Day 6 & 7: Enjoying Family & Fun

On Wednesday night Weston and his Mom and Dad came down to spend a couple of days with us on the beach.  The girls were so excited to get to play with "Baby Weston."  Thursday morning we headed out to the beach for some more fun.  This was Weston's first time to see the ocean - he was more interested in all the dirt!  It took a little encouragement from his Daddy before he decided that the waves and the water weren't so bad after all.  If you added in a bucket and shovel, it was a little boys paradise!

 

 

 

Every time a wave would come this would be the look on Weston's face...

 

Carli and Ava become pros at the whole beach thing.  Carli got pretty good at using her boogie board.  She didn't even need any one's help to catch a wave!

Ava got really good at building a nice sand castle, with Pappy's help, and then demolishing it in no time flat!

Keith had bought the girls a princess kite and we finally got it out at the end of the week.  Carli and Ava got a real kick out of watching it fly!

And then the girls got a little mischievous and Pappy was a good sport to act surprised every time they poured a bucket of water over him!

We cooked out on Thursday and Friday night.  We had steaks on Thursday night.  Turns out whoever had the house before us must have put char coal in the gas grill b/c it had flames going everywhere.  Ron even hunted down a fire extinguisher to take outside just in case!  Surprisingly the steaks turned out really good!  But on Friday night when it was time for dinner we opted to go over to Uncle Danny's condo and use the grills there.  The kids had a lot of fun in Uncle Danny's place and remembering that we were there last year.

Grammy was a good sport and let Carli fix her hair before dinner one night.

 



We had a great time on our week long vacation and enjoyed all the various family that got to come and go throughout the week.  It was pretty cool to sit Mom up in the back room with her sewing machine so she could sew (one of her favorite things to do) and listen to the ocean.  Keith read more than one book and I actually got some random things done too.  I'm pretty sure Naggy and Pappy were worn out from all the constant entertaining they did with the girls, but the memories made were so worth it!  It was a great week and we are blessed to have gotten to share it with everyone!

Day 5: A Day in Galvaston

We took a break from the beach on Wednesday and spent the day in Galvaston.  Our first stop was Pier 21 and a dolphin watching expedition.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was not expecting to get to see that many dolphins!  We had a lot of fun spotting the dolphins in the harbor!

If you look close you can see the dolphins riding the waves in front of the boat! 

Ava really wanted to go to Chick-fil-a for lunch and we thought we had found one but it turns out Galvaston doesn't have a Chick-fil-a...boo!  We settled for the Rainforest Cafe where Carli was quick to ask if we could get the lava cake like Uncle Danny got her last year!  This kid's memory is amazing!  We got seated in an awesome spot - we could see almost the whole restaurant.  Ava really enjoyed the fish...here's her fish face with the added benefit of a pose.

Not to be left out, Naggy & Carli showed us their fish faces...

After lunch we headed over to Moody Gardens to check out the Aquarium and catch a 3D movie about the Monarch Butterflies.

Carli admiring a sea turtle.  She and her Daddy saw one on the beach last year, this was as good as it got this year - but she got a closer look! 

I think Ava was amazed...

So was Grammy, they let her touch a real star fish...

And being the best Grammy/science teacher ever, she helped the girls touch it as well!

The 3D movie on the Monarch Butterflies was pretty awesome.  This was the first movie the girls had seen in a movie theatre.  They did a really good job of keep on their glasses.  The best part was watching them try to catch the butterflies - too bad we couldn't capture a picture of that!

After our movie we decided to head over to Uncle Danny's and then grab a bite to eat before calling it day.  But first, we did manage to get some family pictures...proof that I was on vacation with everyone!

Pappy & Naggy with the girls

Grammy & her girls.

Day 4: It's Another Beach Day!

Tuesday morning we were quick to get out to the beach.  Uncle Tone and Pa were having to go home after lunch and we had to squeeze in a little more beach time just for them!

Oh yes, Ava even thought she could pull me into the waves!

A pretty cool picture of the girls with Naggy, Pappy and Uncle Tone jumping waves. 

 

 

After a morning at the beach, lunch and naps we were all pretty lazy and did a whole lot of nothing the rest of the day...it was glorious!  :)

 



Day 3: A Day at the Beach!

We wasted no time on Monday morning heading out to the beach after breakfast.  We had seen a lot of ppl driving on the beach so we decided to investigate where they were finding the access road.  We found it about 0.5 mile down from our neighborhood and set up shop in our own little remote section on the beach.  It was a pretty awesome morning of doing nothing but playing in the waves and sand!

Carli & Pa had a good time splashing water and chasing each other through the surf!

Ava really liked the water, but she really took to working on digging in the sand.  She really enjoyed destroying anything someone else had built!  She had a nice evil laugh to go along with her Godzilla act!

Ava is losing her baby face, but in this picture I managed to prove that she still has a little baby still left in her!

Carli & Grammy worked hard on packing their bucket full of sand.  Grammy was getting it nicely packed in and Carli kept adding a little bit of water when ever Grammy wasn't paying attention.  When it was time to dump out, it was kind of stuck in their bucket!  They did a little too good of a job packing!  Pretty sure it was the added water that defeated the plan!

The girls "falling" into the waves.

Uncle Danny convinced Grandma to let him drive her out on the beach.  The girls were so excited to see her and put on quite a show for her in the water!  We couldn't convince her to get out of the truck b/c we didn't have any shade for her to sit under.  It was still a really cool thing that she got to come out and see what all the fuss was about.  :)  Kudos to Uncle Danny for going the extra mile to make two little girls happy!

Here the girls are showing Grandma how fast they can run through the water. 

Carli & Naggy were having quite the conversation!  It's a little bright but I had to post Carli laughing at whatever it was that Naggy was telling her!

Uncle Tone jumping waves!

 Ava pulling Carli into the water...Grammy had to help a little!

Carli did do her share of pulling too - we were not sure how Ava could be comfortable in that position but it never failed that's how she would get on when it was her turn to get pulled!

After naps, we headed to Seaside (I think) to a little Mom & Pop fish place.  I don't eat fish but everyone that did said it was yummy!  :)  Ava was quite social and made herself comfy talking to Uncle Danny about her day.

These two have a very special relationship.  It was fun to just sit and watch them interact.

We ate dinner a little early so when we got back to the beach house the girls went outside to play with bubbles Grammy had brought them (or maybe they played in the bubbles before we went out to eat...I can't remember!).  I think I should invest in one of those automatic bubble machines b/c Ava is more interested in popping the bubbles than blowing them!

 

It became a nightly game for the girls to use their extra balloons that Uncle Danny got them to entertain everyone (you know since the Rangers weren't really playing decent ball that week anyhow).  The girls would get the balloons blown up and come hand them to you untied and giggle hysterically when the air came out of the balloon and caused the balloon to fly away.  Keith actually managed to capture Ava's pure joy laughter...it was priceless!