Clayton has been mesmerized by the ocean since he was 18 months old. By 2 he could identify 25+ species of sharks, tell you the depth they preferred to live in, diet & tooth shape….. by 4 he decided he would be a marine biologist & “Shark Week” is an important holiday at this house. So, the ocean was an obvious choice for vacation since the kiddos have never been… Everyone needs to see the ocean at least once in their life.
Would have loved to take them to a better beach, but Galveston was what was doable (about 8 hours away), so we headed out bright and early on August 2nd.
Bought 2 day passes for The Moody Gardens and Thursday afternoon when we arrived we hit the sea wall & found some seafood (which BTW do NOT eat at Benno's…. absolutely HORRIBLE.. Both staff & food...).
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| Tator looking for critters in the rocks by the sea wall.. |
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| Shayla claimed this stretch of beach :) |
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| Checking out sharks in the Aquarium pyramid |
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| Tator in a shark cage! Parents, in case you're wondering.. No, they won't let you take the cage home! |
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| Hanging with the birds in the Rainforest pyramid |
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| Amazon river exhibit |
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| Took an hour long ride on the "Colonel" |
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| Jerimiah & Shayla under the derrick |
Hit the Lone Star Flight Museum, had lunch at Landry’s and then went back to the Moody Gardens to swim at “Palm Beach”… Which was a small water park with a lazy river, various pools, live music, water slides and such…. I think I had just as much fun on the water slides as the kids did, though I couldn’t convince Jerimiah to try ‘em out.. At Landry’s the kids decided they’d be “daring” and try raw oysters on the ½ shell…. Absolutely hysterical! To say the kiddos aren’t raw oyster fans is a vast understatement…
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| Lone Star Flight Museum |
Had a blast playing at the water park, but Tator wanted one more dip in the ocean so we headed out to Galveston State Park for some beach fun & swimming in an uncrowned area… Original plan was to go to the State park, but we happened upon a nice stretch of almost empty beach right outside the park so that’s where we ended up swimming and then enjoyed playing on the beach in the dark… Didn’t make it back to the hotel until almost 11:00pm and the munchkins were out cold as soon as they hit the pillows.
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| Jerimiah & Tator jumping in the waves.. |
Saturday we went for a tour of the Moody Mansion. Beautiful, 28,000sqft house, lots of interesting history, though the tour guide was a stuffy, cranky gal who seemed to enjoy trying to shove an entire group of people into impossibly tiny rooms…
Think “Human sardines”…..Not my idea of fun..
Bit annoying, but it was neat to see the house.. Well, part of it because half was closed due to un-repaired damage from hurricane Ike… So, for $28 we saw ½ of the mansion, couldn’t take pictures and got bossed around… Like I said, some of it was interesting, but I’ll certainly not repeat the experience.
Went back to the Aquarium pyramid one last time before heading out, then hit the road.
There was quite a bit that we wanted to do, but didn’t have time… Had a lot more fun than I expected and will certainly go back….. I’m so happy we got to go, the kids made some great memories, I added an actual color to my legs (we shall call it “off white”, since it’s not particularly “tan”, but it’s several shades darker than my blinding, glow in the dark shade I sported before running around Galveston in shorts) and Jerimiah & I celebrated 11 years together on the trip up there on August 2nd.
Life deals an unfair, cruel hand sometimes…. I miss my Momma every single day….. But life is far too short and you must make the best of the time you have…….
Take last minute, poorly planned vacations, snap pictures of everything and find something worth laughing about every day.
I'm so glad to see you back posting! You've been missed. It's so good that you had a nice little vacation to the ocean. It looks like a lot of fun! My trip to be beach was an oyster shell beach, so your kids have it better than I did. :-) I was about eight when we went. You are in my prayers. (((HUGS)))
ReplyDeleteLike Michelle, I'm glad you're back. I know it's been rough. Your vacation looks like so much fun. Needed and deserved.
ReplyDeleteThanks y'all!
ReplyDeleteMichelle, what's an oyster shell beach? Would have loved to take them to Hawaii or something similar, but Galveston turned out to be more fun than I expected. :)
Leah, I can't tell you how much better I felt after just getting away for a bit..... Helped so much.
I'm trying very hard to catch up on life in general right now.... I have several partial blogs in my draftsthat, at the time, I just didn't have the heart to finish & post, so even though they are from March+, I'll get those up soon...
Reading is another one I'm behind on, but it's after midnight & I'm still up reading, commenting & trying to catch up with everyone :)
Oh, and sorry for the weird comment with signature.... For some reason, even though I was logged in, it kept showing up "Anonymous" when I was on other blogs.... So I left my signature so y'all would know it was me.... Then I go back, 1/2 of those comments showed up "Anonymous", the others showed up properly, with my google icon and everything....
Really hate the new blogger.... On my computer it's not so bad, but on my cell, where I'm on 99% of the time, it is a pain & does weird things, or doesn't load properly....
Love the pics, your kids are great subjects! I'm glad to see you back here again and hope you are all starting to get your feet back under you. Hurting hearts take awhile to heal, but it's good to see you are healing together, as a family. I also think its awesome that you did something that confirms 'Tator's interests. It's amazing how far in life the little bits of encouragement we can give, will take them!
ReplyDeleteCrystal, I finally have a moment of online time and replied to your comments on my blog.
ReplyDeleteAn oyster shell beach is a beach made of oyster shells instead of sand.
I, too am glad you are back to blogging. Haven't been able to tell you how much I appreciate your blog about the copper bolusing. It seems very unimportant after what you have gone through. :( But I do want you to know my goats are healthier, fatter and giving more milk that they ever have. No breaks in coccidia either. I can never thank you enough. Your goat friend in West Virginia :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice vacation. Your family needed a healing get away. Have lived in Texas for 15 years & haven't visited Galveston. Think I need to try to visit.
ReplyDeleteAmy
Very true Petey... It takes time... Sometimes I don't believe the hurt will ever truly heal, but life must go on. The kids had such a great time and hubby & I desparately wanted them to have some kind of good memories from this summer & I think this vactation did it. Clayton is torn between palentology & marine biology, so I told him to shoot for both..... Afterall, he has a while to figure out what he wants to do in life :)
ReplyDeleteRebecca, I am so happy the blog post helped. It''s great to hear the improvements folks see in their herds by simply improving their minerals :) I know in my herd I has made a world of difference & I'm very thankful to my mentors who turned me onto bolusing...
Amy- If you can, take a trip there... Especially if you can go on a week day when it's not busy. We enjoyed ourselves quite a bit :)