Port Aransas Vacation

Did I ever mention that I am married to the most wonderful man alive? Too bad for every other woman out there, but I took him.

Amen.

I guess he was listening to me when I said, incessantly, that I needed a family vacation. I needed to get out of our flooding house, just the 5 of us. I needed to love my kids outside of our walls and I needed to spend hours talking about nothing with Brian. I didn't want anything for Mother's Day (other than a day off....which ironically never happens), but Brian surprised me with a weekend get-a-way to Port Aransas. I didn't care what we did just as long as we got to go somewhere together.

The forecast for the entire week was rain, rain, rain. Friday was supposed to clear up and be sunny other than 1-3 pm, when there was some scattered thunderstorms. I can deal with that! Beach, here we come!

So, Friday morning, 5:30 we took off on our 6 hour drive to destination: HOTEL! Our kids were terribly excited to stay in a "new home" for the night. Our kids did not sleep a wink for hours. HOURS!!! Seriously, it was 5:30. Now we know. The drive down was.....rainy. Remember how I wanted to talk about nothing for hours? Well, we said absolutely nothing...for hours...because the rain was so bad whoever was driving had to really focus on the road. Good heavens, this rain! The kids were pretty good for the most part. Lots of bathroom breaks and lots of snacks made the trip doable.

So, here we are, 1.5 hours away from our "new home" for the night and it's pouring rain. We were supposed to go to the beach on Friday so we'd have a shower at the hotel afterward (we only had a hotel for one night before we headed to Houston), but there was no beach adventure in sight. Only rain. Since we didn't see a break in the weather, Brian suggested to go to the National Wildlife Preserve since it "only added 5 minutes to the drive time". Well, there was nothing else to do, so why not.

Wildlife preserve. There's supposed to be wildlife sightings. We saw lots of deer. Oh....wow....deer. I've never seen a deer before. Wait, yes. Yes, I have. To be fair, we did see these fellers:

 See him in the middle?

Just as we got to see our alligators, our first tornado warning came into effect and we got to spend the next 45 minutes in the basement of the visitors center. It smelled like rotten eggs and they fed my children cupcakes that I thought may have been questionable, but they were very nice and tried to be accommodating.

After that bout of tornado warning nothingness (thank goodness) we went back upstairs. Five minutes later another tornado warning was issued. We determined the weather looked alright and stayed inside and upstairs to walk around and get away from the basement smell.

Doesn't he look so enthused to show me his wingspan? :) Am I embarrassing him already???

Dad is much cooler. 

So, This is where our trip went down to the funny farm. After the second tornado warning time lapsed, we wanted to drive down the 9 mile scenic route to the boardwalk at the end. We got in our car to venture out and....WHOOPS....guess Brian forgot to check the gas gauge and fill up the car. We didn't have enough gas to make the 9 mile drive and back to a gas station. We also didn't know where the nearest gas station was, so we pulled out our "trusty" google maps. Gas Station: ETA- 7 minutes. OK...Here we go. At this point, the sky was lookin' pretty nasty as we were getting a little worried that we may actually be unfortunate enough to see a tornado. Google maps directed us to Saen's Service Station in Austwell. I wish I could have taken a picture of it, but the rain was too bad. I believe this place was possibly built 50 years ago and went out of business 70 years ago. Wha....???? It looked like army barracks from way back when and I don't believe it ever pumped gas. Strike 10 Google Maps!!! I was so scared we'd now run out of gas IN a tornado. Brian has THE WORST timing with his gas carelessness. 

Luckily we made it to the correct gas station built in this century and then made our 20 mile trek back to the 9 mile loop. We started our trek down it and were stopped by the ranger for ANOTHER tornado warning. I was about to ignore him and keep going, but there was one that actually touched down, so we headed back to the visitors center. Honestly, my nose could not possibly be stuck in the basement for another hour, so I opted to just stay in the car. Once it really started to pour, Jared informed me that he needed to pee. Well, we were stuck in the car, so I weighed my options. It was raining far to hard to run inside, so he had the delightful first experience of peeing in his slurpee cup. We all started laughing about the situation except for Jared. He was concentrating pretty hard and then was very excited about his urinary results. Peeing in a slurpee cup makes, "Wook mom! Orange!" At least they were excited about playing in the car.

Finally, we drove down this long anticipated loop where we saw zero animals, went on the boardwalk for about 1.5 minutes and ran back down the ramp out of the wind and rain. To be fair, there were a lot of nature trails that went right out to the ocean, pull outs to lakes, supposed to be lots of animals, that on a sunny day would have made this place pretty cool. 

Downloaded blurry from my phone, but this is the lookout from the boardwalk. 

Jared wanted to run to the car. It was very windy. 

Our experience was just laughable and a little pathetic. Here is what the roads/fields looked like when we finally left the wildlife preserve:

Alright, so we finally made it to our hotel. We were so tired of sitting in the car, so we walked to H.E.B. to buy popcorn, walked to Dominos to eat dinner, got followed by a super weird drunk guy, accidentally stepped on a baby frog, and went back to the hotel where we got to watch the almost riveting Ella Enchanted. Sarcasm. 

Trying to get three kids to go to bed in one room was a joke. Hailey is so attached that we cannot be within sight or else she goes ballistic. Every time Claire spoke, she'd start screaming. We were really hoping not to bother any neighbors, but goodness, she had to go to sleep somehow. Claire just wouldn't get the memo that she needed to be quite, so I laid in bed with her for a while. When Hailey spotted me, she turned it up a notch and I had to make my hideout on the floor. Brian cuddled up with the kids, I fell asleep on the floor and everyone eventually passed out at 9:30. By the time I woke up stiff, it was midnight and I was far too tired to anything else but collapse on the bed. Isn't this the most romantic story ever told about 2 adults in a hotel with their sleeping children? 

Because I must remember this, I must write it. Hailey woke up at 4 am and I had her in various positions trying to get her to sleep from 4-6. I thought Brian had tons of sleep, of which I was mistaken, and he took her to breakfast at 6. He couldn't get to sleep at all after he woke up at midnight (thanks Anderson sleep genes), so we had Hailey to thank for making us extra tired. So, by the time we got ready to leave for the beach, this is how we found Hailey:

Shoulda slept when you were supposed to, Squish!

Well, after a short drive, a ferry, and a jaunt through the adorable Port Aransas, we finally made it to the most wonderful beach I've ever been to. The sand was perfect, the beach felt almost to ourselves, and we were all blissfully happy to be in the water and covered in sand. This is what Heaven feels like. 

Hailey was content on the beach. Since there had been so much rain, there were pools of water up in the sand that she was enjoying. It turned out to be perfect.

Jared and especially Claire couldn't get enough of running in and out of the Ocean. 

Jared spent a lot of time with his squirter here. He liked to fill it up, pretend he was Spider-Man and chase birds trying to squirt them.

Claire and her seaweed collection. I think I relate to how Hailey's feeling here. 

'uh...gross...what is that'.... 

"Ew! Please get that out of my face." 

Me and my girls! Gosh, they're so cute! 

Everyone needs a little boy! 

Everyone liked to sit on Daddy. 

After we wrapped up at the beach, we headed straight to Houston. It was about 4 hours away and the longest, most whiney trip we have ever endured. Brian and I were both so exhausted from the night before that I'm sure that contributed to how patient we felt. We thought it was a good idea to feed the kids before they fell asleep, but that meant that Jared didn't even take a nap and he was horrible. Halfway through, at our bathroom break, I discovered that my legs were so burned I was emitting enough heat to cook breakfast on them. Oh goodness. What was I thinking? Three hours at the ocean and we didn't reapply our sunscreen. That's the curse of thinking you weren't there that long mixed with a windy day to make you feel cool enough to stay in the sun. Luckily the kids weren't that bad and where they did burn, it was gone by morning. I, however, couldn't wear any bottoms to bed for the next 3 days. 

Houston was fun and short. We wanted the kids to play with their cousins and they had a blast. We were there a little less than 24 hours, so it went quickly. Normally I forget to take pictures while we're there and I wasn't that much better this time, but there is one to document it. :) Hooray. 

The drive home was much better. No rain. Kids played with playdoh and were awesome. Our house was totally flooded when we got home, but I had a vacation to help me breathe deeply and endure. 

Now....just STOP RAINING, TEXAS! 

And...for the record...I really, really, really, really, really like my family. Vacations are amazing.