Alice's 3rd trip to Padre was the most fun for her yet. When she was 9 months old....she couldn't really enjoy it. When she was 18 months old, it was cold and windy, so not alot of beach time. This year, at 27 months...with beautiful weather, she had a blast.
We arrived early evening on Sunday. After a 6 hour car ride, we were all tired, but Alice was great on the car trip down. She really is a great traveler. We settled in for the evening, had dinner and watched DVD's. Alice went to sleep and slept better than usual.
The next morning we got up and lazed around the condo for a while. At some point we piled in the car and went to McDonalds for breakfast. After breakfast we decided to take Alice down to the beach.
We tried to put her swimsuit on her, but she would have none of it. She wanted to wear her blue dress and was not going to be dissuaded, so we relented and headed down to the water.
She was tentative about the sand at first, but within minutes, she was running around and heading for the water.
Alice ran up and back with the surf, she stomped and squeeled with delight, she kicked over sandcastles, ran after birds, collected and tossed seashells into the water.
It was so much fun to watch her. We repeated this every morning we spend in Padre. Mornings were spent on the beach and afternoons were spent lazing in the condo.
Tuesday evening we decided to venture out of the condo and went to Pier 19. We decided to try and eat dinner there since it was outside and not crowded, so Alice could run around if she wanted to.
Alice sat in mamma's lap and ate cheese sticks and then took fried shrimp out of my hand and proceeded to eat several bites...including the tail!
It was one of our more enjoyable dinners out with Alice in current memory.
We headed back to Austin Wednesday afternoon, knowing Patra's twins could be born any day and hoped to get some time at home before heading to Dallas for their birth (which btw happened the next week on May 4th)
This is my favorite picure from the trip. Her exuberant joy is so apparent!
Over the past few months, it had become very apparent that Alice has an opinion....specifically about what she wears. Most mornings are a fight with tears to get her dressed because Alice only wants to wear 1 of 3 Alice-approved dresses.....and there is a ranking to which dress is her favorite, second favorite and third acceptable dress. (#1 is "My Pink", #2 in "My Blue, and #3 is "My Lello"
She also is very specific about her shoes. She hates new shoes. Alice has to be the one to pick out new shoes because if SHE does not pick them out, you are never going to get them on her feet! Her favorite shoes are her "blwown shues". Since she started walking we have bought her the same style Buster Brown shoe. She has had this specific brown shoe with a velcro strap and a butterfly cut-out for 5 sizes. 
The last pair I bought were a size 8, and when I went to buy the new shoes, I found out they are now discontinued. Luckily, I found the last pair in a size 8 on the clearance rack. I looked to see if I could buy the same shoe online, but it really is discontinued and could not find any larger sizes to pre-buy for the inevitable time she outgrows the size 8. I forsee a traumatic event in my future when Alice needs new brown shoes.
