We promptly unloaded, ate, visited with our condo-mates, then repacked to head to the National Seashore about 8 miles away, through Texas grasslands and endless sandy dunes. What a gorgeous, well-maintained beach! Lyla immediately ran to the water and played in the sand. Flint seemed pretty excited, too, and soon took to crawling straight through the wet sand and along the tapering breakers in just enough depth for his hands to splash a tiny, satisfying "smack, smack, smack..." He was particularly fond of the salty water and kept sucking on his fingers or our shoulders. It was kind of tricky trying to keep sand out of his mouth.
The following day, Nonna, Mia and her family arrived. We spent the rest of the week with them, Luke's childhood friend, Geoff, and his fiance, Ileah, making several trips to the seashore, visiting souvenir shops, going to their favorite seafood restaurant (Black-Beard's!), riding Les' boat around the canal, fishing (not me, but Luke went out one morning at 4am!), Rock Band at night, and having loads of fun together!
Lyla had a blast on the beach with her cousins. Each one was buried and made into a mermaid, they sifted through huge piles of tiny clams, let itty-bitty snails stick to their fingers, built sand castles and drip castles, hunted for sand crabs, searched for seashells, dug holes, buried feet, jumped over waves, floated on the "up-and-downs," had sludge fights and rolled around in the dunes. We saw a coyote creep along in broad daylight and one evening just at dusk watched several deer wandering at the crest of the dunes. And among our most treasured discoveries was, of course, a vinage television set! No one could be sure where it came from, exactly, but it was one of those things that was just perfectly out of place. Obviously, we made the most of it and pretended to watch it, change the channel, rearranged it, etc. Not to fret, though! After we moved it and took photos with it, we returned it to its natural habitat over in the vines by the dunes. We wouldn't want to harm the ecosystem!
Our favorite moments were those spent on the beach, of course, and one day in particular when Luke, the kids and I left first thing in the morning to have a day to ourselves. It was fraught with gnats and evil green-headed-bitey flies to begin with, making for a frustrating start (you may recall a certain bug-friendly 3-year-old who does NOT like flies thankyouverymuch), but as the sun lifted higher and the day grew hotter, the pests disappeared and we enjoyed our time there. There was a long tide pool perfect for little people to splash in, lots of interesting driftwood to explore, and soft sand for optimal toe-burying. We snacked from our cooler, played in the waves, built a sand castle complete with swimming pool, played in the waves some more, applied and reapplied and re-reapplied sunscreen, and Lyla was awarded a Wilderness Explorer Badge for her superb skills in Defecation Under Natural Conditions (someone pooped in a hole and buried it (proudly)). Unfortunately, we ran out of sunscreen midday and our literal day-in-the-sun had to come to an end. I have a very strict policy against pink children.
One night, we surprised Nonna with a mini birthday celebration on the beach, complete with windblown decorations and even a cake! Other trips to the beach were made, mostly later in the day, for shorter lengths of time. There were also adventures in the "party cove" along the canal behind the house, where the guys did some water-skiing, and we all explored the mud-flats. At one point, Flint sat directly on top of a crab. Fortunately the little guy didn't get him, but we found his attitude toward Flint to be most humorously crabby. Lyla and Flint both enjoyed the boat rides. In fact, I probably would have enjoyed them a little more if they enjoyed them a little less. I had to keep a pretty tight grip on that girl's life-jacket straps! And Captain Photo-lady snapped lots of 8-month pics of Mr. Flint just before he turned 9 months old.
And alas, Luke had to return to work, as did Les. And Geoff and Ileah had to venture back west. So Sunday morning, all departed and the kids and I had a day of "rest." There was much movie-watching, snacking, vegging, and quiet relaxing... but also much laundry-doing, general cleaning and bed-making, as my sister and her family were due to arrive that evening!
By this time, the drill was starting to wear on me. I was beginning to feel like I needed a vacation from my vacation! We had a few more trips out to the seashore and one photo adventure (part of Gia's Mother's Day gift) gone completely awry due to a few impossible youths and a very impatient photographer. We stopped in a gorgeous field of tall, colorful grass, wherein there was much complaining of heat and itching and a certain 9-month-old refused to part with his mother (also the camera-woman) and a certain 3-year-old who acted so completely like a 3-year-old, completely engrossed in her own little happy world.
There was also a stop at the beach, wherein Lyla promptly ran into the ocean and soaked her cute cotton dress, Faryn panicked everytime she had to look somewhere sunny (ha!), Flint desparately wanted to crawl around on his own or be held ONLY by Mama... and no one did anything they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it. Except Rain, of course, who could very easily make a living as a model. Thus, the best photo from that evening was one of everyone's backside.
Our last day at the beach we spent with Aunt Shannon and the kids. There was a very still, clear tide pool, where we were able to watch some fishies up close and even fed some (some complained about the lack of guacamole for their tortilla chips). There were also many, many seagulls hanging out nearby... waiting for something interesting to happen. So, I would occasionally walk by the girls in the tide-pool with their faces in the water and casually drop some crumbled up tortilla chips. They would only notice the birds when they were hovering at an uncomfortable distance, and in abundance. Faryn and I got a kick out of taking video of the older girls as they would panic and frantically scamper to try to shoo the gulls away. I'm still not sure whether they knew I was the culprit!
The original travel plans for the return trip involved the kids and I tagging along with my sister and her family to San Antonio for a visit to Sea World. However, I was both ready to be home and completely disagreeable to the idea of trudging through a theme park with an umbrella stroller (containing a baby) and a strong-willed 3-year-old in blazing 110-degree heat. So, I decided we would cut our trip a couple days short and head home Wednesday. I was pretty nervous about driving 7+ hours alone with the kids, but we actually managed pretty well. We left super early again, had to make lots of stops and get really creative about using disgusting gas station restrooms (umbrella stroller to the rescue!), but we did it! We left at 5am and arrived in sunny Colleyville at 2pm. That's right. We stopped to see Gia and Pap before even making it to our own home. That's how much we missed them!
All in all, it was a great trip! We are looking forward to seeing more beach next year!
The following day, Nonna, Mia and her family arrived. We spent the rest of the week with them, Luke's childhood friend, Geoff, and his fiance, Ileah, making several trips to the seashore, visiting souvenir shops, going to their favorite seafood restaurant (Black-Beard's!), riding Les' boat around the canal, fishing (not me, but Luke went out one morning at 4am!), Rock Band at night, and having loads of fun together!
Lyla had a blast on the beach with her cousins. Each one was buried and made into a mermaid, they sifted through huge piles of tiny clams, let itty-bitty snails stick to their fingers, built sand castles and drip castles, hunted for sand crabs, searched for seashells, dug holes, buried feet, jumped over waves, floated on the "up-and-downs," had sludge fights and rolled around in the dunes. We saw a coyote creep along in broad daylight and one evening just at dusk watched several deer wandering at the crest of the dunes. And among our most treasured discoveries was, of course, a vinage television set! No one could be sure where it came from, exactly, but it was one of those things that was just perfectly out of place. Obviously, we made the most of it and pretended to watch it, change the channel, rearranged it, etc. Not to fret, though! After we moved it and took photos with it, we returned it to its natural habitat over in the vines by the dunes. We wouldn't want to harm the ecosystem!
All in all, it was a great trip! We are looking forward to seeing more beach next year!
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