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A Week at the Beach!
It all came down to timing...
I was on maternity leave, we were not yet paying for Logan's daycare tuition, Aaron was about to start a new job and Lily gets one week off a year tuition free from school. Timing led us to plan a vacation to the beach. We decided to look for a place as close to home as possible. Our decision was Galveston Island, Texas. After searching online we decided on renting a house in a master-planned community at the very tip of Galveston. The house "Pete's Place" was named after the couple's two year old son and touted multiple kid friendly amenities.
As the trip grew near I developed my normal pre-trip anxiety. I'm overly organized and quite the control freak so packing for four people for a week long trip was a real task. Thankfully we have a family sized SUV so I had room to take nearly everything but the kitchen sink. We planned to leave home around 8:00AM on Monday. We hit the road at 9:30... :-) The kids did amazing on the drive. We stopped after about 2 hours and had lunch at McDonald's and fed Logan. We stopped again jut a little outside the south side of Houston at Starbucks. Funny...when I was a kid we stopped at convenient stores to stretch, potty, and have a snack. Now we stop at Starbucks. :-) Lily loved it...she loves the organic vanilla milk and had a pink cake pop. Once we got into Galveston, Logan was awake and let us know about it. We had to drive the remaining 30 minutes out to a pretty isolated area at the end of the island to find our house.
The house "Pete's Place" was too perfect for words. Picture a cottage out of a pottery barn catalog. Lily was so excited with her room. a double bed with a bunk bed decked out in surfer motif. The room was stocked with toys, books, blocks and it's own flat screen tv and dvd player.
In the closet we hit the jackpot...a pack and play crib (exactly like the one at home) and a baby swing. All rooms were fully equipped.
We set up Lily and Logan, unpacked and then headed back into town for dinner (30min drive.) We decided on Casey Gaidos Casual Seafood. It was ok but the best part was the Happy Hour Beer we got 10 min before it ended for $1.25. HEAVEN!!!!!
Afterwards we headed for groceries. Aaron decided on a Kroger that is dab smack on the beach...bad idea people! Everything in the store was grimy and half rusted from the sea salt. After one of the most miserable trips I've ever made to the grocery store we were back in the car (around 8:30) and headed for Pete's Place. Logan again screamed the entire trip. :-(
To top off the exhausting day Aaron's curiosity had him opening the garage door (under the house) and he encountered a rattle snack. OH LORD!!! Now we have snake anxiety... :-( (snakes are just about my biggest fear.)
Lily and I got up our first morning and walked to the beach to check things out. It was about a two block walk to the wooden board walk. We spotted a sign "warning, natural rattlesnake habitat." OMG....we were all on alert now.
After breakfast we headed to the Pointe West community beach club. It has a very nice pool area and beach access. One thing I can say...this is the WINDIEST beach we've ever been to. Not ideal for a 2mth old. That's were the craziness of us taking a two month old to the beach reared its head.
Lily and I hit the beach. It was deserted. We walked up and down collecting shells and the shore was littered with jelly fish. I decided we would not be swimming in the ocean. No jelly fish for us! On the pool deck the pool cabanas were being redone so we decided to pitch our little tent under a covered area. It proved to be the perfect spot. Logan napped and ate and never fussed a bit. We should have known that Lily would be the issue. :-) Long story short after tummy troubles all morning she pooped her pants (or bathing suit). OMG...this is our life! Not that once wasn't bad enough she did it again! We still had a good day all pooping aside. Aaron and Lily smuggled in our lunch of sandwiches and chips and we picnicked in Logan's tent. Lily loved it! The following days were spent relaxing in the house, watching movies, playing with building blocks. Each day we ventured out to one of the community pool areas. Each one had a covered area where we could keep Logan out of the sun. Lily had a blast swimming and floating in the lazy river. I swear, Lily has never met a stranger. Every person near us knew our life story. (I have no idea where she gets that from!) Most evenings we relaxed at the house but we did venture into Galveston a few times. Each time we were very disappointed in the food. :-( At the end of the week we were all sad vacation was over but were all excited to get back home and back to our routine.
Here are a few pictures we took during our week at the beach.
