Galveston

A few months ago when we were all stuck at home, my mom asked if she got a beach house in Galveston, if we would come. Don't think it took much hesitation to say YES! We decided not to travel but making the quick 6 hour drive to Galveston is easy enough. It's definitely not the prettiest beach we have ever been to, but honestly, I have seen Galveston far worse & it was really clean this year. Still brown water at the shore, but the beaches were clean & there wasn't any sea weed. And you could actually see blue & green water farther out. Look at the view from our balcony:

I took that early one morning when I got up to run. It was always prettiest in the mornings at sun rise. So here we go - 7 days away with my parents, my sister & her family:

We literally left the house 1 time & that was to get groceries the first night. Other than that, we had no reason to leave. We literally went from pajamas to bathing suits & then back to pajamas! We were lazy, we cooked, we visited & we ate a lot. And it was perfect! My mom brought a menu board & Sadie had fun decorating it every day:

We spent most of our time at the beach & the kids loved it!

Our house had boogie boards, beach toys, noodles, floats - anything you can think of. It was a children's paradise! They even had 2 kayaks that Kason & Sadie loved. The waves were too strong to really paddle out, but the guys took turns pulling them around & they loved getting knocked down by the waves:

Even Max loved the water! My parents took turns sitting with him & trying to keep him shaded while he splashed around:

We also played a lot on the beach. We brought a soccer ball & our softball gloves:

My mom even brought kites & it was perfect weather for flying them:

We were actually really lucky because there was a small stretch of beach that you are not allowed to drive on so our beach was very private. The only other people there were the house next door. But when we looked down both directions, the beach was packed with cars, tents & people. I was trying to take a picture of our kites but you can see in this picture how we had the place to ourselves:

The adults pretty much sat under that tent the entire time & visited, read & listened to the music while the kids ran around:

Nat even brought their dog Mocha & our girls loved getting to play with him:

We went for lots of walks on the beach & I collected a lot of shells. I even found a few pretty flowers along the way in the sand dunes:

The girls did a lot of gymnastics on the beach & there might have been a few dances & cheers going on also:

Besides all of the cooking, we did a little baking. I might be the bad influence in our family because I have a sweet tooth, but it was my mom's birthday so how could we not bake her a cake?!

These 3 were my helpers. In case you were wondering, we made most of our food gluten free all week, even the cake:

The kids especially had fun celebrating Mimi:

I did all the baking & Bryan had a lot of practice making frozen concoctions:

He had a fun time making daiquiri's, smoothies & pina colada's. And my mom would make snow cones for the kids:

I might have been a little spoiled being lazy, reading & sipping our cold drinks with a fabulous view. It felt like a true vacation!

We ventured out one night for a twilight stroll & the sunset was beautiful:

The kids are finally old enough where they can all stay up late, sleep together & still sleep in the next day without bothering each other so they loved watching movies every night:

Our house had 2 rooms that were perfect for kids. One had day beds with trundles & the other had bunk beds. I love all of the bright colors on the beach houses. Ours was yellow!

I snapped this picture coming home from my morning run. Again the sunrises were so beautiful!

Our last day there, Aunt Natalie & Mimi spoiled the girls - they wanted their hair braided & the nails done before we headed home:

And that was it! That was pretty much our vacation for summer 2020. Thankfully we just had a big trip over spring break so we are fine not traveling this summer but we sure loved getting to spend extra time with our family. These kids really are best friends & I love when they get to spend time together:

Thank you Mimi & Doc for treating us to a week away together. We absolutely loved spending time with everyone & it was a fun way to celebrate Mimi's birthday & Father's Day. Now it's back to our pandemic reality & trying to keep it safe in our bubble at home.....