Our second day in Galvaston was a Sunday. We went to church that morning. It was actually a pretty cool, and interesting service. The congregation was celebrating the success of their prison ministry and so their prison minister and some of the inmates who had been released actually did the service. Everybody preached. Literally. The fellow in charge of leading singing preached a little before the song started. The guy who did communion prayer preached before the prayer. The one in charge of closing prayer preached so long that the minister stood up and asked if he planned to pray! :) It was really neat because they were all so grateful - and that's really what they talked about. Every single one of them giving thanks for the open hearts and support of the church. The funniest part was after communion there was some confusion about passing the plate for the offering. They never did that part of the service while they were in prison. :)
Anyway, church went a little long. Afterward we came back to the condo for some lunch. I had hoped the girls would nap but they were too excited. So we got ready and went to the beach. We stayed about an hour and a half. The girls had a lot of fun. We tried to build sand castles but Ava thought we were building them for her to smash.
Carli got a bit frustrated with her destroying the princess castles. So Uncle Danny and I distracted Ava by "making castles" for her to destroy while Carli and Keith built their own castle.
Here is a quick picture of their masterpiece before Ava came along and promptly stepped on it. :)
Ava is fearless of the water. It didn't bother her when a wave would knock her over. She just stood back up and went for more. We had to keep a close eye on her. She and her daddy went "way out" in the ocean to "jump" waves and had a blast. Carli was a bit more cautious but before the day was over she let her daddy take her out in the ocean too to jump the waves. Carli much preferred collecting sea shells. We came home with a bowlful.
The girls wore themselves out. It was almost five when we got back to the condo but it was so obvious they needed to nap. We gave them an hour and a half. Ava took full advantage...
It took some coaxing but we finally got the girls to wake up so that we could go back into Galvaston to eat at Pleasure Pier. Pa had told us we needed to make sure to eat at Bubba Gumps. I think we waited over two hours to eat. The girls were kept entertained by watching the rides and the ppl.
They didn't quite understand that they were not big enough to ride any of the rides. I told them that Pa would bring them back and take them on the rides when they were bigger. :)
I'm not a seafood eater. But Keith and Uncle Danny are and they said Bubba Gumps was very good. I only eat popcorn shrimp...and well I cover it in ketchup. So really my opinion on the food really doesn't count. :) Keith for sure got his seafood fix while we were in Galvaston b/c he doesn't get any at home that is for sure!
Keith and Ava with the big shoes.
Keith cracks me up. Every restaurant we went to, he and Carli would color. And when Carli got distracted and quit coloring, Keith did not. In fact, we brought one colored menu home to display on the art wall, in a picture frame.
Supper was good but it was late when we got done. It didn't stop the girls from checking out the boat sandbox before we headed back to the condo.
The girls were exhausted. They had had so much fun! One thing we are learning about having girls is how emotional they are. Carli and Ava were laying in their beds almost asleep when Carli rolls over, looks at me with tears swimming in her eyes and says, "Momma, I just need to see my baby Shea-shea." Out of no where, she totally is a basket case over not seeing her dog Shea for two days. It took lots of talking and promises before she calmed down and fell asleep.
The first words out of her mouth the following morning were, "I need to see my Shea-shea today." So Grammy sent us a text msg picture of Shea to assure Carli that all was well. Oh boy, something to look forward to. :)
