South Padre Island

We are home, after 7 days away.
It was the longest I have ever been away from Lance.
And certainly the kids too.

They missed him.
But they had a great time with their cousins.

Lance's sister came down from San Angelo and we made the trip together.

We decided to cut the drive in half and stop in New Braunfels on the way down.
Gruene happens to be one of my favorite places on Earth.
From family trips growing up, to river trips with our friends pre-marriage and babies; I could fill a book with memories and funny stories from my younger days in that town.
It honestly feels like home there.

I was happy to share a tiny piece of that with my kiddos.

There was a no-name band playing in Gruene Hall and the kids danced a little-- but the funniest part to me was that every time I tried to take a picture of the kids in the bar, Beckham put his hands to his face as if he were praying!

Touche' Beckham.  Touche'.

***
We packed up Monday morning and hit the road again.

We pulled into the beach house around 4:00.

We threw our luggage into the house and headed straight to the ocean.

***
Wednesday was Landry's 11th birthday.
She is the kind of kid that anyone would be proud to have.
She is beautiful, sweet, silly, funny, poised, athletic, tender-hearted, and the list goes on...

We spent the majority of the day in the water, watching the kids boogy board-- completely unaware that our sunscreen was crap.
And playing in the sand.

I had to make a sudden move at attempting to save my panicking 5 year old who got a bit further out than he had planned.
I first tried running, and fell into a hole, and then decided to take it Baywatch style and dove under a wave, thus losing my favorite MK sunglasses.
But saving the boy.

He was fine.
But I mourned those glasses for a few days.

I made the mistake of wearing my first bikini of the season (out of a personal preference to being the mom of boys, bikinis are off limits in water parks for me) and torching my midsection.

My boys escaped most sun damage-- but the rest of our crew was pretty beat up and in pain after this day... even though Jenn reapplied the spray multiple times!


***
We celebrated Landry's birthday at a nice Italian restaurant on the Island that evening.

We went to a little shop on our way back and bought a couple of cheap island goods.

***
Thursday I woke up early and snuck out of the sleeping house to watch the sun rise on the water.
I still had a tiny glimpse of hope that my favorite shades would have washed up.
They were no where to be found,
Although the view and quietness was priceless.

We decided to rest our sun beaten bodies and explored a few attractions around the island.
The turtle sanctuary was really neat.
I could have lived without the Sea Life Center and their random cat in a cage-- although it was fun that the kids got to pick up real live starfish!
We ate at a neat place, right on the water...
And saw the real working light house.

That night was probably my most favorite part of the trip.
(and not because Jenn threatened to attack the random college graduate who followed us around for a bit and told us about his life and plans for the future)  
But because we went crab hunting!

Dane definitely ran our ship, and even came equipped with his very own container.
We forgot our net and and other crab-gathering supplies so the kids had to use their imagination and found-gear to catch the crabs!
I was surprised that both of my boys ended up catching a crab each, but the majority were snagged up by those fearless Reynolds kiddos!

They caught some of all sizes, and we all screamed and laughed when one ran up Beckham's leg!

***
Friday we went back to the beach.
We made friends with our neighbors renting the other side of the house and together the kids made a huge sandcastle.
They surfed more waves.

They flew kites.
Kites that I ended up wading into a tight ball and throwing away while cussing, I should add.  Since they refused to roll them back up and thus tangled them in every car, line, bike, pole and street sign on the walk back.
....while crying, complaining, and trying to convince us that they had it under control-- and carrying nothing.
While we carried 50 lbs of crap, making best efforts to make the 2 year old walk faster, cross the street without being ran over and not cry-- with no hands left to carry him.

Jenn and I were both mad as fire ants at the time, but ended up laughing about it later.

***
Saturday we ate breakfast and then pulled out of the house and started our journey north.
About an hour into the drive, Jenn called and said she was having a migraine and blurred vision and needed me to drive her car.

We pulled over and I took over driving.

After 30 minutes or so, Jenn woke up feeling a little better.
We were pulling into the checkpoint, where Boarder Patrol looks in your car and lets dogs walk around and sniff.
I was already a nervous wreck, for no reason what-so-ever....
and then she starts telling me a story::
"yeah, dad was worried about me driving all this way with just the kids.  He told me to put the pistol he gave me under my seat....  I was so worried about it though and so I asked Buddha (her brother, who is a cop) if I would get in trouble and he told me no, but if I got pulled over just be honest with the officer and tell him it is in the car."
I'm listening and shaking my head but still inching my car in the line, waiting to be dissected by the feds-- when it hit me!
"THERE'S A GUN IN THIS CAR??!"
I already had an overwhelming feeling to shout out my window that I had a pound of cocaine and 3 Mexican babies in the back, just out of pure fear...
and now I am definitely going to jail.
On top of that, I had a slight fear that my sweet and precious SIL had staged a migraine to set me up!
She died laughing and said that she was too nervous to bring it and we were clear.

I still acted guilty when he pressed us with questions, however, and released a huge sigh of relief when he let us back on our way.

I would have never made a great criminal.

We stopped for lunch at Chili's and then headed to San Antonio.

Where I got back in the car with mom and Jenn took her crew west.
We shed tears with goodbye and though there were a few instances that we would all hit delete during this trip,
we really, really enjoyed our time with the Reynolds clan.

Mom and I made our next stop into Round Rock.
It was there that I realized that my debit card was still sitting on the table at Chili's.

I called home and had Lance cancel the card and the walked right into Restoration Hardware and slammed my head so hard into a table that I saw stars.

My sweet husband told me that he was sorry and wished he could make it better.
He then called back and told me to splurge because {wait for it} "I deserve it"!
So I did.

We stayed the night in Round Rock and my spree of bad luck continued.
Maddox first accidentally spilled water all over my side of the bed, meaning my burned hips slept on scratchy towels all night...
And then Maddox peed on me during his sleep.
Add more towels.

***
Sunday was a breeze.
A straight shot home.

We unpacked and got a load of laundry going and then surprised Lance at work!

He was so excited to see us!!

Lance had planned to host the draft for Fantasy Football with a few of the kids who work for him at our house, weeks ago.

He picked us up some shirts to wear because he thought it would be hilarious if no one mentioned them, and yet we all matched in a hideous shade of yellow, looking like we are sponsored by Taco Casa.

Beckham went to bed before it started and Lance changed last minute-- so really the joke was on me-- as it looked like I dressed Maddox and myself in matching fast food shirts.

Oh well.

We are home.
And back to reality.