Beach

I am so ready to have sand between my toes.  As my sister-in-law and mother-in-law and I email back and forth menu ideas and grocery lists I find myself getting more and more excited to hit the beach.

Although the Texas beaches aren’t as highly sought after as Florida beaches they work out well for my family because the water is always warm.  I have watched my kiddos sit on the shores of the Outer Banks for a whole week because the water is usually very rough and very cold.

The first time we did a “cousin camp” beach trip the kids were very young and there was only 4 of them.  2 from me, 2 from Kathy, zip from Julie.  Now there are 8 altogether and it is so much more fun because over half of them are over 5.  This is huge.  Having older kids rocks.

Probably one of the best parts of the trip is when we get down to Corpus and we have to ride the ferry over to the island.  All the kids pile out of the cars and watch for dolphins.  We know we have a week of fun and relaxation ahead.  I love that part.

Pulling out some pictures of the trip from last year.

Grandma (Andy’s mom), Uncle Jim, Andy

The first night we got in, every one ran down to the beach without bothering to change into swimsuits.  Cole got naked almost immediately

Austin found a sand dollar

Joey

Max, Emma, Austin

The boys took to the boogie boards pretty quick since the waves were a decent size and not too rough.

Austin

Austin, Blake, Me

Blake and Uncle David

We had a hard time getting Blake to come in at the end of each day.  He LOVED the water and even with 40 spf the kid was as dark as chocolate by the end of the trip.

Cole liked to play in the sand and it was the first beach trip that he didn’t eat it too.

Emma, Grace, Alex, Cole and Aunt Julie feed the birds.  This was fun until one took a dump on Grandad.

Blake

Grandad  taught the kids to fish

Alex and Cole take a break to take in some Spongebob

So, looking forward to cousin camp ’07.