A day at the beach is worth a month in town..........

The saying above is on a sign that I bought while we were in Galveston last week. I love the beach..........walking in the sand, the waves, the sound of the water, reading under an umbrella.........I miss it already.

We left last Monday and met Jonathan's brother Tim and his family in Cameron and drove the rest of the way following one another. All the girls in one suburban....boys in the other.........there were 5 of each so it worked out perfectly! Some of Tim and Jennifer's friends from church were also in Galveston and invited us (all 10 of us!) over for dinner. It was very sweet of them and the food was great. The kids were so excited to be there.....after dinner I took all the kids to the beach a little ways down from where we ate dinner. They still had their clothes on---no swimsuits underneath. I told them they could put their feet in----what was I thinking? Thomas, Jill, and Grant were soaked within 5 minutes!

I was mad at the time because they did not mind me, but now I am over it. They had been in the car all day waiting for the beach and then we take them to a stranger's house for dinner and expect them to wait some more?!! Of course they all said....."It was an accident. The waves came up on me!" or Grant's excuse was that he just fell in. WHATEVER!

So they had to sit on the porch of the Rasco's house until they dried off.....their ice cream and brownie were delivered to the back porch and they were to stay there until their clothes had dried. NO FUN for anyone...including me.

We got to the beach house we rented and it was great. I highly recommend it to any of you that need lots of room on vacation. You can look at the house on http://www.sandnsea.com/ it is called "waves" on Pirates Beach. It was the 6th house away from the beach---totally within walking distance for frequent bathroom trips, snacks, forgotten towels, sunscreen, another Diet Coke, etc.

We played on the beach......the kids built castles for the hermit crabs they found, a pond for the minnows they caught, they tried to bury each other in the sand, played with the dogs belonging to other beachgoers, looked for shells, boogie boarded, floated, and jet skiied. The jet skis were probably the most fun thing......if we dont remember that the suburban got stuck in the mud (TWICE) while trying to get the trailer out of the water (the wrecker was only called once {$180} and the fact that Luke crashed, Jonathan/Thomas wiped out while trying to run into the pelicans going 40 mph, and Jonathan/Grant wiped out (well really Jonathan fell off because Grant pushed the gas while Jonathan was trying to fix his hat while they were stopped). All were OK and I am glad that I only heard about, and did not witness, all of the above mentioned activities. Notice that none of the girls crashed or wiped out! We went fast, but were careful!!! All of us were sore the next day from having to hold on so tightly----it was worth it though!

We also spent a day at the Space Center in Houston. It was interesting---I was amazed at how big the Space Shuttles are---I guess when you watch it on TV you don't get the whole magnitude of it all. The kids enjoyed it, too.

Jonathan and the kids also went to the Flight Museum, the Submarine exhibit, and the Railroad Museum. I went to the Strand for a little shopping! I did find a fun store called the Funky Monkey....check it out at http://www.funkymonkeygalveston.com/ That is where I bought the wall hanging in the title and one that says "I Love You to the Moon and Back" to hang in the hall by the kids' bathroom. I love that book, too, and have read it to the kids often.

Tim, Jennifer, Jonathan and I played Cards and Marbles. Its a game that Jennifers parents got them started on and we always play it at their house and they brought it for all of us to play. Hannah and Luke played some, too. Grant wanted to challenge everyone to a game of Yahtzee or Connect Four. He is pretty good at both of them---loving that he beat Uncle Tim, Luke, and Hannah!

There were also 5 TVs in the house......it was great at nighttime.........no fighting over Hannah Montana or ESPN!!!!!

Hannah and Luke kept the kids one night and the adults went to see "Bourne Ultimatum". It was good.....

I guess it's back to reality now......I leave on Wednesday (Grants 5th bday) to go to a Horace Mann meeting in Lubbock.....at least I get to fly!

I will be back Friday night and Jennifer is having a garage sale on Sat in Temple, so I will probably take some stuff over for that!