New Year Adventures

Grandma and Grandpa P came for a fun Christmas visit. We all had so much fun and enjoyed every minute of the rare grandparent time we could get. We also took the opportunity to show Grandma and Grandpa around some of our favorite places to play. Here are a few pictures of where we went.

We were lucky to enjoy some amazingly warm and sunny weather after Christmas. We made sure to take advantage of our good luck. On Wednesday, we took a trip to the local beach. We were rewarded with a breathtaking sunset. The children were busy finding precious seashells and the parents were busy tracking the different kinds of bird tracks in the sand. After a time of relaxing beach strolling, Bekah startled us all out of our reverie with two quick, high pitched, panicked screams of death. Everyone jumped and thought for sure some terrible turn of fate had ruined our evening. It turns out, Bekah turned over a rock to reveal an unexpected nest of fast running bugs. They gave her a pretty good startle and the rest of us a pretty good laugh. I guess I'll have to give up my dreams of Bekah becoming a world famous entomologist. :)

On Thursday, we headed to the Kemah Boardwalk. The kids had a riot on the amusement rides, and everyone had fun on the train ride. Of course, we had to walk along the boardwalk and admire the bay while we were there too.

This is a picture of the kids on the "Red Barron" airplane ride. It was the first time Xavier was able to ride most of these rides and he had a ball. I tried really hard to get the kids to look at me for a picture here, but they were intently involved in the pre-flight checklists on their plane. I'm pretty sure Xavier thought he was really flying that airplane. It was exciting, serious business for our little Mr. X.


Our last outing was at the nearby Nature Preserve. The kids "rode" their bikes and the adults walked along the smooth trail to admire local plants and birds. Most of the time the kids convinced us to drag their bikes along while they ran ahead on the trail.

Grandma saw all the birds she was hoping to catch a glimpse of - a cardinal, some pelicans and a few white egrets. We also discovered some interesting Texas plants.

We still aren't completely sure if the sign at the park entrance was to warn us about the local snakes and alligators, or to warn them of our arrival. Either way, we were sure to beware of wildlife. :)

It was a wonderful day to spend exploring the beauties of nature.