Beach Bums 2012

At the end of May, we headed down to Galveston for our family vacation.  We thought Brailyn would love the beach and boy did she ever!  Our cousin Courtney was getting married in Houston on the 26th,   so we headed down a few days early and made a trip out of it.

On Wednesday we drove to Dallas to see our friends Josh and Rachel.  We didn't have a set schedule so we just cruised along as we wanted. We stopped at one of the ritzier malls and let Brailyn explore the Disney Store.  She LOVED it!  They had a little castle you could walk through and had a magic mirror in it that played a short clip of a movie and she had a blast!  We stayed in the store for at least an hour.  She ran all over the place and had the best time.

We spent the night with Josh and Rachel and the next morning, we headed out at a leisurely pace to Galveston.  Along the way we stopped and had a picnic lunch at a rest area, and that was another big treat for Brailyn.  It's the simple things in life that are the best!  We got to Galveston and Brailyn was so excited to see the beach!  We checked in our hotel, and then got ready and went to the beach.  Now, Galveston is not a very pretty place and neither is the beach, but we had a lot of fun.  The beach wasn't crowded at all so we had plenty of room to play.  The waves were enormous the whole time we were there and they never let up, so we didn't get to swim in the water, but we had the best time standing in the waves and playing in the sand.  We went to the Rain Forest Cafe that night and Brailyn really enjoyed that.  She was the best child ever the whole vacation!  They had a lightning storm every thirty minutes in the restaurant and at first Brailyn wasn't sure about it, but then she kept wanting it to do it again.  They also had animals that would go off every so often and she had fun watching those.  The highlight of the cafe though was the adventure ride they had.  It was really fun and so worth the expensive but not so good food we paid for!  It was a little water ride that took you around through all of these animals that moved and made sounds.  Brailyn had a blast!  She kept turning around and looking and couldn't get one sentence finished before she found something else.

Picnic on the side of the Interstate!

Downtown Houston!  CRAZY!

"We are here!"

Watching the Lightning storm at the Rain Forest Cafe

We told her to pick something that she wanted to buy and she picked a frog umbrella.  She still loves it!

On the Adventure Ride!

Putting their feet in the ocean for the first time ever! Jody and Brailyn!

First wave!  She loved them!

Digging in the sand(pardon the white beached whale by the cutie patootie) :)

She kept standing up wanting the waves to hit her booty!  We finally got a semi good pic of it. :)

Our little beach bum

On Friday, we got up and went straight to the beach.  Brailyn was absolutely happy to just sit and play in the sand and water for three hours.  We walked a little and found some seashells too.  We had a picnic on the beach which was fun for her.  Then we went back to the hotel and she took a pretty good nap.  After her nap, we headed down to the pool since we had already taken showers and didn't want to get sandy again.  The pool had a small 2 foot area where Brailyn could stand up and play.  She had a lot of fun.  We went and ate at a fun little restaurant right beside the Pleasure Pier(which was really fun looking but we dint go).  I can't remember the name, but it was good.  We ate outside right at the edge of the deck so we could see the gulf and it was fun.  We had to fight the seagulls, but that was fine.  Actually we didn't have a problem with them but the table next to us had big troubles!  They would nearly land on the table!  We went back to the beach that night and stayed nearly till dark.  We really hated to leave it because the weather was so nice and Brailyn had so much fun.  She told the beach bye, but the next morning she kept asking to go back.

Picnic!

View from our balcony

Pleasure Pier...we didn't go, but it looked fun!

Silly Girl!

Our last time at the beach.

"Hi Daddy!"

"Hi Mommy!"

Good times with Daddy! :)

Daddy showed her how to rub mud on her legs which she then turned around and started doing to us.  Thanks Daddy! :)

Family Vacation 2012!

Our Hotel

Leaving the beach for the last time.  "Bye Beach!"

Saturday morning, we just laid around and got ready to go to the wedding.  Brailyn was out before we got out of Galveston.  I'm glad we left that day because the beach was completely full!  There was not a single parking space on either side of the road when we left and people were still coming!  Josh and Courtney's wedding was beautiful in Houston and Brailyn slept basically the whole way there.  We left and drove home that night.  Six hours of straight driving! Crazy!  But Brailyn was the absolute best!  We did not pull the DVD player out once on the trip.  She looked at books and my Kindle on the way home and then went right to sleep when we told her it was time.  Amazing!  We couldn't ask for a better traveler and we hope she stays that way!

We are already planning our next beach trip since it is so relaxing.  This time though, I think we want to head down to Gulf Shores or somewhere for a little bit prettier scenery.  Not this coming summer but the next I hope! Sorry about all the rambling and minute details, but I like using this blog as a way to document our lives and to keep it here like a scrapbook we can always look back on and remember these fun times as a family!