Vacation, Part 3

The last leg of our trip was to San Antonio, where we didn't visit family at all but focused on doing the normal touristy things. We started off in the Japanese tea garden, a lesser-known corner of a huge park that also includes the zoo, where we spent the next morning. The garden is beautiful and perfect for pictures.
Here's the waterfall in one corner.

A picturesque bridge

And another picturesque bridge and the pagoda in the background.

Unfortunately, the garden was a little less than stroller-friendly. There were stone steps everywhere. That was tons of fun with Patrick. He hadn't had a nap, so he screamed anytime he didn't get his way. And since he wanted to be moving every single second, it was tough getting good pictures of him.

So here's one of the better pictures of my three boys; it is one of several pictures that document their progress over the bridge. Patrick wouldn't let them actually stop for a picture. At least they got to slow down.

Then Matt hijacked the camera, and I'm glad he did. I think he ended up with better pictures of me and the boys than I've seen in a long time.

I really like this picture where you can see all the beautiful foliage in the background. You can also see Patrick tugging at my hand to keep moving, a common posture for us this day.

The only time I could get Patrick to stop was when I kneeled down to show him the fish in the water. He actually stayed like this for a long time watching the fish. He told me, "I see fishies," and then helped me compare the big fish and little ones, and fast and slow fish. This was definitely my favorite part of the visit to the garden, without a doubt.

The next day we headed to the zoo. It was super hot, and humid the way it only gets in central and east Texas. We were glad we chose to go in the morning, and even then we only stayed a few hours. Here are a few of the animals we saw; I chose most of the pictures I did because they were the ones whose names Patrick tried to say.

This bear showed off for me. Patrick said it more like "ba."

He also really liked the flamingos. I can't even begin to write how he said it phonetically. You kind of had to be there to hear how cute it was.

This rhino was right up next to the wall, showing off for all of us watching. Patrick easily said rhino for us but stumbled over rhinoceros a bit.

After attempting to say ostrich, Patrick gave up and insisted it was a duckie. Matt and I agreed to compromise with him that it was a big duckie. Really, that's pretty smart, isn't it? He made the connection between the birds even when they looked totally different.

Surprisingly, he said elephant quite clearly. Matt and Patrick stood watching this guy for a long time.

This is how Patrick spent much of the day at the zoo. The rest of the time he was holding one of our hands. We were impressed with just how much he walked at the zoo. I'm sure I tired out long before he did.

And this is how Nathan spent much of the time at the zoo. I don't blame him. It's not like he could see much of the animals anyway. He'll have a lot more fun the next time we go, I'm sure.

I don't have any more pictures of our vacation, but we did have one more exciting outing. Of course we meandered up and down the Riverwalk for a while that evening. By the time we stopped to eat dinner on the Riverwalk, Patrick was starving and ate more than Matt or I did easily. He didn't act at all tired of walking, either, but he didn't argue when we let him take Nathan's spot in the stroller for the walk back to the hotel.

Overall, it was a really fun vacation. I like that we split it up into time spent with family and time spent creating memories with just the four of us--well, five when you include Amber. Still, it's nice to be back home in a routine again.