{Away at the Bay: 2013}

My family made the annual pilgrimage down to Galveston to my parent's bay house in early June.  We have done this now for three years (2011 and 2012) and every year it gets better and better as the kiddos get older!  I feel so lucky because we always do it the first week of June, so I get to celebrate my birthday with my whole family and down at the bay.  It is pretty awesome!  This year, I turned 32 and I was counting my blessings...especially after four days of family fun. We stayed three nights and packed a lot into our days.  We fished, went to the beach, swam at the local pool, cooked delicious food, went on the boat and relaxed.



 Luke immediately took to the ocean. 

He and Ben loved pointing out all the birds, boats and jellyfish they saw in the water!

 

Luke went fishing for the first time with his granddad (my father) and on his second cast, he caught a fish!

 

 He was a little unsure about it, but was super proud!  We named him Jasper the Fish. 

 

Luke finally felt brave enough to touch one of the fish that my dad caught.

 

Ben got to fish too!

 

We got a visit from the ice cream truck!  You never saw a family move so fast and haul downstairs when we heard the familiar music.

 

These kids were super happy with their treats!  As were the adults :). 

 

And what comes after sticky popsicles, a BATH.  It was very much needed!

 

The mornings were spent feeding the seagulls which the boys loved doing!

We headed to the beach one morning and, to my surprise, it went very well.  With small kids, lots of sand and tons of stuff to carry and set up, I had low expectations.  But they did great!  Luke LOVED the water and we had trouble getting him out of it.  They played in the sand, we went on walks, looked for seashells and splashed in the waves. 

 

Uncle Day-Day buried Luke's feet in the sand and he thought it was so funny.

 

 

The kids hanging out and snacking in the golf cart while the adults got all the stuff from the beach.

 

Sandy feet!

 

 We had delicious food every night.  We were there three nights and we decided each family (my parents, us and then my sister's family) would each take one night to plan the meal.  Our night was a shrimp boil and watermelon!  Nothing beats corn, potatoes, sausage and shrimp...

 

We only went out on the boat once.  We decided to hold off a bit because the kids have to wear life jackets on the boat and well....this happened A LOT when trying to put them in life jackets...

 

But finally we got them all in one without too many tears and we headed out!

 

 

 

Luke loved driving the boat!  I am thinking next year all the kids will fight over this spot. Luckily this trip, Ben and Molly were blissfully unaware.

 

The kids also "painted" downstairs.  Amazing how a bucket of water and a bunch of paintbrushes can entertain this bunch!  Good think because they were hungry and melting down and dinner wasn't quite ready.  Tada!  This little project bought us easily 30 minutes.

 

  The kids loved playing on the deck!  These two crack me up!  How cute are they?!!

This was the sunset on our last night.  It was beautiful as always and put the cherry on our trip!

We all came home exhausted, but loving the memories we made.  The kids did well, but had their moments.  We all didn't get that great of sleep.  It monsooned one morning with rain and winds that could scare a grown man.  But it was wonderful.  I can't wait till next year!  Although we will have one more in the mix -- my sister's new baby BOY due in October!!!