Galveston '15

From June 7-14, we had beach bliss!  Each year, Daddy rents a beach house for our families to enjoy in Galveston.  He was planning on renting the same house that we rented the past two years on Pirate's Beach, but that fell through and he was so afraid it was too late to find a nice house big enough for our families.  Well, of course Daddy found one and it was PERFECT!!  It was even better than the others and we all just loved it!  The kids especially loved the bunk bed room :)  Plus, the house was decorated sooo cute!  It was just a short walk to the beach...and even shorter with the cool golf cart Daddy got us.  We got there Sunday afternoon and we all could hardly wait to just head on down to the beach!  Pearce, Nay Nay, and Charlotte had the best time playing on the beach.  We all just loved watching them play.  The salt water didn't bother Pearce one bit, either!  He wanted to get out in the waves and he would let the waves splash us.  He also loved playing in the more shallow water with Nay Nay and Charlotte.  At one point, Pearce and Nay Nay started wrestling in the water and Nay Nay would push Pearce down and Pearce would kind of go under the water and then stand up.  Pearce LOVED doing this and Nathan though it was just the funniest thing.  I kept thinking how does he not mind going under in the salt water, but he cries bloody murder when I wash his hair in the bathtub?!?!  Each morning, we would get our suits on and head down to the beach and stay for several hours.  Dad has a big canopy he put up which is great for the shade!  Then we would go back to the beach house for lunch and then head back to the beach for the rest of the afternoon.  Now THAT is a perfect day!  When we came back home in the late afternoon, the kids took everything off and took their showers in the outside shower which was in the garage.  That was the perfect set up for them!  We got them all nice and clean and into clean clothes before they even stepped foot in the house.  They would play while Ashley and I took our showers.  Then we just hung out, ate junk food, and waited for mom to have dinner ready!  We just cooked at home.  It really was so nice to just enjoy being with everyone.  Jen and Robert and Allie came Monday afternoon.  Robert brought a big shovel and dug the biggest hole and trench!  The kids loved "helping" him dig and Pearce loved sitting in the hole....when he sat in it, only his head showed!  On Wednesday morning, we went on a dolphin tour.  Right off the bat, we saw lots of dolphins!  The boat ride was about 45 mins long.  Pearce liked seeing the dolphins, but he also liked walking from the front of the boat to inside the boat to sit with Nay Nay.  After our boat ride, we went back to the house and went to the beach.  Then that evening, we all decided to go to Pleasure Pier to ride the rides and Pearce finally got to go for the first time!  He LOVED riding the rides and was sad when he was too short to ride some of the bigger ones.  BUT, Auntie Jen came to the rescue and said he would take Pearce and Charlotte around to ride the smaller rides while the "big" kids rode the bigger rides.  So, me, Ashley, Allie, Robert, and Nay Nay went off to ride the scary rides!  We all had so much fun!  Pearce and Charlotte said their favorite ride was the swings.  They rode it 3 times in a row!  Pearce always rode with someone, but on the 3rd ride, Charlotte decided she was brave enough to ride all by herself!  On Thursday, afternoon, Chris and Wayne finally made it down to spend the rest of the weekend with us.  The kids were so happy to have their daddies to join in the fun now!  They were quick to start a little football game on the beach and Pearce happily joined in on the fun :)  I loved having Chris there to see how much fun Pearce was having at the beach and in the water.  By this time in the week, the waves got really big and so much fun to play in!  Chris would take Pearce out in the water and I would go further out with Robert and Nathan and we would dive in the waves.  LOVE big waves to play in!  Crab Hunting!  Oh my goodness, this is such a fun thing we do each night while at the beach.  Nay Nay is the "Crab Hunter Expert!"  I am the "Crazy Crab Hunter."  We would go as soon as it got dark, armed with our flash lights, crab nets, and crab box.  One night, we caught over 13 crabs!  When it was time to let them go, we would all shine our lights on the ground and let them go.....actually, I would open the top of the crab box and pretty much throw them at everyone while yelling "Run for your life!!!!"  We got it on video and it is hilarious to watch everyone scurrying about :)  On Saturday night, we gave Dad our Father's Day gift which was a gift card to Cabella's and then me and Ash and Chris and Wayne got to enjoy a nice, quiet dinner out while Mama and Papa took care of the kids.  We ate at Landry's and had such a good seafood dinner!  When we got home, the kids were totally passed out the couch!  We were all sad to leave on Sunday morning :(  Beach fun is the BEST fun!  Thank you Mom and Daddy for giving us such a fun week at the beach....go ahead and get that house rented for next year...ASAP!