Quick Trip to Galveston (part 2)

It was getting close to noon, so I cleaned up the kids (as best I could!), changed them back into clothes, and threw everything in the car.

James didn’t crash in the hour and half drive to Galveston, but on the ten minute trip from the beach to the restaurant…

I woke him up, hoping he’d still have an afternoon nap for me.

Joanna in Gran’s hat:

Natalie is so precious.  :)

Mmmmmm…

This is the lunch at which James discovered dipping sauces.

His fries were merely a vessel for ketchup, shrimp sauce, and tartar sauce (his FAVORITE).

I wasn’t sure he was going to survive having to stop eating sauce, but he did okay.  :)

It was looking much like rain, but we decided to ride the ferry before heading back home.

We were the last car on the boat, so we were at the perfect spot for feeding the seagulls and watching the ocean.

Just before this picture, that seagull to Joanna’s left grabbed a French fry from her hand.  She’s so brave!

Hi Mr. Seagull!

Look it’s the first picture of me taken with my camera by someone else!!  (Okay, actually the first one has James with his eyes half-closed, so this is the second.)

It started to sprinkle just before we got to the other side, so we stayed in our car for the ride back.

It was pretty awful getting home.  The rain makes people stupid on the road I guess so it took forever.  And James cried like he was being tortured through most of it.  I think he slept for about 30 minutes, but that left about an hour and a half of screaming.

My mom says she’s not going back until he’s four.  :)

I kind of can’t believe it, but this was actually Miss Natalie’s first trip to Galveston as well.  We’re slackers.  Poor middle child.  She had lots of fun though!

The children all took turns sleeping on the way home.  Natalie fell asleep at the end of the second ferry ride and woke up before we left the island.  Joanna fell asleep after that for a bit, then James crashed when we got closer to home.  If I could have reached Joanna, I’d have woken her up, but I know she was tired.  When that child naps though, she’s not able to fall asleep at night before 10pm.  Yuck!

All in all though, it was a great trip, and the kids had fun!

We’ll have to go back when it’s a bit warmer and let the kids chase the waves.  Though I’m absolutely not doing that without at least three adults.  Four if I want to take pictures.  :)

Quick Trip to Galveston (Part I)

On Thursday my mom and I decided to take the kids to Galveston for the day.  I hoped to be out of the house by eight, and I was!

I think we were actually waiting on Joanna to wake up at this point.  :)

She woke up and got a car breakfast (granola bar and banana) on the way to pick up Gran.

Of course Gran got them second breakfast on the other side of Houston as well.

James is a very big fan of hash browns.  He ate 1 1/2.

The girls each had a biscuit.

It was a very pleasant ride down there.  James was happy, eating mostly, but I’ll take it!  I was expecting him to take a quick nap as he’d woken up at about 6:00, but he didn’t.  The girls just looked and looked and looked and asked so many questions about everything they saw.  Love it!

We found a little chunk of beach to check out.

I left everybody in their clothes, thinking we’d just stick our feet in the water then go do something else.  The water was pretty chilly.

Feeding the seagulls some bread:

Joanna is holding a piece out for them.

I LOVE this one – she’s just tossed the bread to the seagulls.

I love this one too.

I set James down right by the water.

He was fine until the water washed over his feet.  He didn’t like it.

He was very tired by this point.

A family walked by with kites – it was a very good day for flying kites.  Good and windy.

The cold water didn’t appear to bother the girls at all.

They really wanted their suits on – okay!

This shot is a bit out of focus, but I just love the shape of Joanna – what a runner!

Natalie’s sweet muddy feet.

The girls would pick up sand from the beach…

take it over to the ocean…

and wash it off.

More running shots of Joanna.  :)

I was taking pictures of the girls jumping – I think she’s on her way down from a jump here:

I was holding James this whole time – he was a tired mess.

Love these dirty baby feet!

At some point though, he perked up and decided to have fun!

He’s got his head poked out here – he does that when he’s happy some times.

Marching or dancing or something:

I love this with Joanna in the background.

Having a conversations I guess.  :)

Then he followed her.

Another sibling conversation:

Mom grabbed a bag and had the girls help her pick up trash on the beach.

I like this shot with the girls in the bottom corner, but I think I’d like it better without the signs in the water.  I will eventually learn about Photoshop.  Oh, and get it too.  :)

This boy is SO STINKIN’ CUTE!!

They found a coconut on the beach.  It was very heavy.  My mother wanted to break it open and see how it fared on the inside.  But I forgot my hatchet.

I think my mom took a few pictures that actually had me in them, so I’ll post those when I get them. 

Up next – more Galveston fun!