The Surfing Sir

Considering how much time my family spent on the Gulf Coast growing up, I'm terribly ashamed to say that today was Jackson's first trip to the beach. I kept having to remind myself that we were in North Texas for his first two years of life. But what a great introduction it was! The weather was absolutely beautiful. The beach was pristine and not just by Galveston standards. No seaweed, no trash, no tar, no jellyfish, no huge crowds of people. The water, which can sometimes feel like a hot tub, was a great temperature and the breeze was really nice. I even got chilly a couple of times when I got out of the water. Imagine that!

I left my camera in the car for the first part of our day, but if I hadn't I would have a great picture of us eating lunch on The Strand at the Waterwall. We let Jackson throw a few pennies in the waterwall thing and he loved it. I had a shrimp po-boy and it was yummy. Also, mark it down as the first time Jackson went on the potty in a public restroom. (No more "victories" to tell about at this time.) If I could, I would also show you a picture of us at LaKing's Confectionery getting candy and ice cream and letting Jackson ride the little mechanical horse. So fun.

After our visit to The Strand, we drove out to Galveston Pocket Beach #3 or something like that. While I was getting our stuff organized in our spot, Curtis put Jackson's life jacket on him and headed straight for the water. Deep water. It looked deep to me anyway. I had imagined that we would warm Jackson up to the water, especially the deeper water, but of course my two guys went straight for it. That is the difference between moms and dads. Once Jackson had had the most thrilling part, it took a lot of coercion to get him to settle for playing in the sand and splashing around in two inches of water. Another mom saw my frustration and maybe even a little fear and she, confined to the shore with her son, said "At least he likes the water." That's true, but I still don't think my two-and-a-half-year-old and his little pool life jacket are any match for the undertow.

Curtis put the Mister on our boogie board and helped him "surf" in the waves. It was his happiest day. He was absolutely loving it. I almost risked my camera to get a picture but Curtis talked some sense into me. We tried to recreate the scene in shallower water for the sake of the blog, but it doesn't even compare. The pictures turned out pretty cute though.

Our other favorite thing was finding little hermit crabs with our feet when we were in the water. We put them in a bucket of sand and water and watched them run around and dig. We threw them back out before we left. I nearly disowned my husband when he pulled the biggest one out of its shell to "see what would happen." Boys! The only reason I was still speaking to him on the way home was because it managed to survive and crawl back into its shell. Well, onto the pics...

Arriving!


Right before the fun began.


I'm so glad he's big enough to hide behind.


Boogie board reenactment.


This one is my favorite.


Splash!


We had the best day! Thank You, Jesus! I can't wait to go again!