We woke up Sunday morning and checked out of the hotel. The kids loved riding on the luggage cart! Ha!
After church, we met our great friend Cate at SEALIFE Aquarium. Our friends hooked us up with free tickets here too! Amazing!
He was super excited!
Hypnotized
Cate and Caroline checking out the fish. I snapped this picture from the other side of the tank. So fun!
The sting rays fascinated the kids! Tobin loved them!
"Hi Mom!"
Family photo inside a fish tank... but not really! Ha!
Sweet friend! I love you Cate!
Cate and Caroline hand-in-hand walking back to the car.
Cate and her amazing mother opened up their home for us to stay one more night in Texas! The kids had a favorite place to eat snacks- the kitchen counter! You can definitely tell we were on vacation! *wink wink
Cate got out lots of her childhood toys for the kiddos to play with while we were there. Caroline loved her AmericanGirl Dolls. Cate suggested we go to the AmericanGirl store. What? The actual store? I always wanted an AmericanGirl Doll when I was a little girl, but back then you had to order them from a catalog. I had no idea there was an actual store now! Can you guess what we did next?
Yep, you guessed it! The next stop was the AmericanGirl Store!
She was so excited to arrive, but elated when she found out she could pick out any doll she wanted! Cate told the store about our "tragedy" and they welcomed us with open arms!
Tony snapped this photo when Caroline was deciding which one to pick out for herself. What a fun memory!
She picked out one that looked like her. She named her "Lizabeth" after a sales clerk that gave Caroline all of her free goodies. It was all her idea, too. She asked, "What's that lady's name mommy?" I told her and she immediately replied, "That's what I'll name my doll!"
Can you tell they have matching dresses on? Can you say spoiled? Wow!
She was hugging Cate and thanking her for her sweet surprise!
What a fun memorable day for us to share together. It was a dream come true for me too!
Thanks to some giftcards, we couldn't leave Tobin out! He got a fun surprise as well!
My kids also got to taste In-n-out for the first t1ime! My childhood California favorite! Tobin said it was the "Most Awesomest Cheeseburger ever".
It was Cate's first time to try it too!
We had a great time as a family at Cate's home. We got to swim in the pool, and got a good nights rest before the ride home the next day. Monday, we woke up and headed to Ikea. This is where the miracle happens. We finally found couches that we could agree upon, that looked nice and were affordable. Have you tried to buy furniture lately? It's been so hard for us! Since we had a minivan, we thought we'd try to fit them in the vehicle to drive home, and safe $300 delivery cost. We did it! Well... I think the Lord did it! We fit a Couch, a love seat, an Ottoman, two storage units for the playroom, a play kitchen, and two rugs in this minivan! How is that possible you ask? Like I said, it was a true miracle! We were all seat-belted in and safe and comfortable too! Wow!
I need to say another HUGE thanks to our amazing friends who put this trip together for us. Thank you to Cate, and her sweet mother too! We could not have done this trip without our amazing friends! The Lord's timing in this was wonderful. We will always have the amazing new memories and photos of our first family vacation together- just the 4 of us! Such precious memories!
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