Our whirlwind week across Texas was deliberately planned to be before the second week of staying in one spot - a beach house on the Gulf Coast with Theresa and family. A week of relaxation with my bestie and both of our moms to help some with the kids? Perfect!
I was so stressed about the heat for this trip that I may have gone a little overboard preparing for it... As in I sent myself a snow cone maker to the in-laws house so we could cool down with snow cones. The kids didn't seem to think I was crazy at all and loved snow cone time!
Also if you look at the reflection in the window, you can see how close we were to the beach. Plus the house had this super awesome deck all around the second floor that was mostly shaded - perfect again!
You have to catch a ferry from Galveston to get over to Crystal Beach, so I also sent myself this Lego set for Thomas to build after our ferry ride. He, of course, found it last week and has been so excited about building it. As soon as we got there, I conceeded and he set to work constructing it!
Henry found this Bop-It game at Allie's house and loved playing with it. So, of course, she gave it to him. He loves playing with it while dancing around. He's gotten more points on it than I would have guessed, but he mostly just likes the music.
We even managed to go the beach! I know that sounds silly since we are at a beach house, but the cloudy days were our favorite days to venture over there. Otherwise we waited until super late in the day when it was slightly cooler.
The boys weren't super impressed with the waves on the first visit, so Thomas didn't even want to wear his swimsuit the second time. He pointedly said he wasn't going in the water, so why couldn't he go to the beach in his pajamas? Can't argue with that fine logic...
Also, Henry is totally pretending to be a bear and Thomas luckily realized that a bear was about to smash his sand castles and stopped the bear just in time. Ha!
Henry then wandered over to check out the hermit crabs the other kids had collected in the pirate buckets. And by that I mean it was mostly Theresa finding the hermit crabs. I managed to find one and got squeals of joy from Anna when I put it in her bucket! :)
This guy was just happy as he could be drawing in the sand and trying to build castles. And I bought him these super big Superman sunglasses because the transitions just weren't cutting it.
Don't they both just look like they are having such a good time? Henry did try a few rides on the knee board the first day, but he was pretty happy to just splash around in the surf and play in the sand today. Water babies, they are not...
Meredith was also all about playing in the sand. Theresa and I kept building her little castles with rocks and shells hidden inside because her favorite thing to do was destroy anything built out of sand. And it was way more fun for her when there were "treasures" to find!
The other kids had been talking up this awesome water slide down the road. Even though my kids aren't water babies, it certainly looked like fun and not that scary. So we went for it - I bought a ticket too, even though no other adults did. First ride down, Thomas and I rode together!
And he hated it and refused to go again... :(
Henry rode down with Anna while I waited at the bottom to make sure he didn't freak out when they got into the pool at the bottom. And he pretty much loved it. The two of us went down several times! I managed to get Thomas to give me one more try since I had figured out how to make it a little less splashy and twisty after a few rides. I promised an ice cream cone and he did exactly one more ride before quitting again... Oh well.
At least they look excited in the photo!
We brought our own mini-water sliding contraption with us and thought the kids would have more fun with that. Theresa's kids were ready to hit the ground running when we set it up, but my two had never seen such a thing before. Thomas was more interested in the mechanics of the slide than sliding at first...
Wallace was by far the one to get the most air, but I'm not sure he really liked the landing... "/
Henry kinda figured out the sliding on his knees at the end. Meredith and Henry would mostly run down it and fall dramatically at the end.
Thomas managed to get a few decent slides in. But he's totally posing at the end for me. :)
Then the kids pretty much gave up after a bit and just hung out cooling off on the slide. Henry didn't realize the girls had given up and was yelling at them to move. Good luck, Henry!
Popsicle time! We tried for awhile to get a group photo and this was the best we could do. They were close to all looking at the camera.
I was a total sucker for this frog hats when we went to the Rainforest Cafe. And Henry loved wearing his around. Pajama bottoms and a frog hat - he is one stylish kid! ;)
I didn't get very many photos with Nonni in them, but I swear she was with us and having fun! :)
The last day at the beach house, we pulled out the tons of water balloons that Allie had given us. They are the ones that have a cluster of 30 balloons and one connector for a water hose. It is soooo much easier than filling up tons of balloons! Even the adults got in on the action as you can clearly see the water balloon flying through the air that Josh launched at me...
Henry was most excited when the seal on the balloon wasn't that great and he could spray water out of the end.
This kid was risking serious payback throwing water balloons at mommy while she had her camera out. He is not yet aware that mommy thrown water balloons are a bit more accurate than the ones he was chunking...
Obviously, we had a blast at the beach house and thanks to the bestie and family for letting us crash the family trip to hang out with all of them for a week. Though I think we are basically family at this point, so maybe the better question is why this is the first year we got invited?? :)