Port Aransas Vacation

So how did our first family vacation of the year go?  First, after a much longer drive than what it should be (stops with kids take forever, so does the scenic route that hubby wanted to take), we finally reached NaNaw and PaPa's house, dropped off our dog, and got to see Mike's Granny.  We're hoping to go see her a little more often now that we can travel with the little girls.

After a brief visit with Granny, NaNaw took the kids to her garden and they picked plenty of tomato and okra.  (Guess who made fried okra for the first time this week?)

Then we were off to our resort.

The next day we started off at the beach.

Same song, second verse.  You know what I mean. We go to the beach once a year. The pictures are starting to be of the same thing, just slightly different locale and slightly bigger kids (though no less cute!).

The girls did some....

shell collecting...

digging in the muddy sand...

kite flying....

wave riding...

Kaitlyn buried HERSELF this time in the sand...

running along the beach...

and sand castle building (something we are not really good at in our family).

We ate at a lot of really good, interesting, often slow restaurants...

Ran all the way through a shark, which apparently ate my children...

Braved the water slides...

Ate some more...

And that was all just Day 2.

Day 3 we were back to the beach.  That's when I start getting tired.  But there was a little more playing in the water...

Kaitlyn attempted riding the kickboard.  I think there is a reason why people use boogie boards because the kickboard didn't really work very well...

We fed the seagulls.  That was fun for about five minutes til they started attacking us and getting aggressive. Mackenzie and Kaitlyn chased them off and they moved onto some other victims.

More sand castle building...

Mike found an already-made trench that gave us a much better start this time...

Topped off our day with the girls' first try at miniature golf.  Mackenzie seemed to enjoy it the most.  Ashley wanted no part of it. She just wanted to climb on all the rocks and give mom a heart attack by running ahead and scaling dropoffs that stood over a little creek that run through the mini golf place.  It is also very hard to teach 4 children all at once how to putt, when you are worried about what at least two of the others are doing.  Just as you give one a little guidance, you find your eyes scanning the area around you for the others and then realize a golf club is swinging an inch from your head.  Yes, I said "head" people.  I can't tell you how many times I said "This is not a baseball bat!"  Patience, patience.  Oh, but I DID get a hole in one!  Whoot Whoot for me!

Last but not least...last day...

Ashley learned a new trick...diving off the steps onto the kickboard. Amazingly in two days swimming I taught both girls to go under the water and even glide to me unassisted. (This from not being able to blow bubbles!) I was impressed.  

Now Ashley dives into the baby pool every day at swim practice and I am taking turns giving them each swim lessons while the big girls are in swim team.  I'm amazed at how fast they are picking it up and thankful that they are not afraid to learn.  Not to mention they are actually listening to me and cooperating!  What is that all about?  The big girls would in no way let me teach them to swim! I had to pay an arm and a leg to get them up to speed.  Oh well.  All's well that ends well.

It was a good vacation. And like many moms would agree, I came home and needed a vacation to recover from my vacation! No such luck, but at least I'm sleeping in a bit since we don't have to go to school.  

So it's summer.  Enjoying it for what it is.

Oh!  And funniest moment of the trip!  Kaitlyn went into the bathroom to change into her pj's. All of a sudden I hear "Oh no! My shirt fell into the toilet!"  Sure enough - guess who got to go fish that out of the toilet that nobody had bothered to flush?  

So then I ask her HOW did she drop her shirt into the toilet?  

Her response: "I didn't DROP it. It just fell!"  

Me: "Fell from what?"  

Her: "My hand."  

Mike and I just cracked up!!  

Then she said "And don't go emailing that to everybody!"  (In other words, Facebook, blog, etc.  Hey, this isn't emailing, right?)