Galveston Part 1

On July 2nd, our family packed the car and headed to Galveston for our annual trip with Jason's family. The drive would have been fine if we weren't driving into a hurricane that had just turned tropical storm Alex. We all had to thank Alex for a good 7 1/2 to 8 hour drive instead of a nice 4 1/2 to 5 hour that it has taken in previous years.

That aside the drive was totally worth the great time we had. It was so much fun to spend another year with Jason's family. This year was one of the most exciting because it was one with the most family members to be there. We had 12 adults and 3 kids. So much fun.

As usual Jason's grandparents treated us incredibly well with another house on the beach. They are so incredibly loving towards us and will do what ever they can to make the trip an enjoyable one. The first picture is the view we had. All we had to do was walk across the grass and the beach was there. Nothing stood in our way. Absolutely beautiful.

For Kaylie her favorite parts were the beach and playing with Garrett. Now that Garrett is older the two can play and do things together that they couldn't do before. They were pretty much inseparable. When one was good the other was good and when one was bad...well I am sure you can fill in the blanks. They were definitely partners in crime. The other little one to join us was baby girl Hannah. She was 3 months old and took everything in. Kaylie and Garrett were so sweet and loving to her. I love seeing how loving little kids can be to others that are younger than them.

Kaylie sharing her brown dog with Garrett. She was so sweet with him.

Her My Little Pony pacifier. Garrett did it first and Kaylie thought it was funny and followed along.

I did not set this up. For some reason she is fascinated with sitting in small spaces. I found her sitting in a tiny box that is used in her play kitchen. I don't know why she likes this?!?

Two Cheetos-holics. Seriously...they ran around with Cheetos the entire day. Kaylie is seriously addicted to these things. She could eat a half a bag in one sitting if you let her.

Terrified of the clown. I actually had to go up and get the balloon for her she was so scared. It wasn't until he came up to her that she actually gave her the time of day. I have to say this was probably one of the best balloon animal clowns I have ever seen. The details on all of the animals were so incredibly detailed and his animals were not typical. The best part was he did it for free.

To celebrate our first full day the young ins decided to go to Jason and my favorite place to eat known as "The Spot." As you can tell it has a lot of fried food. So yummy!!!

Even though Kaylie was so incredibly excited to get to the beach she was a little hesitant at first. It took a little while for her to get comfortable but once she did she did great.

Trying to get her comfortable we chose another approach that we know she enjoys which is running down the beach yelling at the birds. One of her absolute favorite things to do. She runs and roars and then becomes so happy when they fly away. Is that mean?!? Even so...it helped her to relax.

This little girl has a good arm. She definitely had fun playing with all the daddies.

What a great way to end the day!

The drive

The drive to Galveston was somewhat of a beat down. With us driving into a hurricane it was expected the trip would be a little stressful and take a little longer. We just didn't know it would take us 8 hours. Thankfully Kaylie slept for 2 1/2 hours before we stopped to eat half way there. It was a good thing we stopped when we did because from that point on it rained pretty much the rest of the trip. At one point it was raining so hard you couldn't see anything and we had to drive with our flashers on. Jason was relaxed the entire time with the exception of the time the car next to us ended up hydro planning. Thankfully, they were able to correct while staying in their own lane. Jason and I held our breath because the only place we had to go was into the wall. Phew.

After we hit the 5 hour mark Kaylie started to get restless. We figured if we wanted out she sure as heck wanted it even more. My trip to parents taking a trip...buy some new things they have never had to play with prior to the trip and start dishing them out. Worked like a charm. She was pretty content with that until about the 7 1/2 hours. Thankfully that was when the rain cleared up and to a tolerable level and we could finally start going 70 again. We were grateful when we got to the house safely.

Little Helper

Every year we take a family trip with Jason's family. The past few years his grandparents have rented a house on the beach were we could all stay and enjoy being together. This was the first trip that Kaylie did not freak out when we started packing. Instead she decided to help. She grabbed the big Ziploc bags and decided to pack her necessities. She wanted to make sure we knew what she wanted us to bring. I didn't know she was doing this so I was quit surprised to find each of her animals in there own bag. All said and done they got to come along with us just not in there original Kaylie packaging.

Swimming

For there 4th class I actually remembered to bring my camera so I could get some decent pictures. During this class she was jumping in and swimming under water for at least 4 seconds. They had them retrieve things from a platform that is in the middle of the pool and bring it back. I am pretty sure they do these things without a fuss because they know they get an M&M when they are done. If only it worked like that all the time. For the 4th class we are so pleased. She is really starting to enjoy the water. At times Jason and I fear she enjoys it too much because she will occassionally try to jump in when we are not ready. There prize for this class was a flag. You would have thought she was given a bag of Cheetohs. The girl was soooo excited!

Happy Birthday Kalie Lynn

On June 30th Ms. Kalie Lynn turned three. Since we couldn't let her celebrate without a day of fun we decided to take the girls to the downtown children's museum. They had a blast. They pretty much ran right through every activity before slowing down to actually play with some of the exhibits. Too cute to watch. I am pretty sure there favorite part of the entire day was the free balloon animals they got. They were packing up for lunch and told us they couldn't make them and after mentioning it was her birthday they gave in. As you can tell by the last few pics it was well worth it. Afterwards we took them to Mac Donalds for lunch and some play time. Thanks for letting us spend your special day with you.

P.S...I know Kaylie had one piece of hair longer than the rest. It would not go back and I couldn't do anything about it until we got home.)

Should we be worried?!?

Should we be worried that Kaylie's new favorite thing to do at My Gym is slide down the pole?!?

Where do they come up with this?

While spending some time with Jolie, Fletch, and Lucas while the boys were away our two little smarties decided they would have the best time playing in the dogs crate. Not the big one that was right next to them but the little one. My favorite picture was the last one. Kaylie's face cracks me up and Fletcher is trying to get her to scoot over so he can be seen. What are we going to do with them?!? Too cute