Last Chapter of Galveston

This was at a restaurant on the strand - neat little "water wall." The only reason for sharing these is to tell my super embarrassing story...
See how the water is splashing out, making the tile wet??? Also, notice I'm holding a 25 pound baby on my hip? Right after this was taken, I start to walk down the steps, my foot slips and me AND Max fall straight down on my hiney!! So extremely embarrassing - very nearby was the restaurant with glass walls with a lovely view of this wall where we were standing! I suppose it was only embarrassing (and not tragic) because I managed to keep Maxer on my hip and upright. Only my pride was bruised...my goodness.
Later shopping on the strand - Max saying "no-no" to something...
That afternoon we left Galveston and headed to Andy's dad's house. We met up with Uncle Chris, Andy's brother for dinner at a Mexican place. We (Max particularly) were serenaded by a Mariachi band!
The next day we went to Houston's Natural History Museum with Papa Clay. It was fun - the boys, especially Jake, LOVED the dinosaurs.

Max saying, "rooaaarrr!"

Last day before heading home - a carousel at a mall in the Woodlands - exactly like what's in Frisco, but fun and different when you're still on vacation.

Max happy to head home...

Crabby Crabs

A bit long... But photos alone of the little guys doesn't do them justice. "Lolly-lolly!" is still how I feel!

Galvestion - Chapter 3

We took a ferry over to Bolivar Penninsula. Max loved watching the seagulls (which equaled lots of bird poo on the car) fly around the ferry.
Max at Casey's, where we ate dinner. It was really good - next door to Gaido's, which is a bit fancier. Casey's was more our speed with really good seafood. Andy and I each had grilled scallops, shrimp and fish. Even their salad dressings were homemade - yummy! (Jake and Max shared chicken strips...I hate that - my parents always had us try new foods as kids, which made me like a variety of things. All Jake ever wants when we got out is chicken, and icky nuggets at that! I'm hoping I can convince him to try more as he gets older. I digress...)

While there toward the end of the meal, when Max's belly was full and he was getting restless, he let out this BLOOD CURDLING scream...all in happy Max fun. The whole room hushed for a second to look at us. A woman was walking behind him exactly as he screamed and she actually bent over and covered her ears! After the restaurant got loud again, Andy and I had a pretty good laugh. I'm glad we didn't go to the more elegant Gaido's...

Jake catching crabs from his bed!
Showing us his catch! Don't you see it?!

THE DEADLIEST CATCH

Before our trip Andy got the idea to try to catch crabs as something fun to do. He researched it tons online, learned exactly how to do it (he had also done it some as a kid) and got SUPER excited about it. He really wanted to catch a bunch and have a crab boil in our hotel mini-kitchen. :D We did just that! (Sorry to whoever was on our floor!)

We got some tips for good locations, and this was our first try. To catch 'em, you're supposed to attach chicken (we used gizzards, attached with binder clips - ha) to nets, lower them in shallow water and check them every few minutes to see if crabs were caught inside. This first location didn't work out - really no sign of any crabs, and the water was pretty deep - at least 12 feet Andy guessed by the length of string he needed. It was SO HOT and since Andy wasn't having much luck we packed up to try somewhere else.

My mom helped my by sewing a band to a hat I found on clearance for Max. Above is pre-hat.This is what he thought of the hat. Really. Every time I put it on him, he acted like it was torture. (It wasn't too tight Mom, like we wondered - he just wasn't having it.)

So, with the help of our GPS we drove around to several more spots trying to find crabs. It needed to be on the bay side (not beach side), not too deep, preferably with a dock (instead of rocks) to hang nets over, and with evidence of crabs. Sometimes you could see tiny crabs walking on the shore or crab limbs around.

Around 1ish Andy dropped Max and me off at the hotel so he and Jake could continue the hunt. They were gone till about 7 pm! Actually it turned out to be my idea of vacation - Max napped well, I got to watch a movie I rented (Dan in Real Life - pretty good) and I had no obligation to clean or do ANYTHING! It was super nice alone time.

But Andy and Jake DID catch crabs. He said they found a good spot behind a closed bait shop and that they came pretty quickly. Their first catch:

HA! He said they really pinched hard - wouldn't let go of his glove.

At the hotel in our cooler. They're called blue crabs - amazing how bright blue their claws were! I think we counted 12 or 13.

Ooh! And to watch them squirm around...crazy-looking.

Our feast! (Hot dogs for Jake, though he did taste a tiny bit, and as a backup if something went awry.) After cooking they turn red! And they tasted pretty darn good! Andy disagrees, but I think they weren't quite as good as restaurant claws - like the giant ones. Because he caught them, they were the best he'd ever tasted! But I was surprised by how good they were - just a lot of work. Also, I forgot butter for dipping! Still a blast...

Andy said several times during the rest of the week, "I'm just glad I got to catch my crabs." It made his vacation.

More of Galveston...

Eating breakfast - perfect spot for messy eaters - on they balcony! Max LOVED it out there.

The first day we decided to do the beach thing. We had originally thought we might do Schlitterbahn (thinking it was one of the few things to do in Galveston) but decided against it -- 2 little ones who would only be able to ride so much. Something for us to look forward to for when they're older.

Another reason our hotel was great: a walkway right out to the water so we didn't have to cross traffic (like the other hotels near the seawall). And, around noon when little guy was ready for a nap, he and I headed back to the room and Jaker and Daddy played longer. Perfect.

the water was great - warm and seemed pretty clean. I've been to Galveston before when oil was covering the inside of my swimsuit after beaching - ugh.

Check out that sandy hiney

Building a sand ...um... hill. I love how all three were working on it. Max would pat it just like Daddy and Brother.

Skim board lessons. Pretty tricky and Jake quickly threw in the towel. After that Andy took him out deeper with the boogie board to ride waves and he LOVED that.

After the beach we drove around and the kids were zonked. I was so pleased that none of us got sunburned - we caked on the sunblock. And do your kiddos do this? Jake falls asleep and falls completely over like this. We always try to rig a pillow.

More tomorrow (or when I get to it). Again, sorry for all the detail. I figured this was a good way to document our trip. At the beginning of our marriage I had big intentions of scrapbooking everything. Seven years later, I have a dresser full of neat scrapbooking supplies and 1 and 1/3 scrapbooks... It's just not going to happen. So this is my substitution. I just hope Blogger never keels over!

Galveston Fun

We had such a great trip. What better to way to document our fun than on the blog? I was worried about being boring or too detailed, but hey, it's our blog, right?

This was our hotel - called a "condo" because it had a separate bedroom and living/kitchen area. Teeny, but perfect for us. I was so happy with it - very new and clean. Even a tad bit stylish! (the bed was neat) That was important to me - I can't relax as well in an icky place. Andy loves roughing it and I love to be pampered a bit. We had some of both this trip.

Impressed by the little things!

mid-air Jake
Max scoping the view out our balcony. Can you see the beach off to the left? Online a few people complained about the teeny balcony on the cheepest units (like ours). I was so pleased to be in ear- eye-shot of the beach!

the "infinity" pool...kinda. Again, plenty nice for us!

beach walking the first night

It's getting late...more to come!

Butt-prints in the Sand

I've Seen That Picture Before!

We had such a blast on our trip. I have lots of photos and stories to post...will when there's more time. But these old shots were from a trip to Austin we took when Jaker was 10 months old.

Galveston, almost 4

Austin, 10 months

Jake, ice snatching getting ready for our Austin trip

Max doing the same at 14 months

:D

New Pictures on Right

I've been wanting to do this for a long time. So not my idea - copied from Missy at It's Almost Naptime - really fun blog. I loved the way she introduced each of them...

And I have a few other things I've been wanting to blog about, just haven't gotten to it. I read (again, on someone else's blog) that they don't blog on days when they don't spend time with the Lord...ouch. So, I've been trying to set my priorities straight. I could blog/read others' blogs all day if I had the time! Also, there has been a lot going on lately...more about that later.

Andy and I had a date tonight - Max with Grandma/Grandpa, Jake with Grammy/Grandpa Bob. We ate at Chipotle (love that place but don't go very often because it's not super kid-friendly, i.e. no playground) and saw the Dark Knight. Good movie - not the kind that I love, but it was extremely well-done. We talked about it all the way home.

And we're going to Galveston/Houston for a kind of "stay-cation." We'll do a little beach, Schlitterbahn, crabbing (Andy is SO excited about that) and then do some things in Houston that we never have time for on our weekend trips there. Should be fun. I'll post when we get back!

Adventures in Wal-Mart

Ok, have you noticed how expensive groceries have gotten?! We go once a week and we used to be able to leave spending less than $100. Now, that's SO much harder. It seems like every week it's $115 -- crazy for a small family of 4! So, Sunday we went and we really tried to cut back (this is probably obvious to some of you); we bought the big thing of Great Value applesauce instead of the little cups, and big cans of pears instead of cups, bag of frozen (bone-in..ugh) chicken thighs instead of fresh boneless, skinless, etc. We bought a full week's worth of groceries (6 meals + snacks, drinks, etc.) for about $83. I was relieved.

One thing that was hard to give up was my bottled water. I used to not buy them, but but have gotten in the habbit. I'm the only one who drinks them (Andy takes a travel mug to work and drinks right out of the jugs at home... j/k :D -- only sometimes) but it's so much easier to grab those on the way out the door or whatever. So, I bought a good big (PINK!) plastic sports bottle to refill. Maybe it will help me drink more...?

Also, have you seen how yummy and ripe the avacados and peaches are right now? I don't usually buy either, but they were both perfectly ripe so I grabbed a few of each. Andy and I shared a peach last night and we agreed it was the best ever.

Back to Wal-mart: while I was putting peaches in a bag, I heard Jake say, "Uh-oh...." He was touching plums nearby and accidentally poked his finger through one. (I guess they were really ripe too!) I showed Andy and we decided to have him confess to the produce man and apologize. Andy picked up the wounded plum and he and Jake headed to where an older hispanic fella was working. Then, he started walking away and they had to follow him back through the gray double doors. Andy said that Jake confessed ("I broke this"), apologized and the man said, "that's okay, just don't do it again" and again, "that's okay." Andy said the man recognized it as a teachable moment. On the way out Jake kept saying, "I will NEVER do that again!" It was good. You could see his wheels turning as we talked to him about confession and honesty a tiny bit. Those concrete examples always make for better teaching opportunities, you know?

Anyway... I wanted to add a little stock picture of something applicable, but I'm not quite that saavy. Hints?

Fuzzy Balls: Max's Little Slice of Heaven