Summertime {Galveston 2014}

Family vacations are like my favorite thing ever.

I love being with my family, no agendas, no schedules, nothing we have to do.

And I love having Mitchel all to us for an entire week.

And I love to see how excited my kids get over it all.

It really is the best. And so needed.

Last year, we took a late trip to Beaver's Bend.

So beautiful. 

This year, we headed back to the beach.

But, since someone on this trip happened to be over 30 weeks pregnant, we couldn't go too far.

Galveston was the perfect fit.

A little smelly. But perfect. :)

It's such a beautiful, old town.

Our first trip to the beach, was successful, but not without it's hiccups.

The first beach we tried had a lovely crusty layer of dry seaweed between the beach & the water.

We also discovered on that day that the sand was blazing hot, until you got to the beach.

Mitchel broke one of his flip flops & had to walk across said sand, hobbling along on one good shoe & one floppy one.

Then, once our tent was set up, we had recovered our feet, the kids had learned to scale the seaweed & we had pulled out lunch, we were informed that no tents or umbrellas could be set up beyond a certain point of the beach.

So, we moved our stuff back about 12- 15 feet.

Then went to swim.

Came back & were informed by another lovely beach attendant that we had not moved enough.

We took a deep breath, folded our stuff down, & decided that it didn't matter.

The rest of the day went off without a hitch.

Until it was time to go & everyone was exhausted…but we won't talk about that. 

The kids would have fun no matter what happened.

They love the beach. The water. The sand.

They had a blast.

Even the big kids had fun:).

Our poor baby missed so many naps while we were there, it was just plain sad.

He would crash in random places & we'd just carry him until he woke up, having to settle with little cat naps through his days.

But he was a trooper & did so well.

Dinner on night 2.

We ate on the back porch.

With lots of seagulls.

Which my kids thought was awesome.

Birds are not my favorite.

But it was really pretty, so it all worked out.

My 2 awake cuties.

He woke up to lots of birds & food surrounding us.

He perked up pretty fast.

After letting our kids walk all over those tracks, pick up rocks & play, on our way back to the car, an actual trolley/train drove down those puppies. Fast.

Whoops. Parent fail.

Thankfully, we all escaped untouched!

After dinner, we took a little walk over to the water.

And watched the sun set.

With lots of rock collecting.

And happy picture taking.

And chasing.

Trying to keep up with your people is hard, when you stop every 2 seconds to investigate rocks or trash.

Breakfast in our condo.

The kids loved those cups.

Oh, good morning, sweet, tired boy.

We took the kids to Schlitterbahn our 3rd day in Galveston.

But those pictures/videos were taken on my phone & are not on this computer.

So, you have been spared more photos.

You're welcome.

Our last full day was spent back at the beach.

But this time, a different beach.

Where we didn't even worry about tents or such things.

And Mitchel had new flip flops.

And there was no crusty seaweed.

And the day started much better & went so much smoother.

It was a really great day.

There was a sand bar on out in the water & the kids & Mitchel caught hermit crabs all day.

This guy is getting way too big.

He looks a little too grown up in this picture.

Brave girl with her cool hermit crab.

They found some really great ones!

There was also lots of burying in the sand.

And breaking free.

We attempted a sibling shot at the end of the day & this is what I got.

But it's a great picture of my girl!

We spent our last night treating the kids right.

They were way excited.

I really like those guys.

Our resident alligator hunter.

He was taking a look at his prey.

Just sporting a cute, little frog hat on his silly, little head.

After dinner, we hit up a really cool candy/ice cream shop & may or may not have had ice cream on top of Rainforest Cafe.

It was our last night, after all.

The horses & carriages were out in full force that evening.

And a really nice driver let us talk to & pet his horse.

He was even fed the rest of the big kids ice cream cones.

These beauties were found out souvenir shopping.

Awesome.

On the day we were heading home, there was a release party for the hermit crabs.

See all those big ones? They were so cool!

There were just as many little ones in there too.

Crazy.

They all said their final goodbyes.

Then dad took them down to a good little stream, so they could hopefully make their way back home.

We are very responsible hermit crab carers.

Or maybe, this mom & dad said that we couldn't bring them home, so there wasn't much other option.

Either way, it was the right choice.

And that was that.

We enjoyed being closer to home this year.

And the shorter trip back.

We were able to hang out that morning, have lunch before we left & still made it home before bedtime.

Galveston, you were awesome.

I really love vacation.

And my family. And that awesome man up there.