Galveston Getaway

How many times must you do something before it becomes a tradition?  For the second year in a row we packed up our little foursome and headed to Galveston for a quick getaway on Mother's Day Weekend.  Although trips of any length are never work-free for a Mom, I think I could get used to this type of celebration!

This time it was a 48 hour trip.  Chris went to and came home from work early on Friday so that we could arrive around dinner time and get all settled in.  I'm glad that I'd packed s'more cones for desert again, because Sam remembered every detail of our trip from last year, including what we'd eaten for desert.  This year Annabelle got one, too.  To quote her directly, "Mmm yummy chocolate!  I need more!"  And then she dug her finger into the melted chocolate to scoop out the best part.

A beach trip in early May is always a bit of a toss-up weather-wise, but we came out ok this year.  No rain, sunny all day Saturday (a few of us might have some burns to prove it - oops!), and temperatures that allowed us to be comfortable on the beach, although not warm enough that anyone other than Sam really wanted to swim.  The water was fine once you were in, but it got a bit chilly in the wind once you were out.  And Galveston is...well...kind of a gross beach much of the year.  We didn't have any tar balls to contend with, but there were piles and piles of seaweed blocking most of the beach.

None of that stopped Sam from running and jumping in the waves, diving in, splashing around.  My boy was made for the beach, he is so very happy every time we go to one.  He dug giant holes, made sand balls with mom, ran laps to collect buckets of water to fill his holes, and splashed to his little heart's content.  He even belly flopped into the seaweed piles.  I remember his first trip to Hilton Head he wiggled out of my arms and took off sprinting down the beach, sqeeling with excitement, at only 15 months.  And then there was the sunset beach trip over Christmas this year.  Good thing he'll have another crack at one in 3 weeks! 

Annabelle is a bit more of a learned lover of the beach.  Her reaction to the sand was severely negative at Christmas, and we have been slowly warming up to it since - even sandy playgrounds have been a challenge.  But she desires to do what Sam does and couldn't completely turn her nose up this time.  By Saturday afternoon she was sitting in, digging in, playing in the sand.  She told me it was "so pretty!" when she dumped it on my feet, and "thank you, mama!" when I dumped it on hers.  She even conquered the seaweed piles to get to the water on the other side.  Of course she only went deep enough to fill her bucket, which always sloshed to no more than half full by the time she returned to camp.

We grilled and watched movies and the kids got up too early and Sam didn't nap till the car ride home.  I went for a run on the beach and was allowed to sleep in on Mother's Day.  Annabelle cuddled with me almost to the point of falling asleep in my arms when we laid together in a twin bed on Saturday night, something that almost never happens with my obsessively-sleep-trained children.  We ate a lot of food, especially Sam, who downed 3 pieces of pizza at lunch on Saturday and 6 cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning.We were invited to a birthday party by the people renting the house next door!  It was a 'more-the-merrier, stay all day' kind of party common to the Hispanic culture, but Sam had a hard time understanding that he couldn't stay till the end of the party.  We weren't sure how to explain that there might not be a real end!  He was disappointed to leave the big kids he was playing with and the seemingly endless supply of Capri-Suns.  He lost some of that disappointment when the birthday boy brought party favors for both kids up to the house while we were eating dinner.  So kind!

And we did a craft!  I was worried it would be cold, so I packed supplies to make and decorate footprint casts for the kiddos.  They turned out pretty well and they seemed to enjoy the new beach activity!

Also, my daughter has the best beach hair in the world.  We literally did nothing to it for 46 hours (they bathed right before we left) and it was amazing - glossy, bouncy, perfectly-formed ringlets in wind that would have made my hair a knotted mess had I not had it pulled back the entire time.  I think she will need to live at the beach when she grows up!

It was short, but it was relaxing.  Its amazing how much stuff must be packed for even a quick trip, but it was so worth it to be away, alone, uninterrupted and unscheduled with our little fam for a whole weekend.  And now I am in summer mode!  We've got a lot of trips coming our way, and I am ready!