The Beach: Wrap Up Post...Finally

No,  we didn't go BACK to the beach...it's just taken me a month to get back to this post.  I finally decided to just finish it...and maybe I can finally start blogging about our daily goings on again...

  On Thursday, we hit the beach again (this time with even MORE SPF70, because Norah was still a little pink from the first trip)

 You might not be able to tell from this photo, but according to Norah, it was "Ariel, sitting on a rock, singing 'Part of Your World'"...

 I think she's reviving her sun-dried tail in a bucket of water in this one. 

 Eli loved digging in the sand.  More accurately, he loved digging in the sand and then throwing it through the air...busted him on that about 30 times that day.  (And yes, he had sand everywhere imaginable when we bathed him...especially in his hair, from all the projectile sand)

 Both kids loved the water and when they were in it, naturally stayed in close proximity to one another.

 That is, until Eli decided to call up a flock of seagulls with a wayward peanut butter cracker.

 They swarmed  him, as seagulls tend to do.  And he spent the good part of 45 minutes (literally) trying without success to catch one.  It was hilarious, and I wish I had a good photo of him stalking them.  The gulls really played with him. They wouldn't fly, just walked a little bit ahead of him, taunting him, as if he could catch them if only he were a little bit faster.

 Playing "jump the wave" was another favorite activity of the day.

 Posing with dad along the shoreline...

 I loved this photo of Eli sitting alongside of Jason.  When he first walked up and sat down, he even had his legs in the same pose as his daddy (I love it when he imitates Jason without saying anything.  You can just see the "I wanna be just like you, Dad" in his actions).

 Norah and Mommy...

 And we built a pretty stellar sandcastle, if I do say so, myself.  (Decorated with the shells and shale that we had all collected that day)

 Alas, the SPF 70 was still not quite enough to keep from baking our fair babes.  (And yes, we did re-apply) Thankfully, just under his eyes were about the only place that burned, and after a good nap, he looked much better.

 That evening, (after a LONG, quiet afternoon of puzzling and naps for the kids) we hit the beach again to fly our kites. 

 Jason and I have always loved flying kites (long before becoming parents, we skipped a college Chemistry class or two to fly them when the weather in B/CS was just too nice to sit inside concentrating on elements and balancing equations)

 Norah's butterfly kite was a Christmas gift from Gramps and Grandad a couple of years ago, and it garnered lots of attention by on-lookers on the beach.

 The delta kite was one that Jason and I purchased on our first wedding anniversary (and our first trip to S. Padre Island) Eli and I flew it together.

 I think Norah's favorite part of kite flying was helping Jason "launch" the kite.  What little girl wouldn't love the feeling of ribbons blowing behind her in the breeze?

 I was pleasantly surprised to find that our sandcastle was still in-tact.  I guess I thought that it would have a big target on it as soon as we vacated our spot on the beach.  But it was just as we'd left it.  (I started to get a big head when I saw a family walking on the beach stop and take photos with it....a small part of me wanted to run up and say, "We built that!  Isn't it pretty?!" But I restrained myself.)

 We decided to go on another crab hunt that night, too.  It's hard to tell from the photo, but Eli is jamming a glow stick down a crab hole, trying to provoke it's  inhabitant into coming out.  (Jason had great success with this technique on our last hunt, yielding our largest crab of the night...he came barreling out of that hole looking for a fight and Jason nabbed him.  Yes, I know that's kind of mean...sorry...but we always let them go at the end!)

 Group photo of the captives just before their release...

 The last day, we hit the local souvenir shops.  We do this each year, and never really buy anything. (I think wound up with a couple super-cheap shirts for the kids this year) It  just seems like the vacation-y thing to do...and it always makes for fun pictures.

 Where else are you gonna find a surfboard bench with fake tattoo-art in the background?

 or a bench shaped like an alligator?

 Jason and I finally finished our puzzle...just in time to say, "Aww that's pretty", then pack it back into the box.

There are some beautiful (I think they're plumeria) bushes outside the place where we stay, and each and every time we pass them, Norah would ask if she could pick one.  Each time, we would tell her, "On the last day".  So, on our way to the car on the morning we left, we made good on our promise.  (I guess this is officially now a tradition, because we  did this last year, too, and that photo came out fuzzy too..I always forget about the way the muggy morning effects my camera lens after it's been sitting inside a nice, cool building) She happily tucked it behind her ear and posed for her close-up, as we said goodbye to the beach for 2010.

Memories from "The Beach" 2010

Last Summer we took the kids down to South Padre Island, for both of their first beach encounter.  It was a great week (in the company of good friends), and long story short, the kids have been talking about it ever since.

N: Mom, can we go to the beach again this year?

A: We'll see if Daddy says it's ok.  It's a long drive.

A few minutes passed as we drove around town...

N: Those clouds go on forever.  If I could figure out a way to get up there, I bet I could ride those clouds all the way to the beach.

Fast forward a couple of months, as we're loading into the car and getting ready to head out.

E: No!  I don't want to ride in the car.  I want to ride on a cloud!

Day One:  It was a long, but pleasant car ride (to the repeating chorus of "Are we getting close to the beach?" and "The Beach, the beach, the beach.  We're going to the beach, the beach, the beach!"  by our oldest, a tune which was quickly picked up by our youngest, and by the end of the 8-hour drive, they were both singing it in a round...or at least that's how it would have sounded if my life were really a musical, but as, sadly it's not, it was slightly less melodic)

After unloading the car and toting in our luggage, we put the kids down for a cat nap (it was about 4:30) while Jason and I made a menu and grocery list.I do about 90% of the cooking at home, but Jason and I really enjoy being in the kitchen together, even when it's just something simple like making sandwiches, so with that in mind, we thought it would be fun (and cheap) to do most of our own cooking.  With our list in-hand, we hopped back in the car (Yes, all of us...after all, this is a family vacation!) headed over to Port Isabel's Walmart for a quick grocery run.  

We returned home, stocked the fridge, and made dinner.  Then, we watched a movie (Eli's favorite, "Cars") and waited for dark, and my favorite beach-y activity...the crab hunt!

 For anyone who's never been on a night crab hunt, it pretty much goes like this: Walk around on the beach after dark with a flashlight (an adventure in it's own rite!), and scan the sand, looking for slight movement.  Alert the net-handler (in our case, Daddy) of the discovery of any catch-worthy crabs (while chasing them--they're quick-- and keeping them in your flashlight beam), collect, and dump in bucket.  Then repeat, until said bucket is full of feisty crustaceans.  (Which we always release at the end of our adventure)

We brought in a pretty good haul for an hour's worth of crabbing. Norah was scared to death to look at them.  Eli just wanted to hold the flashlight.   And Jason and I had a lot of fun.

 Day two:  Everyone slept late, then we headed down to the beach.  Being the blindingly white complected family that we are, we made sure to coat everyone with a layer of SPF 70 before making our way down.

Jason was also kind enough to set up an easy-up, so we could stay in the shade when we weren't in the water. (Which for Norah was little to no time).

Day three: Well, let's just say our "Water Baby" needed a little break from the sun. So, we decided to go visit "the turtle lady" (a term taught to us by our good friends, the Livingstons, when we went for the first time last year), aka the Sea Turtle Rescue Center.

Eli really enjoyed the turtles this year...especially the ones in the plastic tanks, who seemed to like people as much as people liked them.

Norah enjoyed walking around and looking at the different variety of turtles, and was especially interested in knowing "what was wrong" with each of the turtles she encountered.

We even got had a close up view of one the most loved residents of the rescue center, "Allison", a green sea turtle with only one flipper, who uses a special prosthetic suit to swim. 

After naps for the kids (and some obsessive puzzle working by the adults), we headed over to Pier 19 for dinner.  My favorite memory (though there were many good ones) that night might have been Eli, sitting beside Jason.  He looked up at him with his sweet little face and said, "Daddy, let's hold hands".  I had to take a photo so I would remember it.  Precious boy.

They had some goofy wooden photo boards outside, so naturally, the kids wanted to pose with them.  (Eli thought this one was an "astronaut" and Norah just liked the octopus because it was pink.)

Then, Norah spotted the mermaid and HAD to have her picture made as "Mermaid Norah"...

Which, in turn, led to the "Eli Mermaid" shots.  You wouldn't know it by his expression, but he BEGGED to get to take his picture "with the mermaid" like Norah had.

  Next, we headed down the pier for our first-ever family dolphin-watching experience.  We had originally planned to take the tour earlier in the day, but as it was a Wednesday (the slowest day of the week for them), we were the only ones who signed up for our tour, so they called and offered to upgrade us to the "Sunset Cruise" at no additional charge.  We were happy to comply.  Fair warning: Momma got a little camera-happy on the boat...

Norah was THRILLED when we finally boarded.  Eli, on the other hand, might have a little "land-lubber" blood in his veins...It took him quite a while to decide he was ok with being on the water.

Waiting for our tour boat, the "Double Sunshine" to take off...(Which, incidentally, I thought was a pretty clever name for a double-decker boat that regularly sees the sun reflected on the water)

Still a little uneasy as we were moving through the water...

But then we passed....a PIRATE SHIP!

Now THAT got his full attention!

Finally a smile!  (Although it kinda looks like to me he's secretly thinking "ARRRR!")

They let us get up and walk around once we had left the dock.  Norah LOVED roaming the ship.  She made sure we went up to the top deck (which we later discovered was the "smoker's paradise lounge", so we spent most of the tour down in our happy, nicotine-free zone.

It was a beautiful sunset--and God's majesty was really magnified by watching it reflected over the water. 

 It was a special memory to share with Norah, watching the colors change, and talking about how God made a new sunset every, single day, whether took the time to notice it, or not.

I have to admit, I don't know when the last time I intentionally watched a sunset was, but I really need to make it a point to do it more often.

Finally, toward the end of the tour, we saw a family of dolphins.  (A group of 6-7, one of which was a  baby!) It was fun watching them playfully dive out of the water in a way so graceful it almost seemed choreographed (one more amazing evidence of what a creative God we have!).  They were pretty hard for me to catch on my camera...this was as close as I got.

So, that was the first half of our vacation.  Please check back soon, and I'll try to fill you in on part two!