Brownsville and the Beach

This year we spent a whole week in Brownsville and really had a great time!  Here were some highlights--

1. Spending time with Aunt A and Ary. Ary just LOVED being around the kids, especially Eulee. And when Eulee was around Ary, she totally acted like Evie...trying to take care of her, hugging her, feeding her snacks. It was cute! Ary would scream in excitement around the kids. Ary and Eulee are definitely going to be BFFs!

They also love to get in trouble together!

2. Going to the zoo...the best part was definitely feeding the giraffes...

3. Best of all, we actually spent 2 nights in a beach house at South Padre Island!  This was the very first time we've ever done it.

We had an amazing time at the beach. The first day we spent a few hours after check-in just playing on the beach. The next day we were out there for about 8 hours! It was crazy, but super fun. Every kid was doing something different.

Eulee just had tons of fun the entire time...playing with sand, playing in the water.

Elina spent most of her time building a "baby pool" for Ary to sit in. She probably spent 80% of her time out of the water that day. Hence, she got sunburned on her knees, thighs, and hands. Besides that, she also searched for shells and little clams up and down the beach.

 

Eli was the complete opposite! He probably spent 95% of his time IN the water. He was either jumping waves, swimming to the sandbar, laying on a boogie board, or swimming around with a family member. He constantly ended up down the shoreline from where we were. We had to go get him multiple times because he wouldn't even realize how far away he was from us!

Evie basically joined in wherever she could. She liked doing shallow water stuff with Eli and she also liked working with Elina on the shore. She spent a lot of time playing with Eulee, too. She had fun no matter what!

Evie also spent a lot of time helping B out with his sandcastle. Yup, that's right...B had his very own sandcastle! He was so proud of it too! It was adorable. BUT we met a very naughty boy who's mother has never read any parenting books. This 3 year old boy actually got into B's castle and stomped on it TWICE!! His mom barely did anything about it besides call his name out. After the 1st time, she told us, "He does this every week! Well...he was going to do it anyway." SERIOUSLY??? All of us were just in shock. Then she kept doing the ol' do-you-want-me-to-spank-you routine...plus, she added the we're-going-to-leave-right-now routine. Of course, she didn't follow through on any of the threats. Hmmmmmmm...I wonder why he doesn't listen? After the 2nd attack on the sandcastle, B just picked the boy up and put him closer to his mom and said, "Don't do that." And during all this, the mom was still barely moving from her spot. It was really a lesson in parenting, folks. Of course this boy was trying to get into everyone's sandcastles and coolers. He was a terror. When he finally left, B started remodeling his sandcastle. Poor B.

B also pulled the kids on a boogie board up and down the shore. He said it was really tiring, but they loved it!

As an extra bonus, both babies woke up extra early while we were at the beach house, so B and Aunt A took the babies to the beach to see the sunrise.  Lucky babies!

Definitely one great trip!!