went into the dresses!

This one was my favorite, it was styled after the Rose window!

Our little camera wasn't able to catch many photos of the night parade, 

There were too many moving, flashing or glow in the dark things and everything came out blurry, lol

After the day parade we had a lunch BBQ picnic at the park by 

the San Antonio river with some family.

Sophie of course promptly made some quick friends!

It was such a lovely day. I really miss Texas and all it's lovely greeness (is that a word, lol)!

Thanks for sharing some time with us!

Take care and God bless.

-Debra Lea

Texas Vacation- San Antonio Pt1!

The most beautiful music to my ears while in Texas was hearing my sweet little Sophie say, "I love San Antonio, Mommy!!" That warmed my heart so much!! San Antonio is my Home Sweet Home and I have been waiting to share this wonderful city with my kids for what seems like forever, but it's really only been since their birth which hasn't actually been that long of a wait, right?! hehe ;0)

We of course couldn't miss the zoo, this will always be my favorite zoo since it's where I grew up!

Sophie and josh couldn't pass up a chance to sit on a komodo dragon either!

Me and my husband Sher once saw one of these creatures in Malaysia, just crawling out of a water ditch and into a little neighborhood park lake! It was amazing and I was so glad to be up above it on a bridge looking down upon him. I will never forget his majestic swag as he climbed out of the water. 

San Antonio Zoo has this really great Butterfly exhibit, there are beautiful butterflies in there from all over the world! It's a magical place and I usually get lucky and have a butterfly land on me! 

This butterfly fell asleep on my shirt! I had to actually nudge it up and place it on a near by tree to enjoy the rest of it's nap. So sweet!

The zoo is full of all kinds of birds that are free to roam around and choose to live there.

 I dubbed this bird the "Sher bird" because it was sporting a hairdo similar to Sher's that day.

This bird and that nest were massive!

A little snack time

This was the bravest squirrel I've ever seen! He was sitting in the Lion's food dish and stealing the Lion's lunch!

I wish I was back there :0) The second I drive or fly away I'm already homesick.

Thanks for stopping by!! God bless.

-Debra Lea

Texas Vacation - Corpus Christi!

*Sigh* It was so wonderful to see the ocean again. We got to spend some time at the beach, Josh loved the water and Sophie did not because the "seaweed was disgusting." she said. haha

It was all good though because she quickly made a little friend to build sand castles with!

 While she played, we enjoyed all the different birds that came by to say hi.

A little hard to see here, but these were some pretty cool birds to watch! They were pelicans and it was so entertaining to watch them fish for their lunch. 

 Josh had a blast throwing seaweed, he was thoroughly entertained for quite some time!

 We even saw a human bird, lol

  After some time at the beach we checked in to our hotel and we were blessed with this lovely view!

Sher was up early while the rest of us snoozed away and he caught a photo of the sunrise.

On our second day we went to the Aquarium and then drove to Lake Mathis. Lake Mathis was my favorite place as a child, I hadn't been there since I was around 10 years old so I was so excited to see my special place again!

When we entered the grounds, I couldn't help but get teary eyed and I'm really looking forward to spending more time there again, hopefully soon!

I can't tell you how HAPPY I was to share this place with my husband and kids. It was wonderful!

Sophie promptly made friends with a cute and friendly duck that was there.

Joshie just wanted to dig into some snacks! This boy can eat!!

It was such a beautiful day and we stayed and had a nice bbq here before driving back to San Antonio. I wish I lived closer, I'd be here allll the time! :0)

Thank you for stopping by and letting me share a piece of our world with you!

God bless.

-Debra Lea

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Texas Vacation - Dallas!

We started off and ended our vacation in Dallas.

We have been wanting to visit there in hopes of maybe relocating someday!

We had about three days there, divided into one and a half at the beginning of our trip and at the end of our trip. In between Dallas we visited San Antonio and Corpus Christi, it was a lot of driving but it was a blast!

Here is Josh starting his day off with some salsa. People don't believe me when I tell them he LOVES salsa, so here's a little proof! haha

While in Dallas we got to visit the Arboretum, it was such a beautiful place!! I wanted to stay  longer but Our youngest Josh had other plans! hehe

My husband had the camera and he spent most of his time taking pics of the squirrels!! LOL

We sat here in the grass, looking towards the lake. I look forward to visiting here again, it was so beautiful lush and green, everything we don't have in the desert.

On our return to Dallas we visited the Ft. Worth Zoo.

Now, my husband loves squirrels  but I love Giraffes!!

They are so beautiful, I really didn't want to leave this spot, I could have watched them all day long!

Here is Sophie's favorite animal and she was over the moon when she noticed there not one but there were TWO baby elephants!

I forget the name of this bird, but he was big and interesting!

I enjoyed the lovely trees and all the nice shade at this zoo.

Notice that scary thing in the background!?!

Thank you Lord that they are not really that size!! Ewwww!

Beautiful big turtles, another family fave.

We departed Dallas in the afternoon so we snuck in some fun that morning and went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was a pretty cool place! It's downtown and by looking at it from the outside you'd never imagine what was inside! Our camera died while we were there but we got a couple photos in first.

Here we have a stork.

A gorgeous colored bird

In the middle of this place it was like a rain forest full of wonderful plants and animals such as monkeys roaming around. Before the camera died we took this photo of a really unique flower that was growing on a tree and of the kiddos staring at a verrry big crocodile.

Thanks for stopping by! I will share some of our San Antonio/Corpus visit in a few days.

Take care and God bless!

-Debra Lea