Elisha loves being outside. If it wasn't over 100* he'd be out all day. In fact he doesn't mind the heat. It's the rest of us that prefer the cooler indoors ;-) Before we left for the beach, Doug wanted to get the yardwork done. It's a huge job taking care of our grass, weeds, trees and gardens. Elisha made motorboat sounds for about 30 minutes while Doug was working. Then he discovered the unattended weed eater. He ramped up his motorboat sounds and wished he could figure out how to pull the starter and help daddy.

Our beachouse is the one in the back. This picture was taken about 2 feet from the water...

Elisha loved loved loved the sand, the water, and his Daddy on this trip!

This is a zoom view of the USS Lexington from our balcony. It is a WW2 aircraft carrier. We didn't go on the tour, because we thought the younger set would get bored. But it was amazing to see how BIG it was! Below is the view of the beach from our balcony. It was perfect. We just might do this again...

More Beach Pictures...

Elisha LOVED the beach. Here, Erik is trying to keep Elisha from running off into deeper water.

I think this is my all-time favorite picture. Ev is looking out at the big kids in the big waves.

Elisha wanted to help his Daddy dig this hole, rather than help the other kids dig. This was before he discovered Daddy's shadow...

Ellie and Everson spent countless hours digging holes in the sand...only to have a wave come up and fill their hole with more sand and water. Needless to say, they slept well each night.

The kids discovered that if they stood just right, the sand would suck their feet in. Quite fun.

Doug and the little boys enjoying the surf on Corpus Christi Beach

VACATION 2009

We spend 3 nights right on Corpus Christi Beach and had a blast! We found jellyfish and rocks upon our first venture in the water...which led to tears. We played anyhow and made plans to drive down to Padre Island the next day.
North Padre Island beaches were about 45 minutes from us and worth every minute we drove. We got there late in the afternoon, the beach was basically deserted. The sand was unbelievable. The kids had so. much. fun. We planned to go back another day. But locked the keys in the trunk and had to wait for a locksmith ;-) So we spent more time on CC beach as the older 2 tried out their new boogie board on the waves.

The kids found this seahorse on N. Padre! We put it back in the water.

Doug and the kids checking out the smooth sand and warm water of N. Padre Island.

Elisha LOVED chasing and stomping on Daddy's shadow while we were at NPI

We also took in the Texas State Aquarium (http://www.texasstateaquarium.org/) and watched a Dolphin Show from underground. Elisha liked getting up close to the marine animals. No pictures...I forgot the camera ;-)

The kids showing off their biggest sand castle of the trip.

Sunday morning, we packed up and hit the road to New Braunfels (between San Antonio and Austin) to take in Schlitterbahn Water Park. WOW. Everyone had fun. Doug took the older kiddos on many of the rides, while I stayed with Elisha in the toddler water playgrounds. He must have gone down the waterslides close to 300 times! Really. The slides were low, easy to climb up on, soft, and landed in 8 inches of water. Perfect. Ellie and Everson had fun in the kiddie parks too. Again, no pictures...not sure I could have managed keeping the camera dry.

We got home close to 11pm Sunday, tired, exhausted, a bit sunburned...and with lots of laundry. If I can get the slide show to work with me, I'll get it on later today. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures.