My mom has been wanting to go to a beach house for a long time. It has been on her bucket list. Us kids have been wanting to get together for a family reunion and do something fun. We finally did both!!! My mom started planning 3 months in advance and we made fun of how obsessed she was with the beach house and it became the brute of a lot of jokes. We would start or end every sentence with "the beach house!" even if it made no sense. Every single person that had a birthday got a present that they could use at the beach house. Mom even trained the grandkids. If she ever said something and then said "at the..." they would all perk up with "beach house!" We all got at least one email a week about the beach house whether it was what we needed to pack, the menu, or directions there (which we also got 3 months in advance).
Well, Mom's obsessing payed off! We all had an absolute blast. Thomas said it was the most organized family reunion type thing he has ever been to. It was awesome. Here is how it went day by day:
Saturday
My initial reaction to the beach house was "wow". I was not expecting to look that nice. I was kind of expecting a dump so I was pleasantly surprised. We unloaded the three car loads Mom brought and rested for a bit before going down to the beach. I was a little wary of how Lydia would react to the beach. She has never been in anything bigger than a bathtub and has never played with sand. She went CRAZY!!! She loved the sand and was crawling all over the place. We took her out into the waves and she squealed every time the waves crashed up on her. She kicked her feet in the warer and loved splashing. I took her back onto shore to play in the sand, but she crawled away straight towards the ocean. We had to keep our eyes on this girl.
Dad got Mom a GoPro for her birthday and gave it to her early so she could use it all week. It was fun to use so we could take videos of us all boogie boarding, playing in the sand, and jumping in the waves.
After enjoying the ocean, we went to the store to get more stuff (that's right, 3 car loads was not enough).
the deck
I got to sleep in the room with my mommy and daddy!
Sunday
We were planning on going to church in Lake Jackson which would have been a 30 minute drive. Church started at 9. Mom and Dad's stake had stake conference this day and they were planning to drive the hour back for that because we needed more stuff from home anyway. Adam got an email saying that if you were out of town or home bound, you could stream stake conference online. We were so excited that we wouldn't have to get these babies(and ourselves) ready so early AND we could watch the stake conference. We couldn't get it to work and it kept saying the event hadn't started, but it most definitely should have. Adam got another email that said that there was a limited amount of people that could stream it and so that the streaming going on at church buildings wouldn't be interrupted, we couldn't stream from home. Welp.. by now the Lake Jackson family ward was over so we could either go to the single adult ward or stay home. We watched BYUtv instead.
Sunday's meal was gumbo. Adam ate his gumbo. Then more gumbo. Then he started just eating sausage straight from the pot with his spoon. He finally put away his spoon, but he kept going back and picking out sausage. Some things never change...
Lydia was sad that she couldn't go play outside on the beach. She sat at the window and banged on it. Stacey and Jacob's families arrived later that night. We went down to the beach and made a fire pit to roast hot dogs over. It started pouring rain and the wind got strong. Our hot dogs were soaked and sandy. They were good hot dogs, though! The funniest part of this adventure is watching the other beach goers. There was a group of teenagers just to the left of us that had been swimming in the ocean. The rain started (at first it was only sprinkling) and they all ran out of the ocean and huddled under a tiny umbrella. Really, people? You were just submerged in water and you are going to run out of the water and huddle together to avoid getting...wet? Ridiculous. It wasn't even thundering or lightening.
"Please can I go?!?!"
Creeper picture taken of Mom and Dad holding hands on the beach and saving our place for the hot dog cookout
Monday
We started the day off at the beach! We took Lydia out in a float that she had gotten for her birthday for the....beach house! Thomas was playing with her when a big wave came up and pushed him over and took away his glasses! That's right, people. Thomas lost his glasses at sea. He was supposed to go home late tonight and work Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and come back Thursday night. I was so sad that I was going to have to go home with him and miss the beach house since he couldn't drive without glasses! The whole crew looked around for them and Mom even offered an extra sno cone to whoever could find them. No luck. We ended up driving back up to the Woodlands to Thomas' work to grab his safety glasses.
We got back to the beach house just in time for Ellie's first birthday!!!! Natasha did an awesome job with Ellie's party. She had everyone that was at the beach house send her a baby picture and then she made a cute banner with the baby pictures and had us all guess who each baby was. It was fun seeing everyone as a cute baby. Not that they aren't cute anymore, but... we were all cuter as babies. It was also crazy how much Thomas' baby picture looked like Lydia. Quite a few of the grandkids thought the picture of Thomas was Lydia's picture. I had never realized how much they look alike! Ellie loved her cake and the baby doll she got from Natasha's parents. She was done opening presents after she opened that one. That was all she wanted and she carried it around all week!
Mom rented a sno cone machine and syrups from a lady in the ward. It was the coolest thing! I think I had more sno cones this week than I've had in my lifetime. Everyone had fun trying the different flavors and different combinations of flavors. Lydia was in heaven and would beg anyone with a cup for more.
Thomas as a baby
Tuesday
Monday evening Tropical Storm started coming in. It was SO cool! Mom, being brilliant as always, had us move everything on the clothesline and patio inside so it didn't blow away. There were winds up to 60 mph. Today our family(specifically the men in the family) bonded by making fun of the media's coverage on the tropical storm. There was a road right next to the beach house that they said was flooded. We went out to see and we saw a few puddles, but nothing more than that. There was one news guy that was like, "and you HAVE to see this!" It was a trash can blown over.. The garbage man had just come and knocked over most of the garbage cans when he put them back. So ya... even if there was NO wind, that trash can would have been knocked over.
We actually went out and played on the beach. Well, Jacob and I did. The current was extremely strong, but it made it really fun! I caught some pretty good waves on the boogie board. It was also cool that there was not a single soul on the beach except us!
Look at all that flooding!!!!
I'm glad Ellie got a blankie and puppy for her birthday...
Wednesday
The beach was still empty and Tropical Storm Bill washed up lots of cool shells so we went down and collected some. Adam, Jacob, and Dad went to a flight museum and the rest of the group went to a small aquarium where there was a touch tank with a blue crab and some other things in there. Lydia and I stayed home while everyone else went. It was really nice! As soon as everyone left, Lydia was out. She hated taking naps when everyone was there because she didn't want to miss out! It was good to have her take a good nap. I went out on the deck and read a book and enjoyed the breeze. It was soooo nice.
Wednesday was Mom's birthday!!! June is a crazy birthday month for our family. Moriah and Jacob have birthdays the 21st and 22nd so we celebrated theirs today too! We had a yummy cookie cake and sno cones. After the party, we played some games. Lydia loved this part because everyone would laugh at the game. My sweet, narcissistic baby girl thought everyone was laughing at her and would crack up and squeal.
Mom took the grandkids down the the beach with some kites. The winds were still heavy so they lasted about 2 minutes. Fail!
This was taken as Mom was still trying to make the kites work. The grandkids had given up and were playing the sand. haha
Birthday peeps!
Thursday
The hit of Thursday was going crabbing. Mom got herself a fishing license so she could take the grandkids to the crabbing pier. They tied chicken necks on to string and caught over 20 crabs. The kids really liked this! They even brought one back to show me and Lydia, because once again I was a party pooper and stayed behind so Lydia could take a nap. And once again, it was glorious! :)
Thomas came back and the kids were thrilled! He is such a fun uncle and they were sad he wasn't there the whole time. They all kept asking me when he would be back.
We had another fail with glow in the dark bubbles. We tried to break glow sticks into bubbles. It made the solution glow, but when you blew the bubbles, nothing. It kept the kids (and grandma) busy for a while so it was worth a try!
Friday
We went to the jetty this morning. It was a lot longer than I expected. I was told I would see a dolphin so I went ahead and went. I didn't see a dolphin. I was rather disappointed, but then on the walk back lo and behold, a dolphin!
We also went and rod the ferry and saw a lot more dolphins. The coolest part was feeding the seagulls from the back of the ferry. Those birds would make good baseball players. They were flipping backwards, and flying left and right to catch the pieces of bread in the air. It was cool to watch them go after it.
Adam and Natasha did burgers on the patio and then we roasted marshmallows over the grill and had smore's. It was so nice outside and it was fun to be out with family doing what we do best-eating!
Lydia needed a bottle and I was feeling rather lazy. I didn't really want to make up a formula bottle because I would have to scoop up the formula, get water from the cooler, and then put it in the microwave. I know it doesn't sound hard, but when you are on vacation it feels like a lot of work. The doctor said to give her vit D milk at her one year adjusted birthday. I figured we are only a month away so... I went ahead and used the vit D milk in the fridge. It smelled a little weird but it wasn't supposed to be expired so I gave it to her. She loved it! Well.. it turn out Jacob had made horchata in that milk jug. Yep! I gave Lydia horchata. No wonder she guzzled that bottle down!
Lydia fell asleep on the beach practically begging me to pose her.
The Jetty!
She fell asleep a lot
Saturday
Today was cleaning day. We had to be out by 11am. Mom had typed up and printed a two page cleaning checklist complete with check boxes by each item. She assigned them out, penciled in extra assignments and check boxes, so we woke up, ate breakfast, and got to work. My mom has always taught me to leave things better than you found them. We all worked hard to get the beach house as clean as we could. It was hard to leave. No one wanted to go home. We had had too much fun together. We took a family picture with Mom's selfie stick and said our goodbyes to each other, the beach, and the beach house.
Overall, we all had a blast. There could have been a lot more drama, but everyone seemed to get along really well. I loved watching Ellie and Lydia interact. Ellie would give Liddy hugs that would turn into choke holds and then smack her down on the ground. It was hilarious but almost impossible to capture it in a picture. Lydia learned to stand by herself while we were at the beach house! It was nice having cousins on both sides of her to catch her if she fell.
The location was perfect. We were right next to the beach and just went downstairs, went across a bridge and BAM! beach! The breeze was amazing the entire week. It wasn't too hot and the mosquitoes were nonexistent. They are usually terrible at this place, but gool 'ol tropical storm Bill took care of those for us. That tropical storm really was perfect for us. We got the beach to ourselves, it made the weather cool and breezy, and it sent away the skeeters! I feel like I will never get all the sand off of me, but part of me doesn't want to. I don't want to be back to the real world.
As I said earlier, my mom taught me to leave things in better shape than we found them in. We did this by cleaning the beach house that last day, but we also applied this principle to the people around us all week. I think we all left better than when we came. We left with wonderful memories and stronger bonds between siblings, cousins, and in between.
The girls loved "helping" and pointing to where people should put their pieces.
Lydia can stand!
Thanks for all your hard work, mom!
