Our Beach Vacation

 We finally took our Beach vacation to Corpus Christi. October is a lovely time to go. The water is warm but it is not unbearably hot and it is not very crowded! But before we went to the beach, we enjoyed a hot October day at Sea World with Nana and Papa.

Sea World was fun! The kids really like the Sea Lion show. Joel surprised us all by requesting to go on the little roller coaster and Kent hated the merry go round. Alyssa and Taft went with Erik on Journey to Atlantis and I took Kent and Joel to see penguins at Joel's request, which we enjoyed very much. There were some trick or treating booths in the kids' land which Taft wanted to show to Erik and then he saw the Count, who he thought to be quite interesting, though Taft doesn't know who he is from Adam. 

Our drive to Corpus Christi was pretty uneventful, though I was concerned Joel had heat exhaustion/car sickness and was going to get sick. But he didn't. We also learned of another use for the beloved mask: the pizza transporter!

After driving in past dark we stopped at the beach to make sure it was there. It was very dark, but you could see the stars and the white crests of the waves in the distance. Everyone was so happy to finally be at the beach!

We are breakfast on the beach both days which was lovely. Erik says that was his favorite part. It is fun to soak in as much beach time as possible. The hotel had their full buffet to go! It was delicious and everyone was very happy! 

The chocolate milks had a joke on them: what do you call a sleeping cow? A bulldozer!

On the first day we returned to the hotel, got into our swimming suits and spent about 5 hours at the beach. I felt joy watching the kids play in their simple ways. There is something so magnificent about the ebb and flow of the water that captivates all of us. 

Joel stayed close to shore playing with tractors, shovels and buckets. We attempted a sandcastle which never got very far, but was still fun!

Taft and Alyssa were anxious to see how far our they could go into the water. 

Alyssa dug herself a body sized pit that she could lay in and dry off. She also found black sand, which she thought was cool because we learned in a book that red glass can be made from black sand. Alyssa enjoyed riding the waves with a life jacket in and spent much of the afternoon doing that.

Taft wanted to snorkel. He did a little bit. He spent most of the day with Alyssa and enjoyed digging and playing in the water.

Kent loved being around everyone. He liked playing with tractors. He also enjoyed filling up buckets with water and then taking them to the shore, dumping them and returning for more. He would do the same with shovels full of sand. 

Joel was a trooper. He did not get stroller naps like Kent and Taft. Towards the end of the afternoon he was laying in his stomach, resting his head in the arm of his floaties while he played with his tractor in the most shallow part. He loved being in the water so much he just couldn't leave even when he was tired!

The second day we went to breakfast in our swim suits and spent another hour on the beach after breakfast before returning to the hotel to shower and finish our fun vacation with the Texas Sea Life Center.

The Texas Sea Life Center is a small rescue operation. They have some sea turtles and tortoises and birds and a few snakes. It is fun to see the animals up close!

It is not easy being at the beach. It's kind of messy and there is the sun issue. It's a little bit exhausting trying to keep track of everyone. But it is beautiful to watch the kids love and play in the majestic wonder of the ocean. 

After being home for a day and a half we made a quick jaunt up to Dallas for Maggie's baby blessing and to watch the Fort Worth air show! We got to see the Thunderbirds and some other really loud planes. Greg, my cousin, joined us as well.

We are finally home now and mostly recovered from a fun but also exhausting week! We'll be here for the next few weeks trying to decide what our future holds if you need to find us!

*A little early morning journal moment capture from the 2nd day in the hotel:

This morning it is still early and everyone is still sleeping except for Joel who is talking to himself. He is singing his version of "1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive." He says over and over " 1,2,8 why did you let him go? Because he bit my finger so." He has the cutest little voice. He sing songs all sorts of things. He has contentedly been doing this for 30 minutes.