Texas Adventures

With Titi V

Gonna find some treasure!

Examining shells

Beach Babies

Galveston

At Discovery Green

Walking in Downtown Houston

PaPa giving Alec a frisbee lesson

Me and the girlies

Girlies and bubbles

Surfing at the Park

Aaron, King of the Rock

Tres Primos (3 cousins)

GiGi took us all out to Red Lobster

The Brothers Davis

Youngest to Oldest (Alex, Andrew, Aric, Aaron)

With GiGi

At Splashway!

Throwing rocks into the Guadalupe.

Painting in the shade.

Slip-n-slide!

Usually, every summer about the first weekend in June, we go to Aaron's family reunion at Dixie Dude Ranch in Bandera, Tx. This year, his Uncle Larry is getting married (to a woman he met at DDR, who was also a "Dixie Dude lifer.'") The wedding will be at the ranch in September, and so both the reunion and wedding will take place then. I think September might be a nice alternative, since it probably wont be 110 degrees then...maybe.

So, since Aaron had a bunch of vacation days to use and we really wanted to see all his mom's side of the family sometime this summer too, we decided to take a vacation down there.

First we hit Houston/Galveston. We stayed with my best friend, V, and her hubby, Dr. Dan. We went to Galveston beach that Saturday. That was the kids' first beach excursion ever. Aaron was able to show off his MAD PARALLEL PARKING SKILLZ, because when we got there it looked like there was no way we were going to find beachside parking. It looked like we were going to have to pay and walk. But somehow Dr. Dan spotted a miraculously empty space at like the very last nanosecond, and miraculously there was no one right behind us, so that Aaron was able to brake, and back right on in. Perfect! I still can't get over that.

We enjoyed our day at the beach very much. We packed a lunch/snacks/drinks to take along, and just played in the sand, sun and surf all day. The kids really enjoyed digging around in the sand, finding a treasure trove of seashells, and of course the water. Alec, a bit more than Emma, to be sure. He thought he was good to just swim right on out into the deep, but Aaron kept a handle on him. His favorite thing was wave jumping with Daddy. Emma took a lot longer to make nice with the water. She just wanted to sit in the shallow water with Mommy. Eventually, she decided to wave jump too. We had an awesome time, and then went back to Titi and Dr. Dan's for some RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME Cuban food. They treated us to take out from their favorite restaurant. Aaron and I split this sampler with fried pork chunks, steak, shredded beef, black beans and rice and plantains. Holy moly! And then, to top it all off...the BEST arroz con leche I have EVER had! Seriously, to die for.

Titi and Dan were super hospitable. They were very thoughtful about making sure that there were kid friendly foods in the house, and didn't mind surrendering their tv/dvd for A & E's entertainment. We all had an awesome time!

From there we headed home to Victoria (after making a quick stop by Discovery Green downtown in Houston). V had been telling me about this really neat park that has fountains for kids to play in, a playground, all sorts of fun stuff. So, we went by there to let the kids splash around a bit, and then took off.

We spent Sunday afternoon and all the next week in Victoria, with a few trips to Goliad. Aaron's brother, Aric and his daughter, Cira (who is almost 3) were there too...which was awesome, because all three kids got to play together and had so much fun. I'm so so grateful that Alec and Emma have several cousins so close to their own age. My sister and I just had eachother...no cousins our age. So, I feel like it's a really big blessing.

We spent our days enjoying family, letting the kids play in the pool, on the slip-n-slide, at the park, at Aunt Linda's with playdoh and bubbles and frisbee, visiting HEB, and the list goes on. PaPa Davis took us all to a waterpark outside of Halletsville (Splashway) one day. It was so fun...perfect for the kids. They had a blast!

We returned home Saturday, the 9th. We all had such an awesome visit, and really appreciated the family time. Love us some TEXAS!!!