Life on the Beach

So our new favorite place in Texas is the Rockport Beach Park.  It’s only about fifteen or twenty minutes up the road, and the park is beautiful.  Palm trees, sand, and clear warm water… what else could you need?  The water is shallow for a long way out off the shore and doesn’t really have waves, so it’s perfect for the kids.  Apparently they groom the beach in the mornings, and there are plenty of picnic tables and shade tiki-umbrella-type things to get out of the sun.  So we’ve gone up a couple times already and I’m sure we’ll be up there quite a bit this summer.  Here are some pics of the boys enjoying the beach!

The water boy.  Thinks he's pretty funny with a bucket of water to throw on my back while I'm not looking.  I guess I started it though.

 Why so serious?

There we go!  That's the Nolan we know.

And this one could sit here and do this all day without complaining.  Not going into or near the water quite yet, but the sand he loves.

That's a Big Tree

If you hadn’t noticed, I try to find random, off-the-road places to drag Becky and the boys so that we can make these blog posts.  So what better thing to go see than a big tree?  And that’s exactly what this thing was… a big tree.  They even call it “The Big Tree.”  Of course, everything here in Texas is bigger, so that’s no surprise.  I’d have to say, I have seen bigger trees, there was one in Jacksonville that was bigger than this, and I’m sure there are plenty in California that are much bigger, but I guess for this type of tree, it’s pretty big.  The more interesting thing for me was the age of the tree.  Since I tend to be more drawn to historical landmarks and the like, this was cool because it’s estimated to be over a thousand years old.  A thousand years!! That’s unbelievable.  It has survived dozens of hurricanes and the burning of the nearby town during the Civil War.  Think of everything that’s happened in the past thousand years, and all the while that tree has been sitting there.  If you could live to be a thousand years old, imagine what you’d see in your lifetime!  Well, if you were this tree, I guess you’d just be staring at the same bunch of other trees around you for a thousand years.  Sounds pretty awful. But either way, here is the Big Tree in Rockport, Texas.

The Big Tree is so exciting, that they had to put a fence up around it just to keep the masses of people from climbing on it.  Surprisingly, there were several other cars of people there to see it.  It looks small in this photo, but it's really 35 feet around the base... so that's pretty big I guess.

See how much fun we're having?

Even Adam liked the Big Tree... but then, how could he not? 

Already three years old...

In some ways, it doesn’t seem that long ago that Adam Michael joined us… back in our Maryland days, but in other ways, it’s hard to remember what life was like without him here.  This kid has an overly large heart, sweet and caring, and always willing to give what he’s got… but then you turn around and he’s rotten to the core.  He’s got this smile that you can’t help but laugh at, especially when he’s up to the least good.  He can sit quietly by himself and be entertained for hours, but he also loves to do whatever it is that Paul’s doing.  He loves Bad Piggies, and is especially fond of dancing to the theme song.  If he’s eaten anything in the last hour, chances are it’s still on his face, especially if it was chocolate.  He can’t help but make you happy, and he’s our favorite second son.  And now he’s three years old…

That's him...

He was afraid the balloons were going to make him fly away into the sky... too much Bad Piggies I guess.

The Happy Birthday kid!

What better way to spend a day than at the aquarium?  This was sort of Adam's pre-birthday fun thing to do... we spent a couple hours seeing the fish, turtles, dolphins, and assortment of other creatures they had.  And they have a pretty cool splash park for the kids, so we'll be back!

Easter again...

Another year, another Easter, another dozen dyed eggs.  The boys were overly excited to dye eggs for Easter, though not nearly as excited as they were to wake up and find baskets full of candy.  Thankfully all the candy didn’t do too much damage though, as they went to the dentist yesterday and he gave them the all clear… no cavities or missing teeth.  But we enjoyed the holiday when it was here, and it’s been a beautiful spring so far in South Texas!

Nolan didn't get to dye eggs this year, because I'm sure he would have been the one dyed had he given it a shot, along with the carpet and everything else near by.  Maybe next year!

A Lovely Gulf Breeze...

I guess I’d better catch up on the blog.  A while back we took a little trip out to the Gulf of Mexico.  The water is all around us in Corpus Christi, but technically it’s all Corpus Christi Bay and not the Gulf.  So we took the main freeway straight out over the intercoastal waterway to Padre Island and made our way out to the shoreline.  It was windy.  Very windy.  But we’ve learned that’s common here.  Quite common actually.  As in, every single day.  But the beach out at the Gulf was especially windy on this day, which can be seen in the photos.

Hang on, Paul!! The last time we saw him he was skipping off the sand, bouncing down the shoreline into the distance... we'll miss you, son.

 Nobody else was out there.  I wonder why?

The smart child.  Adam refused to go out in the wind, especially with the terrifying water so close by...

Nolan had no choice.  A little fresh sea air does everybody good, right?  I guess we'll have to go back when we have a kite or something.

Cross Country Adventure IV

Here we go again, and again.  At least this time the drive was not as far!  We only had to make it 1100 miles this time… across the panhandle of Florida, through parts of Alabama and Mississippi, and across the swamplands of Louisiana until we hit the Texas border.  Then we traveled down through Houston and along the Gulf Coast until we finally made it to our new home in Corpus Christi.  Though, at the moment, we still don’t have a home.  We’re stuck living out of hotels at least for a few more days until we can get something secured… we’re hoping by the middle of the week.  As far as the city goes… they weren’t kidding when they said it was windy.  It’s been windy.  Very windy.  But otherwise, absolutely beautiful… the sun has been shining and the weather has been a cool low 80’s.  The Gulf is an emerald green color and already warm, and the sunset over the bay the other night was pretty incredible.  We’re looking forward to all the new adventures we’ll have here, but for now… here are some photos from the trip.

Somewhere on the Mississippi border there was a space center where they tested rocket engines, and they had this lunar lander on display.  Would have been a much more exciting ride than 15 hours packed into a Trailblazer.

Can't say we'd ever been to Mississippi before...

That's one small step for Paul and Adam... here standing in the astronaut's footprints from one of the Apollo 13 guys.

 Not much to move this time... got it all in this trailer thankfully.

The Lone Star State! 

Adam was thrilled when we told him he was going to be a Texan now.  Thankfully we'll always have this picture to show him how excited he was to be moving here.

The main grocery store here is called H.E.B. which we found out means... "Here Everything's Better"  But Adam still isn't convinced.

And there they are... deep in the heart of Texas! Don't mess with them now!