Beach Time

We just got back from a wonderful trip to the beach. Papa rented a house in Galveston.In the past, we've gone to Gulf Shores, which we loved, but decided to try Galveston this year because it was so much closer. We left Friday afternoon, and it took us exactly 5 hours. With 2 kids, it was the perfect amount of driving time (which also meant more beach time)! We spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and half of Tuesday being beach bums.

Our house was great because it was big enough to fit all of us with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a large, open living area, and a big deck for us to enjoy our coffee! It was also about 10 miles down the beach from where all of the hotels are in a section called Pirates Cove. We were able to walk down a short walkway right onto the beach, and although there were other families around us, it wasn't crowded. Wayne, Charlotte, Nathan and I were there with Carrie and Baby Pearce (Chris was out of town for business) Jen, Alexandra and Robert, and Mom and Dad.

As soon as we woke up the next morning, Nathan was ready to hit the beach!

Nathan and Charlotte loved everything about the beach...the water, sand, waves...Wayne and I were so happy that they didn't care about getting sandy or wet. Nathan and Daddy worked hard to make a sand castle village that turned into a volcano for Spider-Man :) And when the ice cream truck came, they each picked out their favorite "character." Nathan got a Spider-Man bar and Charlotte got Dora. It was so nice to not have to worry about making a mess!

Pearce was the cutest and happiest Beach Baby ever! I think he might have cried once!

After having a full day at the beach, we had a shrimp feast and a birthday party for Aunt Jen. I couldn't believe it, but both Charlotte (my pickiest eater ever) and Nathan LOVED the shrimp. I think Charlotte ate more than her fair share. 

After stuffing ourselves, we spent the evening on the beach taking pictures and waiting for it to get dark so that Nathan could hunt for crabs! Papa gave Nathan and Charlotte their own little flashlight, a container to put them in, and a net. There was another little boy named Blake who was with his family doing the same thing. He was a little older than Nathan but was so sweet to him and loved "teaching" him how to crab hunt. 

The hunt itself was really entertaining for us to watch...we all knew how much Nathan wanted to catch a crab, and his Daddy was determined to help him get one! Nathan would spot one with his flashlight and then Wayne would try to cover it with the net. The only problem was that those crabs were so fast and darted all over the place! Wayne was diving left and right trying to get the net on top of them, and we were all dying laughing! I think he actually almost knocked Papa down trying to get one! 

Nathan and Pearce just happened (no we didn't plan it) to have matching outfits with the same plaid!

Nathan was so excited because he ended up catching several big ones! After looking at them for a while, he let them go...only to hunt them again the next night :)

The weather was really great the whole time we were there. The first day was pretty sunny.The next days were really cloudy, and it even rained off and on. But we loved it because the sun wasn't beating down on us . I put lots of sunscreen on Nathan and Charlotte, but I was glad I didn't have to worry about them getting fried! Plus they thought it was fun to be on the beach when it sprinkled on them! We didn't let anything spoil our fun!

Nathan loved feeding the sea gulls!

Nathan saw Blake again on the beach the next day, and this time he showed us how to hunt for hermit crabs in the water. Blake was a pro at it! We would be in the ocean swimming, and he would feel around for them under the sand with his foot, reach down and pick one up one after the other. I couldn't believe it! I searched and searched for the longest time before I found one! But after a while, we got quite a collection together.

  

On this day, we stayed at the beach until later in the afternoon and then took a drive around Galveston and even went on a ferry ride. Nathan thought it was the coolest thing to be able to DRIVE onto a boat! Once we drove onto the ferry, you could get out and walk around. The funniest thing was that right after all of us got out, I saw something "splat" onto Wayne's back...out of all of the people on the ferry, a seagull picked Wayne to use the bathroom on! The boat ride was really neat because we could see big cruise ships leaving port, and we even saw dolphins swimming! 

When we got to the other side, we drove off the boat and made a stop to get some drinks and snacks and then drove back on to ride the ferry back. It was a little longer of a line to wait in to ride the ferry back, but we had fun in the car playing with Pearce and letting Nathan and Charlotte out of their car seats. Charlotte even helped Daddy drive the car!

Nathan spotted dolphins all over the place.

That night, Mama and Papa kept the kids while we went out on the town! We went to a great seafood restaurant and sat out on the deck. Since Papa was paying (ha!) we went all out...we had drinks, 2 appetizers, an order of oysters for us to try, and the best dinners. Everything on the menu looked so good, it was hard to decide what to get. I ended up getting crab stuffed shrimp and absolutely "stuffed" myself because I ate every last one of them. It was so good!

Robert was visiting his dad so he didn't get to the beach until Monday morning. Nathan loved being with Alexandra and everyone else, but also couldn't wait for Robert to get here. While Jen picked him up and brought him back, we were already out playing on the beach. When Robert ran out in his swimsuit ready to play, Nathan was so happy! They boogie boarded together, made sand castles (Robert actually dug a hug hole that went to Nathan's waist when he stood in it!), buried each other...Nathan helped bury Robert but changed his mind about being buried when it was his turn, and just loved being together. 

The other fun outing we had was going to the pier where they have a big amusement park. We almost went the day before, but waited until Monday night so that Robert could come too. We played on the  beach the first half of the day and then went to the pier that afternoon. It rained on us during the first part, but  then stopped. There were lots of fun, scary rides but also plenty of things for Nathan to do too. My favorite part was the roller coaster. Even though it was a short ride, they packed every scary thing imaginable into it! You can see it in the middle of this picture. It starts out going STRAIGHT up, then it pauses on the top to get you totally freaked out and then, not only does it go straight down, it dips in a little so you feel like you are going to fall out! Then it does all sorts of twirly, upside down, maneuvers. It was crazy. I rode it twice, but Alexandra ended up riding it 5 times!

Nathan's favorite part was the bumper cars and playing the games with Robert and winning stuffed animals. On one game, Robert eneded up winning something but not Nathan. But Robert was so sweet and told Nathan to pick out which animal he wanted and gave it to him. 

When we got back from the pier, we had a taco dinner and then went back to the beach that evening. Nathan and Robert wore their suits but Charlotte had on a cute dress that Auntie Carrie had gotten her the day before. She looked so cute and I couldn't wait to take some pictures of her! She looked precious with her dress on and the wind blowing her hair. I got several great pictures of her "posing" but then she had enough. She saw Nathan and Robert playing in the sand and water and wanted to do the same. I didn't have her swimsuit so I just took her dress off, and boy did she love that! It was like she was free!

I love this picture of all of the grand kids. And I didn't even tell Nathan to pose like that! What a little cutie pie!

Tuesday was our last day, but we woke up early and went to the beach right away to get in one more half day. Nathan and Robert played football with Wayne, and we loved watching everyone have such a good time. 

  

We left around 2:00 pm and all Wayne and I did on the ride home was talk about what a great trip it was and how we loved watching Nathan and Charlotte have so much fun with their cousins and family. Thanks Mama and Papa for a great trip! Who wants to go crab hunting again next year?