The beach house was just north of Galveston in Crystal Beach. It was nice to be away from the hub-bub that is Galveston Island in summer, but we still made several trips back there for fun!
It may not look like it here, but the boys loved the Ferry rides! There were a few crossings when they fell asleep and I tried to let them nap, but without letting the engine run, the car got pretty toasty even with the windows open - so that never lasted long. It was much nicer to get out of the car and watch the ships going by!
The kid fell down sooo many times on this trip. We met my parents at Starbucks one morning to retrieve Nonni (dad came down for a few days to spend with mom) and I happened to notice how bruised and scraped up his leg had gotten. This poor kid!
He even managed to add a few more after this photo...
I wanted to take them to Seawolf Park because I figured they would like the giant submarine and warship. I don't think they quite understood what the giant torpedo behind them was, but they acted suitably impressed!
They loved climbing through the submarine doors though! They were the perfect size for kids - us adults had a harder time at it than they did. Especially poor Josh, he is much to tall to ever serve on a sub!
The best part of the submarine was the air conditioning honestly. It was pretty hot outside (in case I haven't mentioned that before), but the sub was nice and cool. So nice!
The battleship, on the other hand, was roastingly hot if you weren't in a breezy and shady part of the ship. My kids didn't seem to mind all that much, but the kids that live in this heat year round were pretty done. We were all a bit confused about that turn of events. ;)
See this guy? Red as could be, but having a blast!
Luckily for all of us, a storm was rolling in! The temperature dropped to reasonable levels as soon as the clouds covered up the sun. So we wandered over to the park to play for a bit and then down to the dock at Seawolf Park to watch people fishing. The kids were super excited when this guy in the corner caught one and ran over to check out his catch.
But one kid was much too concerned with the lighting off in the distance...
He wanted us to leave as soon as possible! To be fair, it did start raining shortly after we got to the car, so he wasn't that far off.
We found this spot on the ferry after a few rides - there was a sitting area that was above the car deck, but not as high as the enclosed deck. It was shady, breezy and we could see all the ships going by. Definitely the best spot!
To my surprise, there was a Children's Museum in Galveston! It was part of the Bishop's House Museum and looked promising. So one of the days when the other kids all wanted to use the water slide again, mine kids opted to go check out the museum instead.
I wasn't sure to expect since it was in an old mansion, but it was pretty awesome! There were different themed rooms and everything from a play PIzzeria, fishing boat, art, building blocks and a health area.
Thomas was super excited that they had real tools to use and made his own little creation out of scrap wood, beads and some tiny nails. Then he used a hand auger to drill some holes in it. Not sure what it would be to most people, but to this guy it is a treasure!
I kept losing track of Henry and Nonni because it was a bit of a maze, but I managed to find him finishing up some art work. Also, not sure what this was supposed to be, but art is subjective anyhow. ;)
If you go to Galveston, it would be a shame to not get ice cream on the Strand! It took me forever to find a parking spot and I wanted to just write it off, but I had promised these two guys ice cream and they weren't willing to give up on it. Luckily we finally found a spot and finally got our tasty, tasty ice cream! Clearly the younger two were more interested in ice cream or people watching than taking photos - at least Nonni pays attention to me. :)