Weekend at Moody Gardens

Gavin had a CLE (continuing legal education) conference down in Galveston this past weekend so Emery and I tagged along. We had a fun-filled, action-packed, all-around amazing time and were so sad to see it end. I look a ton of pictures including LOTS of selfies of me and Emery (my apologies in advance). But we were just having so much fun and I wanted to remember all the wonderful things we saw so I snapped and snapped and snapped away. So prepare yourself for "The Great Emery and Tiffany Selfie Overload 2014." It might not thrill you, but these pictures will bring smiles to my face for the rest of my life. We had such a lovely time!

The conference is at Moody Gardens which is a huge hotel with tons of amenities, which Emery and I thoroughly enjoyed...as our selfies will attest. 

Thursday we arrived and Gavin went straight to his conference. We couldn't check in to the hotel yet so Emery and I went to the beach. I found this perfect little beach with hardly anyone on it (it helped that it was a Thursday afternoon), with super soft sand, no seaweed, and a long, gradual slope down to the water. It was perfect for Emery. We had a blast playing in the water and building "monsters" in the sand. 

Building "monsters"

I love the beach!

First of many selfies

Emery and I found a couple of these, the pink and purple was so vibrant in real life.
We put them on our sand monsters.

 Thursday night we were so happy to see Gavin and fill him in on our beach adventure. We took Emery to The Rainforest Cafe and she LOVED it. It's so fun to see things through your child's eyes. When the animatronic gorillas moved her eyes got so big and she just couldn't believe it.

I like this picture so I'm making it extra big. Outside the Rainforest Cafe.

 The next morning we tried to go on a bike ride together, but Gavin had to be at his conference at 8:30 am and Emery got to bed late so just Emery and I went. It was so beautiful. We rode for a few miles along the seawall and watched the waves come in and the sun rise in the sky. Emery LOVED it. I did too.

We actually don't own bikes anymore but Tobin and Whitney let us borrow theirs. I was so grateful, biking was one of my favorite things we did! 

Emery wanted to ride the bikes EVERYWHERE!  

Our morning view. It was breathtaking. 

We rode for awhile and I was feeling all proud of myself for how easy of a ride it was. I was going to keep going but Emery was ready to go so I turned around and headed back after 4 miles. As soon as I turned around I realized that the GUSTY wind had been at my BACK and that nice and easy ride was now much more difficult. Phew. It was a good little workout.

We started our Moody Gardens adventure with the Aquarium. I LOOOOOVE aquariums and this one was probably the best I've ever seen.

Inside the shark tunnel. They had lots of other fish too.

Some of the sharks in the shark tunnel. 

Emery making friends with the penguins. They also had some seals that were really fun. They would come up to the glass and swim around right next to it. 

Aaarrrgh matey!

So many fun tropical plants to see.

 After a few hours at the aquarium we headed to the Colonel Paddleboat for a ride along the bayou.

It started getting kind of hot so I got Emery a popsicle. She was pretty happy about it.

Next came the Rainforest Pyramid.

Just hangin' out

Emery loved these things and wanted pictures in every one.

It's hard to see but that's a scarlet Ibis behind us. It was the first bird we saw in the "rainforest"

You can see its cool beak better in this picture.

The Butterfly Room

There's a monkey on that fence...see the black blob? He was not cooperating for my pictures and was trying very hard to ignore us. 

I didn't get any pictures of Friday night, but as soon as Gavin was done with his classes we rode the bikes to a fun island restaurant and then played on the beach for a while. It was a FUN day.

Saturday morning we took it easy for a bit while Gavin finished up his classes, checked out of the hotel, and went and played in a park until Gavin was done.

Such a helper. 

 I really wanted to tour this place:

This is Moody Mansion. 

 Moody Gardens, Moody Mansion, the Moody's are kind of a big deal in Galveston. Unfortunately the tickets were sold out by the time we got there. But we walked around and saw a few tree sculptures that were carved after hurricane Ike destroyed a bunch of trees in 2008.

We also did a historical tour of Galveston that took us along all the old parts of town and talked about its history. It was super fascinating. There are these beautiful, huge, old, Victorian houses that have been around since the late 1800s. I should have snapped a few pictures. They were gorgeous. 

That night they had a huge art festival downtown with live music, free appetizers, and open art galleries to peruse. We had fun strolling along and looking in the shops. Then to top off the trip we stopped at soda fountain/ice cream shop for some ice cream cones. Emery DEVOURED hers. Look at that scoop. It's almost as big as her head! 

Yeah...she was a liiiiittle bit excited for her ice cream.

So was he. :)

 As you can tell from the length of this post, it was a full weekend. But one of the best we've had together. I wish Gavin could have been with us the whole time, but it was more than we usually get of him so we were happy. So, so happy.