Galveston 2011

We've been very blessed to get to go on many vacations with family over the years. My parents have taken us to Gatlinburg, Tennessee twice (in 2005 and 2009) and even Disney World once (in 2007). Last summer we went with Bill's family to Galveston for a few days. But this summer we got to do something for the first time ever...we went on a little family vacation just the 4 of us! We went to Galveston for 3 days to enjoy the beach, the pool, dining out, shopping, and hunting for shells. We were also using this trip to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary which is coming up June 23rd. It was a great time together as a family.

Please excuse the random photos out of order...the blog kept messing up and putting the pictures in random places.

Photo 1: Daddy and Brady in the Gulf of Mexico. Brady wasn't too sure about it. The water was a great temperature, but there was seaweed everywhere. He didn't like that stuff hitting him constantly. As long as we held him, he was happy to be in the ocean.
Photo 2: Eli swimming in the pool at the hotel.

Photo 3: There is an area of Galveston called "The Strand" that is basically a bunch of shops and places to eat. We walked around for a while, but there are many breakable objects, so we didn't stay too long with a 5 and 3 year old! Here is a stuffed bear on a bench that the boys just HAD to have their picture beside, so here are Eli and Brady by the stuffed bear.

Photo 4: I have more of these photos a little later in the blog, but here are the boys outside of the Rainforest Cafe. It was definitely an experience! It was the first time that the boys and I had been to one, and the restaurant was made up like a big rainforest where every 5 minutes the animals came to life and every 30 minutes there was a thunderstorm. Brady didn't even eat for about 30 minutes, he just kept staring at everything. It was a little expensive, but a great place for kids to eat!

Photo 5: Brady at the hotel pool.

Photo 6: Brady's big splash.

Photo 7: Eli in the hotel pool. I love that he can swim now! We can just let him loose in the pool!

Photo 8: Eli's big jump

Photo 9 and 10: Eli loving every bit of the Gulf of Mexico.

Photo 11 and 12: Brady building sand castles.

Photo 13: The boys at the hotel after our first day at the beach.

Photo 14: Bill and Rachel at Salsa's for dinner. The picture was taken by Eli, it only took 2 shots to get a good one! :)

Photo 15: Brady and Eli at the restaurant. They really are the best of friends.

Photo 16: Night one of sea shell hunting. This first night's exploration was not very successful. Especially since I had decided it was okay for Brady NOT to nap, so basically he just broke down and cried this whole time. He will be napping the next two days...

Photo 17: Daddy holding a breaking down Brady. He didn't want the dog near him. Time for bed for a little one!

Photo 18 and 19: Daddy and Eli searching among the rocks. Daddy is an expert shell gatherer. He knows where all the good ones are hiding.

Photo 20: A happier Brady away from the water and sitting on a bench with Mama.

Photo 21: Enjoying some Hawaiian Shaved Ice for dessert. Brady, Daddy, Eli

Photo 22: And what happens after a big day like that? LIGHTS OUT!!

Photo 23: Eli in the ocean

Photo 24: Brady...I'd love to know what is going on in that little head of his.

Photo 29, 30, and 31: While we were swimming, Eli yells out, "Mama, jellyfish! WATCH OUT!" And sure enough, he was right. So Daddy brought over a bucket and got the jellyfish so that it wouldn't hurt anyone.

Photo 32: Daddy got a new iPhone for Father's Day (even though it hasn't been Father's Day yet) and the boys have loved getting to watch him play games on it and see all the things his phone does. This is a definite upgrade for us since our last phones only called people. This one does it all!

Photo 33: Dinner night 2 - Rainforest Cafe.

Photo 34: Eli and Brady at our table, behind them is a huge gorilla that "ooo-ooo"ed at us every 5 minutes while eating, and every time, Eli and Brady stood up and did it back at him.

Photo 35: While we were waiting for our food, Brady grabbed on to my arm, brought my head down, and whispered in my ear, "Thank you, Mama, for bringing us to the rainforest. I love it." It was the sweetest thing and made it all worth it!!

Photo 36: Eli mimicking the gorilla.

Photo 37: Our family! (With a baby Major in my tummy. I am 34 weeks pregnant here.)

Photo 38: Eli and Brady playing a game to win a prize at the Rainforest Cafe.

Photo 39: Searching for seashells night #2. This night was a huge success! Brady was in a much better mood (thank you, naptime) and the tide was pretty low, exposing a ton of seashells! Daddy even found a perfect sand dollar! (Sadly, I failed to get a picture of that.) They both came back with literally a bucket load of shells!

Photo 42: I just had to include this, sorry Bill. We got spray sunscreen for the first time ever and, having never used the stuff before, didn't know that it had to be rubbed in. I thought that just spraying it on was good enough. Well, this is what happens when it is just sprayed on. You get a burn pattern on your skin where you didn't spray! Poor Daddy. :(

Photo 43 and 44: Since Daddy posed for the camera, the boys thought that they needed to as well, so here are the boys posing...

Photo 45: The view from our room. One side of the hotel faced the ocean, but the other side (our side...the cheap side...) faced this old abandoned cemetery. Nice.

Our 3rd day of vacation we swam more in the pool, packed up the car, and walked some more around Galveston. Then we grabbed some McDonald's and headed for home. It was a really great time of relaxing and being a family. I hope that this is something that we can start doing every year as a little family vacation. When we got home, everyone took about a 3 hour nap! We were exhausted, but we have wonderful memories!