Galveston, part 2

Uncle Matt had to leave Monday evening so he could go back to work on Tuesday.  So the boys requested mini golf Tuesday morning before hitting the beach.  Reid hadn't ever held a real golf club before, but he watched Jason and the boys and had a nice little stance...for about two seconds.

First golf lesson from Daddy

But what Reid really enjoyed was climbing all around on the rocks and "bridges," or crawling under the tunnels.  He also loved putting the golf balls in the holes...by hand rather than golf club.  Alex loved that he was "the winner" because in his book, the one who finished first won.  Ben was slow and steady, carefully aiming at the holes and calculating swings.  It was fun to watch the boys' different approaches.

We took Reid for a snow cone one day.  He was very excited about it and picked "green" as his flavor (with that color, it was sour apple or dill pickle, so I opted for sour apple).  But when it came out, he wasn't so sure... He also didn't really even want to try mine or Jason's after that.  The next time we went to the snow cone stand, we got snow cones and Jason went in the quickie mart to get Reid an ice cream.  Everyone was happy.

Back to the beach for some more fun in the sand and waves.  Alex and Ben have been around beaches most of their lives.  They played with the sand, they boogie boarded, they floated the waves, they built sand castles and other things, they played with various beach and car toys.  Reid, on the other hand, quickly decided he wanted to "Wash hands! Wash hands!" about every five seconds or so.  He enjoyed finding "shellos" (shells)...but only wanted to touch/collect them after instructing you to wash it off first.  And how dare you if you tried to touch his shellos..."MY shellos!!!" 

Crazy man!

Thursday came too soon.  It was our last full day at the beach.  Everyone was tired, but happy to play.  The boys drove cars on sand roads, Grumpy built sand castles, and we girls supervised from the nice, shaded tent.  Reid wanted to do bubbles, so Jason obliged.  This kid chased bubbles in the wind for a good thirty minutes and had a blast.

Jason and I left during nap time one day to go drive around.  We drove along the sea wall and went to a big shell place I remembered from high school to get Reid a crab t-shirt (he wore it yesterday and loved it!).  We checked out a couple of restaurants we'd have gone to if they had been closer.  We drove past some of the historical houses.  We checked out the Strand to see what it was like these days.  It was fun just walking around, looking at odd t-shirts, and checking out the gulf side of the island on our drive back.

Laura, Ben, and Alex headed back to Katy on Thursday afternoon so that Friday wouldn't be so crazy with everyone trying to pack up at once.  We were sad to not share the last night with them there, but it did give Reid some one on one time with Grammy and Grumpy.  He made up plenty of his own craziness, like steam rolling Daddy and laughing hysterically, or playing his own version of hide and seek in the closet.  It consisted of him hiding in the closet, then yelling any combination of "Daddy/Grammy/Grumpy/Mommy!" until someone came to "discover" him.  Quite entertaining.

Jason and I got to take a quiet, moon-lit walk on the beach that evening.  I nearly stepped on the last jellyfish we saw, and we caught a couple of hermit crabs.  It was such a fun week, but finally the last day arrived.  After packing up the cars and saying goodbye to Grammy and Grumpy, it was time to begin our long voyage home.  But not until Reid got to ride the ferry.  He was convinced we'd find "Finn Missile" (Finn McMissile from Cars 2) on the big boat and looked for him the entire time.  We figured the view would be what he was most interested in, but in true kid fashion, it was the little things...like hanging on the hand rail.

We did get to see a few dolphins, but Reid was looking the wrong way every time.  He still enjoyed watching the seagulls being fed off of the back.

And he liked that he could see out the window himself when we went upstairs for a potty break.

It was slightly windy ;)

We made it home safely late that afternoon with our own little pirate/Mexican man.  He came back a few shades darker and enjoyed wearing the joke glasses we got on the Strand.  What a fun trip and how great it was to see family, but most of all, what wonderful memories we made!  Thank you, Grammy and Grumpy, for bringing us all together.  I think Reid's first beach trip was quite the success.