First Beach Trip

I realize that this post has a ton of pictures, but you only have your first trip to the beach once... :)


Above: Elijah in his "Eli" beach hat from Paula...so cute!


Above: Family pic at the beach


Above: Mom, Dad, and the little man


Above: Nana, Papa, and Eli


Above: You can see that Elijah is totally into this


Above: Elijah's very first dip in the ocean





Above: Here comes the water


Above: Not quite sure what to think...just kind of hanging out





Above: This is one of my favorites :)


Above: Stomping around in the water


Above: "Whoa, my foot is sinking!"


Above: Great picture of my Mom and Dad


Above: Posing for more pictures...by the look on Eli's face, it seems he is thinking very hard about something


Above: Elijah is now sporting the sailor look with his hat flipped up


Above: Still not sure what to think about that "squishy floor"


Above: Nana holding Elijah tight


Above: One of Elijah's new favorite things to do is to jump up and down, with our help of course. Here he was bouncing up and down with Nana on the beach.


Above: Daddy and Eli


Above: The boys...


Above: What a great dad


Above: Mommy and Eli..."Seriously Mom, don't we have enough pictures already?"


Above: : "Taking pictures is not very fun..."


Above: "Nana on the other hand is always the entertainer!" Once again, my mom was trying to get the little guy to smile for the camera and here we have a little success.


Above: Beach fun...Ethan and my dad playing horseshoes


Above: It was a close match. My dad won the first game, Ethan won the second, and it was neck and neck for the championship of the world (otherwise known as the third game). In the end, Ethan won and good times were had by all.

Pool and Resort

Here are some more pictures from the first "non-travel" day our fun family beach vacation.

Above: Michael and Jenny, aka Uncle and Aunt to Elijah, blessed us with so many hand me downs! It seems that with about 90% of the things that we have we find ourselves saying we got that from Michael and Jenny. :) This little pool float was one of them. Ethan worked hard on blowing up the "ticklish turtle" float for the pool. Here Papa and Eli pose for a pic with the ticklish turtle.


Above: Fun times with Papa getting ready for the trip to the pool.


Above: Unfortunatley, we discovered that pool floats do not make the best hand me downs. After years in storage and being transported up to Dallas and then down to SPI, the poor turtle did not hold up too well. Ethan's best efforts were "deflated" as we realized there must be a hole somewhere in the float. We did take it down to the pool and let Elijah get in it before he lost all air, but let's just say South Padre became the turtle's permanent home.

In this picture, you can see Elijah trying to assess the situation.


Above: Nana and Eli dressed and ready for the pool. Eli is wearing his beach hat from Michael and Jenny and little swimmers also from Michael and Jenny (see what I mean about all of our stuff being from them!). :)


Above: So precious!


Above: Mommy and Elijah in our pool cover-ups.


Above: Nana is off in the corner trying to make Elijah smile.


Above: Nana, Daddy, and Eli hanging out on the patio. This was one of our favorite places to be. We were on the 5th floor and had a huge wrap around porch. There was always a nice ocean breeze so it felt great to sit outside all day long (unlike in SA or Dallas at this time of year).


Above: Daddy and Eli relaxing on the porch. Eli is sporting his "beach bums" outfit, quite appropriate.


Above: Our view from the balcony.


Above: Our view of the pool from the balcony


Above: More resort pics. Here you can see the pool and beach. There was a board walk that went over the sand dunes.


Above: Love this patio! It made it so nice that if we stuck around the room while Elijah was napping, you didn't feel like you were missing out on the beach and cramped up in some hotel room. As Ethan put it, you feel like you are at the beach because you hear the surf, feel the breeze, but have water, a bathroom, and snacks 10 feet from where you're sitting.

Family Vacation to South Padre

This past week, Ethan, Elijah, and I went to South Padre Island with my parents, aka Nana and Papa. We had a blast and it was Elijah's first trip to the beach. Luckily, I happened to take a few pictures along the way. :) I will post them in a few different entries, but overall we had such a great time.

Elijah did great with the trip there, which made Ethan and I a little nervous beforehand. We took a direct flight into Brownsville where my parents picked us up and then had a short drive over to South Padre. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we went to lunch at a place called Dirty Al's that had some of the best fried shrimp we have ever tasted! It was delicious. Eli was really a sport considering that he went as long as he ever had in his life without a nap (I think he was up for about 9 hours straight!). While we tried to get him to sleep a little on the plane, it was hard because he just wanted to look at everything. He is a very social and curious baby and if anything at all is going on he wants to be in on it. Considering all that, he did fantastic on this trip there and back. Here are a few of our travel pics.


Above: At the Remote Parking station at DFW, waiting for the bus to take us to the airport.


Above: Eli had his own special bag that he got from Matt and Julie Kruger. We love it! He is also sporting his "Eli" beach hat from Paula. This kid is traveling in style.


Above: Daddy and Eli watching the planes.


Above: Sitting at the gate while waiting to board our plane. Ethan got major "Daddy points" on this trip because he kept the kiddo happy and entertained.


Above: Playing airplane to prepare for Elijah's first airplane flight.


Above: Elijah cracking up and having the best time playing with Daddy, not napping. :)


Above: In the air during Eli's first flight.
"You're telling me that I am how far off the ground?!"


Above: "How exactly does this thing work?"


Above: "It sure is fun, I think I like airplanes!"


Above: We've arrived! Me, Ethan, and Elijah in the car after the drive over from Brownsville to SPI. We just found out our room was not ready and were about to head over to Dirty Al's for lunch. You can see that we were pretty packed in, especially Ethan in the back! My parent's had a carseat that they used with Dylan and Katelyn when they were little that they put in the car for Elijah. While it was a little big, it worked out fine for the trip. He was bummed when he had to go back to rear facing when he got home. :) You can see here that he finally tuckered out for about 10 minutes in the car, but then he was back awake once we got to lunch. All this traveling is hard work for a little guy!


Above: Made it to our room! Elijah stretching out on the bed. The trip is now officially a success in my book!


Above: "I got my bed. Where are you going to sleep, Mom?"