a Texas Beach vacation

I'm going to jump out of chronological date order (which totally freaks me out) and post about our vacation. I want to share pictures from our trip to Abilene, and the family reunion in San Angelo, not to mention a few from July fourth and other summer fun, BUT, I am so excited about sharing our beach trip with y'all. It was the B.E.S.T. trip! It was so relaxing and perfect weather, pure and simple fun. It was so nice to just play with the boys and explore God's creation together. We were all equally excited about the "treasures" we found on the beach. I loved watching Addison's reaction as he saw the ocean for the very first time. I loved when they would find something and run, run, splashing through the water to show me. I loved that Robert enjoyed playing in the waves and digging up creatures and feeding the sea gulls just as much as the boys. I loved sitting back and watching my three men. I loved being awestruck over and over again by the beauty and grandness of the masterpiece of our Lord. I loved watching the boys build sand castles and delight in destroying all their hard work. I enjoyed Asher's homemade shell pie and sand and shell pizza. I loved watching my children be so willing to share their toys with strangers and so friendly to everyone.

The boys LOVED the ferry ride. It was pretty special because when we first went across dolphins were swimming all around us.


This is what Asher does every time he plays in mud or anything that is that consistency (seriously he would do this with pudding if I would allow it). Goofy kid. Look how pleased he is with himself, like he's really enjoying his mud bath.

SWAMP THANG!



Asher thought these skimmed boards looked so fun, he found out they were a lot of work for a little thrill. He had a great time giving it a go, though.

We planned on going to the Aquarium and to see a few movies, but we were all completely satisfied with just "being" on the beach. It was nice to not have the commercialized vacation. We took our camper and ate in all but one meal. Robert cooked steak and shrimp on the grill. We ate unbalanced meals at odd times of day. We had special treats like yummy vanilla coffee and cereal straws. We stayed up late and hunted for crabs with flashlights. We woke up early and walked the beach and watched the sunrise. We ate sandy sandwiches and lots of juicy watermelon. We found snails, sand dollars, sea stars, crazy cool fish, ghost shrimp, and crabs with funny buggy bulging eyes. We dug for buried treasure left by pirates and rode the waves to our hearts content. It was a completely, perfectly, wonderful time!

Addison loves to whistle, he is either whistling or talking most the time. It is a pleasant, happy little whistle, but I do get a little tired of hearing it from time to time...so I say, "Hey, whistling Boy!", and he smirks and says, "ooohhhpp, sorry Mom." And don't ya love his tattoo. My kids are crazy about tattoos (wonder why?)!