Finally made it to Brownsville!

So we finally made it to Brownsville on February 11th. I took the day off and we headed down with a heart shaped marble cake for my dad's birthday. The boys did great on the ride down and were so excited to see grandma and grandpa.

We immediately headed out to South Padre Island to see the beach. We stopped at the Sea Turtle, Inc. turtle rescue and saw all of the turtles in their hospital. They are so cool. They have this one turtle who lost three of her four flippers and they would normally have to euthanize them at that point because they can't swim. But they tried an experiment and put this prosthetic fin on her back and she is able to swim, it was amazing to see. As luck would have it the circus came to town. So we headed on over and met up with Ronaldo who is my mom's, cousin's, daughter's, son. So he and Hayden are some kind of second, third or fourth cousin, too confusing, but he is family and he and Hayden have struck up a little friendship. Ronaldo is quite fun, he loves guns, horses and spider man. All he kept saying was "Horses, horses, horses?"

So we started the boys off riding the ponies.

Then Hayden, Ronaldo, Turner and I got to ride an elephant. Quite an experience. Ronaldo kept saying, "I'm going to fall, I'm going to fall." We didn't fall, all was well.

Then on the way into the big top for the one ring circus they were painting faces. Ronaldo got his spider man. When they asked him if he wanted glitter he made this crazy face and fiercely shook his head. He is not much for a lot of word and he is a very stoic child, but a lot of fun. Turner got to be a puppy dog. And Hayden got to be his favorite a tiger. I took this picture while he was mad at me because I told him I wouldn't pay $12 for a sword that lights up. He is so picked on and has such a mean mom. The circus was okay, nothing to write home about, but the kids were entertained and they enjoyed the show.

We had another bonus during our trip, a small carnival came to town. So after the circus and after a great meal at Antonio's we headed over. By this time the only thing left on Turner from the face painting were the puppy eyebrows. We got the boys arm bands and they were off riding everything there was. They were running from one ride to the next together. Turner even got in on the action. He really liked holding his own tickets and giving them to the ticket taker (a little control freak just like his mom). There was one ride Hayden really wanted to get on. Ronaldo wasn't so keen on the idea so I decided to ride it with him. It is one of those towers that takes you really high up and then drops you. Hayden loves these things. I can't wait until he is older and is tall enough to ride on roller coasters. I need a roller coaster buddy. So we got on and got strapped in. And up we went. That is my dad with Turner in the stroller. And then we came down. We also found a dead bird in the back of my dad's truck. Craziest thing. Hayden is kind of funny about death and so he wanted to burie the bird. So we took it out to South Padre Island and dug a nice hole there for it and layed it to rest. As always it was hard to leave, but it was nice to get home. Can't wait to go back.