San Antonio Roadtrip | Zilker Park

Valentine's Day weekend, the four of us headed to San Antonio for a weekend road trip.  We deemed this our 'last US hurrah' for a long time so we lived it up in the treat department.  Our first stop was in West, TX for kolaches.  Evsie's chose a cinnamon roll and Emma chose a maple pecan stick and Wes and I chose savory options and we were on our way!

The girls needed a break from the car (and I had ulterior motives which you will see tomorrow) so we decided to stop in Austin and let the girls romp around Zilker park.  And I am so glad we did- this might have been their favorite part of the trip!!

We had never been to the park before, but we googled it on our way down there and our map took us right to it!  The thing that the girls noticed first- the giant seals that they used for climbing!

Evsie's got on and looked quite timid at first,

and then let the seal take her for a joy ride ;).

My kids are like magnets for sand boxes- another family had brought all kinds of toys and they let the girls play with them.  We tried to help Emma build a castle, but without water we didn't have much luck.

And back up on the seals- they are meant for climbing, right??!!??

The park is up the hill from Barton Springs - a pool that is fed from spring water which is a huge summer attraction; with year round cold temps, I didn't think we would see anyone swim in there during February, but sure enough there were 5 - 10 people brave enough to swim!

We headed down to check it out- I love this capture of Emma, so happy to be running and free!

I equally love this capture of Everly.  I got her all crouched down as she was about to jump...

but instead of actually jumping, she just took a huge step off!  Love this shy, cautious girl of mine :).

We settled down in this rocky area where you still had a view of Barton Springs.

Upon checking it out, I knew that they were going to ask to go in the water.

So we took their shoes off and let them hop right in!

It was cold! and I didn't think they would last long than a couple of minutes,

but we ended up here for a solid 30 minutes and Emma continually begging us to let her go swimming!

We didnt have her swimsuit or floaties, though, so she had to settle for exploring with sister.

Their favorite thing to do was to find rocks and throw them.

I just love these two sweet girls!

They wanted me to come in with them, so I rolled up my jeans and got right in there.

Splish-splashing for daddy!

We taking splashing seriously ;).

Emma eventually fell down and her dress was a mess and all wet, but that didn't bother her one bit- we still had to drag them away from the water! My little explorers!!

After some insistent begging and realizing that we were really not in a hurry, we let the girls 'wing' before continuing on!

They both like to go high and fast!!

My three loves!!

After a seemingly long three hour car ride- the break at Zilker park is just what we needed :).