Cory’s Birthday Weekend Celebration

Cory turned THIRTY a few weeks ago, but the timing of everything just didn’t allow us to really “celebrate” the way that I wanted to. So I decided to plan a fun weekend getaway for us to celebrate a few weeks later! Enter: this past weekend.

I planned everything and left Cory completely in the dark about what we would be doing or where we’d be going. He had no idea, which I loved! He continuously told me that just spending some time together as a couple would be more than enough for him (so sweet!), but I definitely didn’t want to disappoint him. I know how it feels to be so excited about something and then it miserably failing all of your expectations. I did not want that to end up being the case here. And thankfully, it wasn’t! 

We headed out on Saturday afternoon and arrived at our hotel in San Antonio only an hour and a half later. I had tricked Cory into thinking we were headed to Fredericksburg, so he was surprised when I pulled into the parking lot of a hotel while only in San Antonio. A win for me! He was thrilled and could not wait to see what the rest of the weekend had in store for him. We grabbed a late lunch, did some shopping, and enjoyed a nice dinner out (something we haven’t done in I don’t even know how long)! We decided on the 54th Street Grill and Bar that was right next to our hotel. Originally, we had debated on something like Outback Steakhouse or Olive Garden, but we wanted something different – something unique to where we were. Neither of us had heard of this restaurant, but after we googled the menu, our minds were made up! Just look at those fried mushrooms – and those drinks were divine! Well, mine was. Cory got the “painkiller” and wasn’t a huge fan of all the combined flavors.

After dinner, we enjoyed an evening/night of peace. No dogs or crying/fidgeting/fussy baby. No responsibilities and no one/thing needing our attention. It was glorious and just the refresher we needed! Seriously blissful.

Sunday morning, we took full advantage of the hotel’s breakfast bar. It was glorious to wake up, head downstairs, and eat to our hearts’ content! We didn’t have to prepare the food, take dogs outside, or tend to Landon before focusing on our growling stomachs. Hello, beautiful morning! After watching coverage of Hurricane Irma and enjoying our breakfast, we headed back to our room, packed up, and headed out for a fun-filled day at SeaWorld’s Aquatica!

Cory was so excited! He is an avid lover of waterparks – actually, ANY body of water.  I swear he was a fish in another life…but I digress. We arrived right at opening at 10:00A.M. to be sure to enjoy the entire day doing whatever it was that he wanted to do there. Of course, we did everything! I honestly didn’t expect anything less. Every single ride was ridden at least twice, and we were huge fans of the lazy river. I was also thrilled with the weather! Thankfully it stayed around 85ish degrees most of the day, which made for a blissful water park experience. Not too hot, not too cold. It was perfection – minus the temperature of the lazy river. I don’t know why, but the water for this attraction was ridiculously cold. We definitely didn’t let that stop us, but wow was it cold! And they have several waterfalls plus a section that shoots streams of water (14 to be exact…) overhead, which meant we dreaded that section every time we came to it because it was SO COLD after enjoying a lazy float soaking up some sun in the other sections of the attraction.

I’m not much of a thrill-ride kind of girl, but I sucked it up and went along with everything Cory wanted to do. His favorite ride was Walhalla Wave. The description from the website:

A first of its kind in North America, this family clover-tube ride sends guests soaring through watery waves to the top of a zero-gravity wall, giving riders the sense of weightlessness.

Umm, my heart was about ready to jump right out of my chest while we approached this particular ride. I agreed to it, but I was nervous, to put it lightly! The tube fits 4, so we were able to ride together, just the two of us. Cory had to ride the whole thing backwards, and I thanked God it wasn’t me because I’m fairly certain I would’ve arrived at the bottom of the ride as a lifeless corpse! Obviously, I lived to tell about it, and we actually rode the thing a second time because OF COURSE it was Cory’s absolute favorite. On the way home I asked him what his favorite part was, and he didn’t even hesitate before saying the Walhalla Wave. *sigh* He loves thrills and water and he was definitely in his element!

We finished the day by participating in the Stingray Encounter. It was seriously amazing to watch Cory feeding and swimming with the stingrays. He was fascinated and had a permanent smile plastered on his face the entire time! We were able to touch, swim, and feed cownosed stingrays (with the barbs trimmed off). There were also a few eagle rays in the tank that swam by on occasion during our encounter – those things are massive! And beautiful. I’ve swam with stingrays before on a cruise, so I mostly soaked up Cory’s joy. I seriously loved watching him! Don’t get me wrong, I also touched and fed the stingrays, but my favorite part was just watching him and his reactions. He was in paradise.

We really enjoyed ending our day with the stingrays! It’s such a weird feeling to have multiple stingrays sucking on your legs at one time. As soon as they realized you had food for them, they’d swarm you and start sucking. Their mouths are on the bottom of their body, so it was such a bizarre feeling! They definitely don’t know anything about personal space and will grope you up like no one’s business. But I absolutely loved doing this with Cory and having this memory to hold on to for forever!

Afterwards, we were ready to head home and take a much-needed shower! We talked about the weekend all the way home, and it was definitely a big hit with Cory. He wasn’t disappointed in the least and commented multiple times that he was so thankful for all the effort and thought I put into planning the weekend for him to enjoy. I absolutely catered it to what he’d want, and he loved every minute of it. Cory’s 30th birthday weekend celebration was an absolute success!

Happy 30th Birthday, Cory! I am so unbelievably thankful to have gotten to celebrate your birthday with you in such an amazing way.