to the beach...TO THE BEACH!!!

I had a pretty normal summer until the end of the summer.  I went on 4 trips back to back and I had a blast!  So, now for some fun catching up!!  First, I went to Royse City to visit my family!  

Then, I went with my family friends to Corpus Christi!  This has been a tradition in my family to go almost every summer with the Westmorelands.  We almost always stayed at a place called the Gulf Stream Condos.  There's a lot of history there and really happy memories of my mom.  Judith, Susan, and I used to talk about bringing our husbands and our kids and how much fun it would be.  We also talked about buying our own condos so they would always be ours...that hasn't happened...yet!  Ryan had already experienced the "beach experience" with this group, but this would be different since there were two more guys coming along as well as two kids that would be with us.  We needed two condos to fit all of us, but boy did we have a great time!!  

After being around constant "help", I'm not sure Ryan and I will ever vacation with just us and our kids, well until they are older.  We really appreciated the added help!

We actually got there early, so our rooms weren't ready, but we found the gift shops!

Once our rooms were ready, we changed clothes and headed to the beach.  Cade had been talking about the beach for past month but he didn't actually know what it was.  This was Cade and Lyla's first time to see the beach.

 

First time on the beach!

Cade insisted on wearing his shoes, hat, and glasses..wonder why??

Setting up the cabana early in the morning.  I took this picture from our balcony! Our poor cabana that has been in the family for so many years was stolen.

happy girl!!!

of course we went to Snoopy's.  Our favorite seafood around.  Cade and Lyla both tried the boiled shrimp, but took after Ryan and wanted the fried shrimp!

Here's our group!  Susan, David, Cole, Ryan, Bob, Judith, Lyla, Johnny, Sharyn, Cade, and Jess

  

Next door to Snoopy's is Scoopy's Ice Cream.  Cade got some sherbert but decided to drink Ryan's milk shake instead.

Lyla with her favorite person (probably had something to do with the fact he gave her her first ice cream!)

Corpus can be pretty!

After Snoopy's I wanted to get some pictures of us in clothes on the beach.

That's about as still as I could get them!

We usually play frisbee and toss the football or softball around.  It's more fun when you have more people.  We played a pretty mean game of frisbee one afternoon!

Here's a picture of Susan, Judith, and I on one of our summer trips to the beach!  I love that I get to take my family to the same beach and create our own memories!

Ryan was only there for part of the time because he can't get time off from the Police Academy.   Cade really took after Ryan and enjoyed sitting on the sand or in the water, but not actually swimming in the water.  He built sand castles and then destroyed sand castles!

And, Lyla took after me!!! I love swimming in the ocean and so did Lyla!

Judith, Susan, and I swimming in the hotel pool!

Me and my family swimming in the same pool!!!

My dad loves frisbee!!!

Thanks Angela for the bikini!!!

brother hugs are the best!!!

One of my favorite pictures.  Lyla and I then my dad and Cade in the background!

The "almost married" couple!

Two of the best friends anyone could have!!! I thank God for ya'll!

 I hope to do this every year we go to the beach!  I hope to take our kids every year while they are young.  It's such a great adventure for them and an easy trip.   I would totally be okay with going several times in the summer.

Trip to my Cousins

Last week my dad I took a trip to my cousin, Julie's house.  She lives in a little city north of Rockwall, TX.  They live in the country and since Ryan and I hope to live in the country some day, this is a lot of fun!  Julie and her husband, Kevin have 3 great kiddos!  Jacob is 10, Shelbie is 7, and and Carlie is almost 3.  Julie and I are far apart in age but ever since I got married then had kids, we have more in common.  I love that we were pregnant at the same time even for a few months.  (Me with my first, Julie with her last)

We had a great and exhausting time.  It is just a lot of work keeping up with my kiddos or feeling guilty if I don't :)  Oh well...

Here's a lot of pictures from our trip!

I never remember my dad jumping on a trampoline with me as a kid, but of course he'll do it for Cade.

This about sums up Julie's personality..if you can sum it up at all!! She is so full of life and I love that her kids are too!

Me and my sweet Shelbie

Perfect!!

Julie bought some 50 cent Frisbees...and we definitely got our money's worth and more!  We had a great time with these!  My dad went to Wal-mart the last night to try to get Jacob a "real Frisbee", but they were sold out?!?!

We also decorated flip-flops.  There were some for Nana as well as Carlie, but they were both sleeping when we took this picture!

This is going in a frame!  I love these two so much!

I wanted to try to get a group shot of the kids...super hard!  (by the way, I wish Cammy had been here and we'd have the entire great grand kids)  Anyway...I thought for sure Popsicles would do the trick, but I think a motorcycle or horse caught their attention here.

And Cade is done!

Julie's 3

Cade dripped Popsicle all over my back while I was taking pictures!

The horse across the street...he was so sweet.  Cade was a little taken back

but not Lyla.

Cade's (and Lyla's) first fishing trip.  We went to one of Julie's friends house.  They have a pond they built and were so kind to let us come out there.  Jacob was really sweet to Cade and was excited to show him.  Cade was really excited until someone caught a fish and he saw that squirmy thing.

you mean, that's what all this is about?

sweet Carlie!

The family...(minus Granddad, Ryan, Nana, Eric, Amy, and Cammy)...other than that, there's my family!