Quintana Beach, TX, July 2009

The beach house we rented.

Sunday, July 5th, after eating lunch at my grandparents' home, my family of four, my brother's family of four, and my parents piled into three separate cars and drove down to the beach. We rented a three bedroom house that was right on the beach. It also had a saltwater lake behind it. We arrived around 4 pm and could barely get settled before we had our swimsuits on and were ready to hit the beach. The beach itself was not overly crowded on the weekends, and nearly deserted during the week. We didn't have a major issue with jellyfish, although we did see some, including a Portuguese Man of War. My brother, Roy, and his wife, Keri, did see a small shark one day when we were in the ocean. Needless to say, we vacated the water quite quickly! Overall the beach was very nice, aside from the fact that people do not know how to pick up their own garbage. How hard is it, people?

The view from our balcony.

The sun setting on the saltwater lake behind the house.











These shots were from our designated "family photo" day. We really struggled actually getting these shots because of several factors: sun shining in eyes, high winds blowing hair in faces, kids that did not want to look at the camera, etc. But I think the picture above is priceless! We ended up getting some better shots after we had gone out to dinner and the sun had gone down a little more.

My parents (Mimi & Grandaddy)

Roy, Keri, Lainie, and Anna

And here's our best attempt at a picture of the whole group.

Mimi usually got up first each morning and went out on the little balcony to wait for everyone else to wake up. Brayden was the next one to get up and come out on the balcony. He had a great time with binoculars. He used them the first afternoon, and then on the first morning (after they had been cooled in the air conditioning) they fogged up when he went outside. Brayden said, “I’m surprised these don’t work in the mornings.”

After breakfast, it took us about an hour to get everyone in their bathing suits and all lathered up with sunscreen. After that we began the daily process of hauling stuff down stairs to the beach: tent, sand toys, inflatable pool, chairs, snack/water cooler. We usually spent about 2 hours every morning on the beach.














Buzzy and Brayden spent a lot of time boogie boarding.

Malia gave it a try, but was not too fond of it.

Doesn't everybody play baseball in the ocean?

Malia spent a majority of her time out of the ocean. She was not a fan of the crashing waves. It's funny because the last time we went to the beach when Malia was 15 months and Brayden was 3, Brayden just wanted to play in the sand and Malia loved playing in the surf. So they switched places on this trip. The baby pool really came in handy for Malia. The twins would occasionally come join Malia, but Lainie and Anna both really enjoyed playing in the ocean as well.

Uncle Roy was the official hermit crab catcher. We would put them in a bucket for a while and let them go each day.

Here are the three girls out on the balcony. I'm sure they're singing some sort of song, because the three girls really enjoy singing. And then there was the famous song that Grandaddy would sing every time he went to the enormous pickle jar..."I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride on my motorcycle..."

More s'mores!

The women of the family had all the meals for the stay planned out back on Easter, so we were prepared. Let's just say nobody was going hungry! We brought a lot of our food with us, because we didn't know if we would be able to find the quality of food that we are used to once we got there. But we still had to make several trips to the grocery store.

Here are the three girls again, sitting out on the pier behind the house. We would go down to the lake to do a little fishing and crabbing. We were trying to catch some crabs with some shrimp bait, but were not very successful. My mom kept saying we needed a chicken leg. So once we tried that we were victorious. The only point of catching fish and crabs was for fun, because eating anything out of the gulf is really not advised currently.

Here is the catch that Brayden was most proud of. Once we were done crabbing one evening, the guys just decided to leave the chicken bone out in the water to see what would be on it the next day. So when Brayden pulled it out there was a Hardhead fish on it. He was very concerned about the safety of this fish, in fact he included it in the family prayer that we said together before we headed out on the last day. As he was praying for the fish, he got a little broken up, which made a few of us get teary as well. Then my dad recited Psalm 8 during his prayer. (O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!) He got emotional and if we weren't already, this had many of us in tears. The prayer was a very meaningful time with our family.

Another thing we did that was very special was have a devotion every day to worship and thank God for everything:

Mimi – God makes creation, used water bottles with ocean water and sand to show how God separated seas and land/ makes living things, every one important
Grandaddy – Washing feet in sand bucket / Jesus at Last Supper serving others
An impromptu devotion from Brayden who told the whole story from memory of Jesus birth and even remembered a verse in Luke he had Grandaddy read.
Buzzy – Jesus in the boat / calms the stormy water/ used inflatable swimming pool, toy boat, Lego people
Kerri – Legend of Sand Dollar
Roy - Jesus fishes for men, throws the bad ones back, keeps the good ones/ cast net in the pond behind the house
Keri – House built on sand- vs. built on brick, sand castle/ compared to houses of
Three little pigs

Our little fisherman.

And three big fishermen.

Brayden and Uncle Roy.

Malia is pulling in the string that has the chicken bone attached to it. We would throw out the chicken leg, and then slowly pull it back in. Once the chicken leg reached the shore, most times it would have a crab holding onto the chicken. Then we would try to catch the crab with a net. Good times!

Brayden and Malia with the bucket of crabs. We would put the crabs in the bucket for a little while and let them go before we went inside.

Grandaddy with a crab!

The gals

The guys

Buzzy and Brayden catching little fish in the ocean.

This was quite a humorous game of Uno between Grandaddy and his grandchildren. It was more like Grandaddy playing 4.5 hands of Uno himself and the kids were just there for...moral support?

The three women of the house spent lots of time reading. I read a novel and another book and my mom and Keri read a few books as well.

Here is our little tent set up on the beach. You can see the beach house we stayed at in the background (the one on the right).

We had so much fun and didn't want to come back home to reality! Brayden was especially upset by the departure and cried for about ten minutes after we left the house. Once we returned home, he would occasionally greive for the beach and start whining and wimpering, "Beach...I miss the beach!" We all miss the beach and can't wait for our next trip. But just think, if we went to the beach every day, then it wouldn't be so special when we did get to go!