Supermom Syndrome: Back to the Beach, Part One

Monday, September 26, 2011

Back to the Beach, Part One

Every September, we head to Port Aransas with the Alexanders. This year, we were set to go the second weekend of the month, but our plans were quickly changed because of the Bastrop fires. We were supposed to leave on that Friday morning, but the Alexanders weren't able to get back into their home until Thursday, so it just wasn't possible. Also, we were all a little paranoid about leaving our houses after what we had witnessed in our community, so the trip was pushed a week ahead.

We left late in the morning of Friday, the 16th. After a few hours in the car, and a quick stop for lunch, we arrived on the island. I focused on unpacking all our stuff, setting up Anna's bed, etc., and Nathan took the kids out to the beach for a little while. We got to bed pretty late, and everyone was really tired. That was the end of Day One.

The next morning, we saw this:

Beautiful, right?

After a couple (strong) cups of coffee and wrangling kids through breakfast, we went out to the beach.

Daddy was making little sand sculptures for Anna.

My nephew, Ian.

He's so stinkin' adorable!

Digging a giant hole.

Anna forgot her hat, so she had to borrow Daddy's.

Marissa, Joseph and Ian.

My niece, Bailey.

The boys, pretending to be dolphins.

They were putting sand all over Aunt Beth.

I'm not sure if she was pretending to be grossed out, or if she really was.

We came back inside for a while, to eat lunch and get the kids to take naps. They were overtired from the previous day, so we figured that a quick nap time would help a lot. Once they were up and ready to go, we went back out to the water.

Daddy and his girls.

My fellas.

It was really overcast, which kept the sun from beating down on us, so it wasn't nearly as hot as it had been. There were storm clouds moving in, though, so we were watching to make sure we didn't need to go back to the condo before the lightning and rain started.