Beach Bonnetts (kind of like the Beach Boys, but not)

When Evan's parents came to visit last month, we decided to finally commit and make a trip to the beach like we've been talking about for months (years). We booked a room for one night at Corpus Christi, packed up a million things to dig and make sand castles and headed out.

Turns out, the beach is just 2.5 hours away. Yeah...we totally were under the impression it was 4-5 hours away. Hopefully, we'll take advantage of it being so close and maybe take a day trip again soon!

I went ahead and purchased this lovely umbrella for the trip:

I knew we'd need something for the kiddos to hide under when the sun was too much and to keep our things shaded. Turns out, this umbrella was absolutely perfect! Don't you love a great internet, site-unseen, cross your fingers you'll actually love it purchase?!

We actually were early to check in to our hotel, so we drove along to Padre Island and hung out at their beach for the afternoon. It was not crowded at all. And I just have to tell you that the weather couldn't have been nicer!

I'm sure you're shocked that Vivian's Tonka truck was a part of the trip, right?

We haven't been to a beach since our Disney Trip in January 2008 and it was waaay too cold to get in the water, so I can't actually remember the last time that I swam in the ocean. We're always so landlocked. First thing that I quickly remembered that I'd forgotten--salt water does NOT taste good nor does it feel good when you accidentally sniff it up your nose.

Vivian was a bit wary of going into the water. She preferred to dig and command her Papa to bring her pails of water like the tiny dictator that she is.

Look at those clouds!!!!

Proof I actually was there!

Our hotel was on the beach and we were lucky enough to get rooms with a view. I've never had a room with a view before, so I may or may not have been a *tiny bit* excited.

Evan was excited because from our room he could see the USS Lexington. Of course, we had pre-purchased tickets to go and tour the WWII air craft carrier for the next day. (If you all are very good blog readers and are on your best behavior, I will post a blog post just about the USS Lexington.)

After a quick shower, and a bit of some iPadding...

we headed out to dinner. 

Quick Story: So, we all needed to take showers to get all the sand off before dinner. Evan showered first and was all, "Man, there's so much sand!" I peek in and it's like he dumped a small pail of sand into the tub. If you know me at all, you know that I hate sand. Hate. I was all, "Dude, I'm showering next because if I have that much sand in my hair and stuff I'm going to pitch a fit!". So, I jump in the shower next. Now, I need to tell you that, when I take my glasses off, I am blind as a bat. Seriously. Like ridiculously, probably technically legally blind, blind without my glasses.

I notice that I, too, have left sand in the tub and as I'm getting dressed, I holler to Evan that I'm going to try to make the sand go down the drain before we throw the baby in for her bath. I put on my glasses, go to turn on the water, and notice that the sand is looking at me. With an eye. 

Weird. How can the sand look at me? And why does it look shiny and fish shaped...

You guys, it was a fish. Like a minnow sized fish. In the tub. Dead. Dead dead dead.

Of course, I freak out because I very quickly realize that if the fish was not there when Evan showered (Evan with his recently eye-surgeried 20/12 vision, who would have definitely noticed a freaking fish in the tub), that means the fish CAME FROM ME! A FREAKING FRACKING FISH WAS TRAPPED UNDER MY HAT, IN MY HAIR, THAT I BROUGHT FROM THE OCEAN INTO MY HOTEL SHOWER.

I don't need to tell you that Evan found this whole thing hilarious. As did his parents. And my children. Elisabeth very kindly flushed the fish that I accidentally murdered by taking it from the ocean. 

The end.

The clouds at dinner time...

After dinner, we got back in our swimsuits for a bit of nighttime beaching and then some very intense hotel pool swimming where Julia showed us her superbly perfect "canyon ball!" dives.

Another quick story: When we went to the beach after dinner, Ebeth found this super duper awesome shell that was totally not broken. It was one of those spirally shells that you want to hold to your ear and listen to the ocean. It was about the size of the palm of my hand and I congratulated her on her awesome find. I threw it in our pool bag and we headed to the pool. When we were getting ready for bed, I put the shell on the counter above the mini-fridge. 

I was busy plugging in phones and iPads and whatnot when I hear a "thunk". I look over and the ding dong shell had rolled off the counter. I picked it up and brought it the less slippery desk I was sitting at and continued picking up. I handed Evan pajamas to put on Vivian, turned around and saw the shell slowly creeping across the table. This time when I went to pick it up, it's legs scurried back but not fast enough because I totally saw them shrink into the shell.

Yep. Hermit crab. That I toted around in my pool bag for a couple of hours.

Evan very chivalrously took the poor hermit crab and his shell back to the beach (after we took lots of pictures and showed all the girls, of course). 

The end.

We woke up bright and early, ate a delicious ("delicious") McDonald's breakfast, and headed back out to the beach. We spent the rest of the day at the Corpus Christi beach.

Elisabeth was in the water the whole time. She just loved it. All the grown ups took turns going out with her. She must be part mermaid. (This picture taken right before poor Ebeth got stung by a jellyfish. She handled it super well and we convinced her it would make a great story to tell everyone. She then walked around like a badass for the rest of the day.)

Vivian decided to actually let her feet get wet without being held on the second day.

And that she was fully capable of filling up her own buckets with water.

We just had so much fun! It was the younger two's first time seeing the ocean and I'm so glad we live close enough to take them when they're still young enough to see it as a huge adventure.

We spent some time digging around for shells, too. We found mainly really pretty pieces of oyster shells, but there were a few other non-oyster shells, too.

The next time we go to the gulf, I think we're going to head over to Mustang Island in Port Aransas. We hear that that's an even better place to hang out. But, can it beat standing in the entrance to a very tacky gift shop that's also a giant shark mouth?!

  *You all were so good that I am totally going to write another post just about the USS Lexington. How lucky are you?!
 

7 Quick Takes

Hello all! Decided I should join the gang over at Conversion Diary and throw up my own 7 Quick Takes for this week!

I did not mean throw up as in vomit. I meant like in throwing as in the actual physical act of throwing.

You didn't need me to clarify that? Oh. Ok.

Here we go!:

1. 

So, if you didn't read it over at Mea Cuppa, I decided to truly wave my Nerd flag proud and bestow upon myself a *new* reading goal. For myself. Cause I'm a nerd. Obviously. 

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about this one because I always am like, "Ooh, new book! Let's alphabetize it on the shelf and I'll get to reading it right after the current book I'm reading!" But, it rarely happens. I know I have lots of great books waiting to share their great stories and characters with me that I've either forgotten about or just get lost on the shelf. By reading my unread books in ABC order (as my children like to say), I'm guaranteed to get to all my books!! How fun, right? 

I know, I've lost all my street cred now.

2.

Virginia! What kinds of horrific books do you allow your children to read?! They look traumatized!!!

Dude, that's a Where's Waldo book. I have no idea why it looks like I'm letting them read a picture book of Dawn of the Dead or some such Stephen King-ish style book. Julia especially is very much into Where's Waldo and has started collecting his books. But, the kicker? Vivian is such a whiz at finding Waldo that the other two were starting to get frustrated when she wanted to "read" the book with them. I told them to just accept the fact that she's obviously a genius and learn from her ways.

3.

My cats love each other. Which is good because, after Roosevelt died in February, we were worried that Figaro wouldn't take to the new kitten. No worries, everyone! Figaro loves him (though not as much as he'll ever love his Forever True Love--Roosevelt). On Wednesday, Eisenhower (the cat on the left) turned one year old. Yes, the biggest kitten ever known to man is finally a year old. Maybe he'll finally stop growing. Any hope I had of him getting smarter is out the window, though, because this week he let his tail sit in the Scentsy warmer (again) and now has a completely wax coated tip for his tail (again). He's really not very smart. 

4.

I signed Julia up for first grade at the public school on base this week. The amount of joy and excitement that she has continuously expressed about going to "real" school is just such a change from last year. She's full of confidence and that excited nervousness that I distinctly remember each year that school was about to start. We're going school supply shopping and she is pumped! Last year when we were school supply shopping, she had her hair covering her face, refusing to leave the cart to help pick out supplies, and generally depressed about the idea of going to full day kindergarten. That's when I called Evan from Target, crying for all the world to see, and said that I was not going to make her go to school and was going to homeschool her instead. Because he is awesome, he completely agreed and supported me. So now I'm going to be that mom walking her first grader to the bus stop on the first day of school and bawling like a baby when Julia gets on the bus. I've never been away from Julia so long before. I'm going to be a mess, you all.

5.

Speaking of Evan being awesome, he totally is. That's all. I just really like him and wanted to tell the world. (P.S. I love taking pictures of him when he doesn't know it.)

(P.P.S. He does not share this love of having his picture taken unawares.)

6.

It really wouldn't be a summer in Texas if I didn't whine to you all about how hot it is now. Normally, I start this whining in June, but we've been super blessed to have not only June but also July be pretty cool for Texas. Highs in the mid 90s! Getting to play outside all day and not having to hide in our shades drawn, air conditioned home! It didn't start hitting the 100 degree temps until the last week of July. (I know, I know, I've been Texafied. Quit shaking your heads at me, I can't help it.)

7.

If you and I communicate in any way--actually hearing my voice on the phone, texting, facebooking, or on the @meamaximacuppa Instagram account, I'm sure I have cried to you about the inhumane way my roses were chopped down on Monday. I found this picture of the roses that were affected the worst by the "landscapers" hacking and just needed to share with you all what they used to be. Sigh. To be fair, the military housing people have been in contact with me (after I called them bawling my eyes out) about how they can compensate me for the bushes that they've ruined. After I calmed down, I explained that each bush was a gift from my kiddos each Mother's Day for the last 3 years. Obviously in the grand scheme of things, my roses being hacked to death is no that big of a deal, but I'm allowing myself a few days of being upset because, honestly, I really did cry a lot at the loss of them.

Welp, I've got to get ready to go SCHOOL SUPPLY SHOPPING!!! (Please, say a prayer that Vivian agrees to comply to staying in the cart after her bribery treats of Target popcorn and lemonade, because otherwise this will be the worst school supply shopping trip in the history of the world.)

Guadalupe River fun!

The week before our friends moved to Pennsylvania (leaving us all sad and alone) we planned a trip to visit the Guadalupe River State Park. Our friends (avid campers and national park explorers) hadn't been there and we (the opposite of avid campers and only occasional national park explorers) were super excited to get to take them somewhere new. Evan took the day off work and we left in the morning for a day of swimming in the river and picnicking. 

We couldn't have asked more lovely weather. Not too hot (for Texas) and kind of cloudy. We found the spot we'd picnicked the last time we went and started frolicking.

Juju was so excited. She could not stop running.

Thankfully, there weren't too many families at the river, so there was plenty of room to explore and play and not feel like you were invading someone else's personal space.

 

I'm sure you will fall over with shock to hear that Vivian was all kinds of contrary about this new experience. She refused to get near the water for a while. She just wanted held. I calmly explained that I couldn't take pictures and hold her. From the onslaught of pictures in this post, you can see that my priorities are well founded.

Mac, collector of rocks.

Mac talked Vivian into getting in the water by showing her how she can throw ALL THE ROCKS. He knows her very well.

I really struggled getting a picture of both of them facing the same direction.

My favorite tree! I always leave our stuff by it.

Tawny and Dutch in tubing.

V "swimming".

The little ones decided to cross the river and check out the rock situation on the other beach. One of the things I love about this place is that there are parts so shallow that tiny two year olds don't feel intimidated to roam.

 

 

We managed to get the kids out of the water long enough to eat lunch. Sandwiches, cherries, pistachios, carrots, snap peas, and frosted animal crackers. The kids thought it was a feast! The younger two were finished before the rest of us and decided to be the post lunch entertainment.

I just really love visiting this place. We have vowed not to let almost 2 years go between visits again. It's only a 40 minute or so drive from our house and it's just breathtaking.

So, what I can't show you in pictures is how many times we all fell. The river bed is all rocks, but as it get's deeper, those big rocks are pretty hidden. You'd be walking all fine and dandy and then, WHAM! you slip on a big rock or hit your shin on one. It was hilarious to see all of us adults just totally face plant.

 

Unfortunately, our day was cut short by an hour or so when these clouds started filling the sky and we could hear rolling thunder.

It was such a great day. I'm so glad the girls have those memories of going to the river with their best friends Dutch and Mac. They've been gone for almost two weeks now, but Vivian still asks every day for "My best friend Mac". So, I just pull up these pictures and she's excited to rehash our day at the river with her Mac.