Galveston

The kids and I got to tag along on another of Matt's conferences and take advantage of a room on Galveston Island.  It's just over an hour from the house but it was a great reason to spend a few days at the pool and beach in a nice location.

 

The kids LOVE hotels.  I'm just now beginning to enjoy all sleeping in one room together, although it's still pretty tricky at night to get them to go to sleep and:  a) not fall asleep myself at 8pm, b) very quietly play angry birds in bed, or c) sneak into the bathroom and make a comfortable bed out of towels to read until I'm sleepy.  And then we're all awake when the first person wakes up in the morning, especially if that person has no volume control on his voice (ahem...Alex).

 

Swimming was great fun and we spent a lot of time at the pool.  I'm really happy to be wrapping up the summer with two good swimmers!  Alex still needs an adult nearby but for the most part can do anything he wants in the pool.  He watched a kid do a flip into the water and said, "I'm going to do that, too!"  But, Alex, let's wait on that a few years, okay?

 

We spent most of our time at the beach.  It's hard to beat sand and waves!  The kids boogie boarded a few times and one day when the waves were smaller we got a float at the store to play with instead.  That's Ben in the background relaxing in the little waves.

 

These boys don't get much happier than this!

 

We also had some fun dinners together, like this one at the Rainforest Cafe.   I'd avoided it as long as possible because it's overpriced food with cool scenery, but the kids loved every minute.  Let's just not tell them that there is one in our mall!

 

On our second morning, I wasn't ready to go swimming at 9am, so instead we road the ferry to the Bolivar Peninsula and back.  I knew Ben would love the idea of driving our car onto a boat and I figured they'd both love roaming around the ferry.  We saw a few dolphins and enjoyed the cool breeze.

On the other side, we played in the car and visited a very conveniently located snow cone stand before getting on the return ferry and hitting the beach again.

 

 We had a wonderful three day mini-vacation and I knew it was successful when I saw little sun-kissed cheeks and sleepy faces in the backseat!