Sunny South Padre

view from our room

matthew and sean playing

eating at s. padre island brewery (sean took this picture)

kids in the pool

ryan on the beach

our first night at the beach

Sean and Ryan at the beach
When we left Austin it had just rained for days and had like 19 inches of rain in Marble Falls. I was hoping that the rain was not going to follow us to the beach and we'd spend more days inside. We got lucky it was sunny all the days we were there! We got there wednesday afternoon and got settled in our "mansion" by the sea. It was a reallly nice 4 bedroom home and my brother and I flipped a coin and I won the room overlooking the ocean. Not bad! Sean and Ryan stayed in there with me. Mackenzie slept with Alaina and Matthew and Alex. There was not a whole lot of sleeping the first night but the next few they drifted off quite fast. The house had a pool and hot tub right outside the door and the beach was a couple feet away.
Thursday we went to the beach and then played in the pool, ate lunch, back to the pool while Ryan slept, then back to the beach, ran to walmart, back to the house for dinner, down to the beach for a walk then played in the pool with Sean while the older kids went fishing. I think Michelle's boyfriend was the only one to catch anything and it wasn't worth keeping.
Friday we did the same thing beach, then pool, beach then pool. That night we went on a dolphin watch/sunset and fireworks cruise. It was alot of fun! The kids had a blast running up stairs then down to try to get a glimpse of the dolphins. We paid Matthew to keep Sean entertained for the 15 min we were parked waiting for the fireworks. Then the fireworks went off and it was alot louder than I was expecting and Ryan fell apart. That was a rough 10 min. to try to calm him down with all the explosions. He quickly fell asleep on our 30 min. ride back to the dock. Daddy flew in that night and so the kids were excited to see him when we got back to the house.
Saturday off to the beach, then pool, souvenir shopping, back to the pool then we went to eat at S. Padre Island Brewery and then back to the house for a brief talent show. Alex sang a song, the girls goofed around swinging each other around, then Mackenzie and Sean did a song from VBS and then there was a meltdown by Alaina. So that quickly ended.
Sunday brought the end to our trip and the long drive back. Everyone had a great trip. Ryan loved playing in the sand, crawling around in the tent, sitting up in the chairs and eating his craisins and watching the big kids. Sean loved jumping over the waves, getting water in his bucket to make drip sand castles, playing with his boy cousins and especially playing in the pool. Mackenzie had fun boogie boarding (she used my board from hawaii), playing in the pool, doing anything with Alaina and building sand castles.
Here's just a few of the pictures.

Ryan eating watermelon

Papa and Ryan

dolphins from the boat cruise

sunset from the boat cruise