This last week we celebrated the end of the school year and my oldest sons 8th birthday. How in the world did that happen?! 8 years old!! If anyone can find some sort of a potion to make time stop, sign me up. These kids are growing up way too fast and I just can't handle it.

This is a first time visit to Texas for our family. I have had many friends move to Texas over the last couple of years and have heard so many fun things about it, so when a killer deal on flights became available we jumped on that as fast as we could. I was a sweaty mess while calling southwest worried that the flights were going to be sold out. Luckily it wasn't, so I booked it and cheered as I hung up the phone. Always a good feeling when you get a new adventure booked and save money at the same time. After the flight was booked to Dallas I began searching for all the fun places we could hit up along the way before we met up with good friends living in San Antonio. There are so many fun things to do in Texas, I feel like we didn't even skim the surface of it and we were there for five days. Our trip didn't start until late friday night so when we landed we got our rental car and headed straight to the hotel. Our hotel in Dallas was so fun. The NOLA hotel was a chic yet industrial style building with exposed brick behind the headboard and industrial piping throughout the entire room. The bed was so comfortable I could barely get Aiden out of it.

See what I mean:)

My boys loved these huge spinning chairs in the lobby that looked so cozy. Maguire jumped in it a few times and continued to spin around and around until we were both dizzy. This picture is a little blurry but I just love his little grin.

That next morning was Aiden's Birthday. We wanted him to have a special day so he got to choose what he wanted to do for the day as we made our way down to Austin. He was so excited to have the whole day to do whatever he wanted to do (within budget of course). The funny thing was he couldn't decide what to do. He jumped around from swimming, to a bon fire, to bowling, a cupcake, and the Olive Garden. Ha! So many decisions can make it tough. So we settled on Jamba Juice for breakfast which is a family favorite so we were all a little excited to find one in Dallas. Those smoothie bowls are seriously the best! After we grabbed our Jamba we loaded up and started our way to Austin. Along the way we made a stop at the Magnolia Market. Seriously people, if you ever get a chance to make it down to Texas, the Magnolia Market is a must see. The entire market is just so beautiful, actually the entire property is AMAZING. It is so family friendly and just so beautiful. The boys had the best time playing football on the grass, playing catch with dad, and swinging while I browsed around and wandered in the living garden on site. It was so fun to watch all these families interacting around us. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the Market.

After spending the morning and early afternoon in Waco at the market we continued on our way to Austin. While driving there my husband spotted a flooded swimming hole along side the freeway in this cute, quaint little town of Belton, TX. Lots of kids were sliding down the rocks through these rapids so we decided to give it a try. Aiden took one look at that water and said, "Thats what I want to do for my birthday!" We gladly obliged and proceeded to pull over. So glad we did, the water was moving at a good pace but not to fast for the kids to get pulled under. We laughed and laughed as we took turns skimming our bodies over the rocks through the rushing rapids. It was such a fun time, even Olive loved to splash around in the shallow water as the boys raced by. We spent most of the afternoon and early evening playing in the water and it was so fun.

After drying off and loading back up we rushed over to Austin to watch the famous bats fly out from underneath the Ann Richards Congress Bridge. The congress bridge shelters the largest urban bat colony in North America. Between 750,000 and 1.5 million bats fly out at dusk. There are some really neat videos you can see on youtube, however our video was pretty blurry so we were a little disappointed. The views on the bridge were so pretty though and we all enjoyed watching the kayaks strolling around while waiting for the bats to come out. The bats came out a little later than we thought so we decided to stay in Austin for the night but not before we hit up Aidens final request the Olive garden. They just can't get enough of those breadsticks and fettuccine alfredo.

Our view from the bridge while waiting for the bats. Isn't this so pretty with all the kayaks?!

An art wall to remember our little time in Austin. The boys are always up for a jumping photo which I love myself. We also drove around the University of Texas campus while we were there. Such a pretty campus and so fun to see all the Longhorn pride with the students and bystanders.

We got up that next morning and headed to our final destination in San Antonio. Wow, there is so much to see there. The River Walk is something that has been on my list of things to do so we hit that up first. We let the boys bring their scooters on this trip and it was a serious life saver. I was much more apt to walk around since the boys were loving the fact that they could scooter around so much quicker than walking. We walked about 1/4 of the river walk then decided to take a boat tour and I am so glad we did. It was fun to see the whole river walk and I enjoyed listening to the history behind it. I love the vibe of the River Walk. There are so many restaurants and shops to explore and venture in. I swear I wanted to eat every plate I came across, it all looked so good. After the River walk we made our way to the Alamo. So fun to see the grounds and structure of that building. It was really neat. We didn't stay too long since we were meeting up with some old friends from our college days. I just love their little family so much. My good friend is actually sisters with my "old roommate turned sister-in-law" who I just adore, so it was so fun to laugh and catch up like the good o'l days even after all of these years. I so wish we had more time to spend with them and their cute family.

One of my other favorite things in San Antonio was King Williams Historic District. In this District there are rows of beautiful homes that line the King Williams Street. They are absolutely beautiful! The architect and unique beauty of each of the homes was just breathtaking. Definitely one of my favorite, yet simple things we did in San Antonio. Here are some more photos from the trip. Enjoy!