There and back again!

This last week is a BLUR! I'll try to recall at least the most important parts...

Wednesday, Chad was hoping to take Ben out on the boat with his dad to do some night fishing. An appointment made the group outing impossible but he still took Ben out to at least spend the night on the water.

Thursday morning, I scrambled around to get the girls ready and we met the boys at the lake at about 10am. The water was so much nicer than the last time we were out. I think the girls were a bit apprehensive of 'daddy's boat' after the last excursion. No wind advisory this time, tho so we made it without getting tossed up and down in our seats. We went to a little cove with a decent shore and splashed around for a few hours. Lily took a little while to get used to the water but once she decided it was ok, it was incredibly hard to keep her out of it. She wanted to try to sit in it with Daddy and dunked her own face a few times. Izzy was running around in the water with Ben, as if she'd always been comfortable in the lake. The last couple of times, it took work to get her to get in up to her ankles!

Friday, we packed up and headed to Galveston. Well, Kemah. It's a little town about 25 miles north of Galveston. They seem to pick up a lot of the 'overflow'... for a town of 1,773 it's pretty busy. They have a boardwalk with lots of carnival type rides, restaurants and little shops. The girls got to ride the Red Baron and Carousel with me - first time on REAL rides, I think. Ben did a whirly ride that I can't recall the name of. Looked like fun, tho.

We drove around for a little bit and seemed to see all there was to see in Kemah. I'm sure if we'd walked around more, we'd have found something intriguing but it seems like it's just a little bedroom community that picks up the extra tourist traffic.

We had dinner at a place called T Bone Tom's (yummy chopped beef sandwiches and fried pickles!) and then called it a night. Well, as I recall, the girls and I did and Chad took Ben back out to the boardwalk for a while. I was so sleepy, it's a bit foggy.

Saturday morning, we headed to Galveston to check out the beach and Moody Gardens. Moody Gardens looked like a fun place to go but SO expensive. Every attraction had separate admission pricing! They weren't just a bunch of rides or anything... they have a Rainforest Pyramid, Aquarium Pyramid, water park, paddle wheel boat, theater, discovery center. And charging upwards of $15 a person for EACH thing. So off we went to the free beach. :) I think the girls were a bit overwhelmed by the speed of the surf, even if it wasn't that high. Lily managed to entertain herself, picking up little clams out of the sand and spitting sand out of her mouth every time she stuck her fingers in. Ben took off and enjoyed the water with Chad.... I think it's the first time he's seen the Gulf. He said the water didn't taste so great, tho. hehe As it was closing in on lunch time, we called it a morning and headed back to eat and lay the girls down. Izzy passed out HARD but Lily had napped on the way back to the room and was just being her normal crazy self. Chad took Ben to the NASA Space Center till it was dinner time and we headed back to T Bone Tom's. (I keep wanting to say F Bone because that's what their sign actually looked like. Choose your fonts wisely, folks!)

Sunday - we went BACK to Galveston, road the ferry around and saw some dolphins. :) Only a few of them actually leapt out of the water completely but it was still cool to spot them. And coming back to the original port, gulls and pelicans were flying right in front of the upper deck so we were able to see them up close and personal. Brown pelicans are so pretty.

The drive home - ugh. So long! We stopped at the Sam Houston statue, where the children were all underwhelmed. It was neat but SO hot outside that they just didn't care for picture taking.

Dinner with Justin and Sunny, who took care of our puppies while we were gone. :) Lily kept stealing my food so eventually, I will have a picture or two of her holding my corn on the cob to post. She was so happy to see her 'nana sunny'. I don't know why she calls her nana at first. Silly girl.