Moody Gardens Part 1

This year we decided not to take any "big" vacations and just stay close to home. We thought Moody Gardens would be a great place to take Jackson and it turned out to be pretty much perfect!
We left Sunday morning made a quick stop at Panera to grab breakfast and then headed on down to Galveston. We want to arrive right around 10 o'clock because we booked the Explore package which meant we could use our tickets for two whole days. There was no traffic on a Sunday morning and we made it there in no time. As we pulled in we told Jackson we were at the beach and he said "I'm psyched!" Not sure where he got that from. We checked in and they said they would call us when our room was ready.

Jackson was all ready to hit the beach with all his new toys he earned from going #2 on the potty. Palm Beach was rather busy, but we found a spot for our stuff and started to play!

The hotel gave Jackson a goodie bag and it had dolphin goggles inside. Of course he had to put them on right away!
First stop was the wave pool. This easily could have been Jackson's favorite part of Palm Beach. He loved swimming in the pool and riding the waves.
Next, we checked out the water slides that Jackson could go down. At first he went down with us, but by the end he was Mr. Independent!

I think he liked going down with Daddy because they flew!

About a hour and a half later our hotel room was ready. While Brian went to take our things to our room and move the car, Jackson and I floated around the lazy river.

With Jackson on my lap and all the other people I really had no control over our tube, and we both had so much water dumped on our heads. My hat took a beating, and I am now in need of a new one.

After floating around a couple of times and shooting the water guns, Jackson and I went to play in the sand. Brian came back and joined us for some castle building.

Around noon we headed up to our room to change and eat lunch. Then we walked over to the Aquarium Pyramid. Jackson got to see them feeding the seals (which were huge by the way) and really liked the penguins.

He touched a sea star, lobster, and some sea urchins.

This picture was right before we walked into the shark tunnel. This was one of the coolest parts of the aquarium. Jackson got to see many fish and sharks swim all around us.

Stuck in the shark cage:)

Overall, we weren't overly impressed with the aquarium. It was fun going through it with Jackson because he thinks every thing is amazing:) He picked out a stuffed leopard shark and a screeching dolphin.

We left the aquarium pyramid and walked back to our hotel room to put Jackson down for a nap. Brian and I ended up taking a nap ourselves:) We all woke up refreshed!

Back to Palm Beach we went! We spent more time in the wave pool,

took Daddy on the lazy river,

built more sand castles,

buried our feet,

wrote letters in the sand,

and went down the slides! The beach was closing so we headed back to the room. We then decided to go watch the 4-D movie before dinner. We sprinted across the resort parking lots and made it just in time for the show. It was 15 minutes, the perfect length for Jackson, and fun, fun, fun! Jackson loved wearing the glasses and bubbles! I forgot my camera this night but remembered it when we went back.

By now it was way past our normal dinner time and we were all very hungry. Dinner was good and our server was nice, but the service was anything but fast. Good thing we bought the $6 screeching dolphin, it kept Jackson entertained while we waited!

We spent some time playing at the playground and walking around just killing some time until the fireworks started.

The fireworks were decent and Jackson enjoyed watching them. The best part was that we didn't have to fight traffic after the fireworks were over to get home.

Day one was a complete success with Brian and I having as much fun as Jackson!