Father's Day in Galveston with the Fam

Well, we did it.  Our first good old-fashioned family vacation, with the ENTIRE crew.  Look out Griswald's, here we come!

We live about an hour from Galveston.  It's great because we can go for the day or make a short trip out of it.  It's not the prettiest beach, but there's a lot to do and it's fun for the kids.  Though on this particular trip we were more lazy and didn't see too many of the sites.

We couldn't check into our condo (we are no longer regular hotel people since we have to sleep 6) until 4pm so we headed to Moody Gardens.  There is tons to do there but we just went to the Aquarium.  The kids really enjoyed it, and the little girls were happy to get to walk and not be in a stroller.

In different sections they had skeletons of different sea animals, this one being a seal.  Kaitlyn and Mackenzie thought it was really cool. Here is what they had to say about it.  "Look at these skeletons! They belong to a seal!  Yep, definitely a seal....or a dinosaur."

Unfortunately our great aquarium trip ended on a bad note.  Kaitlyn INSISTED on bringing her beloved mini-schnauzer Pepper into the aquarium and ultimately let Reagan hold it.  We discovered before we even left that it was gone.  No one ever did turn it in.  What a shame.  Perhaps a lesson learned, though probably not.

Here is the view from our condo:

View #2:

Getting the girls to sleep was going to be a huge challenge since the little girls had NEVER spent one single night away from home before.  My first girls were such terrible sleepers that we became jaded and refused to travel with the next two up until now.  Here they are all testing out the pull-out couch where the big girls slept!

 

So we brought pack n plays, which they slept OK in the first night, but they took some warming up to.  Reagan was so sad and kept crying "I want to go home."  But somehow we got her finally happy enough to go in.  Once she went in then Ashley decided it would be okay.  And it was. They only woke up once, but then the next day discovered the big girl beds were much better where they remained the rest of the nights.  Unfortunately getting them to sleep was nearly impossible.  It took about 2 hours each night.  They were really wild and of course, as any 2-yr-olds would do, they would NOT stay put.  And Ashley was a complete nut - creeping in on me, getting 1 inch from my face to see if I was awake I guess, thrashing wildly about. You name it.  Reagan would just follow her lead.

But onto the next day....beach bound!

First Ashley and Reagan had to get used to the sand and the waves.

Then Ashley had fun throwing seaweed into the water.

Kaitlyn spent an eternity looking for "treasures" on the beach. I think she should either grow up to be a detective or an archaeologist as this is all she does EVERYwhere we go.  I have to get onto her for picking some of the things up that she does but she just LOVES it.  Definitely a collector!

Big sister looking out for little sister.

This is fun!   (Reagan's new word.)

Happy girl, even though she hates the salt water!

I just think this is funny.  Is he posing?

Mackenzie did a lot of digging in the sand.  I think she was looking for shells.

Kaitlyn showing off her finds.

Again being the big sister and bringing Reagan back to the fold.

The start of a sand castle.

Reagan found this mound of sand and seemed to really enjoy knocking it all down.

More shell collecting.

Now they're both in on it.  They were finding lots of teeny tiny shells.  Butterfly shells I thought.  Then as they were sitting there a wave came in and dumped hundreds of more shells literally at their feet!  Cool!

Until we got a closer look.  They were all alive!  Kind of neat but also pretty gross in my opinion. If you look closely you can see these kind of clear/white things sticking out of all the shells.  So their beautiful collection had to get dumped back into the ocean. Oh well. They had fun.

Close ups....

Snack time...

No salt water bothering Kaitlyn...

...a little freestyle in the ocean.  If only we had clear waters.  I asked her if she could see anything.  Nope, just brown.  This has nothing to do with the oil spill, just the way this part of the Gulf of Mexico is.  You get into Florida or the very southern part of Texas and it starts to look much better.

Yea Mommy!

Wave jumping!

Mackenzie and I worked hard to build this sand castle. It was the one thing she really wanted to do.  We even had a little mote going.

Finally, we got our baked bodies off the beach and headed out to dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  This one is really neat - there is this really cool river ride that we took while we waited.  The kids loved it!

Reagan was a little unsure about this snake though.  Yet she wanted to go back and say bye to it when we left. 

How many gorillas do you see in this picture?

Next day, beach again.  I personally could have done without a second day at the beach.  Once a year is enough for me but I guess that IS why we were there.

Okay these next 3 pictures are so cute I just can't stand it.

This is how the little girls walked back from the beach.  They stayed holding hands the whole way.  This first picture I think I'm going to blow up and have framed.

Still going...

How cute are they?

Daddy and the big girls...

Ahhh, finally the pool.  Now that's where I like to be.  I actually love to hang out at a really nice pool that overlooks the beach.  I like the sights and sounds of the ocean, but not the feel!  No sand for me but I love the relaxed beach atmosphere.

Ashley riding piggy back in the baby pool.

Just chillin, waiting for her pizza.

We mustn't forget snacks.

Cool pool.

And I love this one too!  Sisterly love and summer fun at its finest!