{The Beach}

Friday morning we pulled away to go to Corpus Christie for the day at the beach. Prior to leaving, both Dad & I looked at the weather report to make sure it wasn't going to rain, and they said it wouldn't, at least not until 4:00 that afternoon. We get halfway there, and it starts pouring. Darn. We didn't have a clue where to go in Corpus Christie, just head in a direction that faces the beach, and eventually we'll get there. We found a place to go, and the big dark clouds hung over us threatening to drop rain at any second. Thankfully, we had enough time to play in the ocean as we could see where the rain was exactly.

The last time Madison had been to the beach, she was 6 months old. Katie was 4 years old. So, Katie remembers it a little, but for Madison this was a whole new world. She was so hesitant about the water and just soaked all the glory & beauty a beach has to offer inside herself. You could see in her eyes & expressions her awe of it all. I find the beach the most beautiful, relaxing place to be (with the exception of what lies in the ocean... I can push that out of my mind as long as no one is in the ocean deep). I love to walk the beach and find shells (here we found crappy broken shells, but Dad did manage to find a huge shell complete w/ a crab inside).

Katie jumped right in the first second. She had so much fun. Papa & Grandma bought the girls some mini surf boards to play around with. Course, with the storms moving in so fast, the waves were a bit rough. Mike didn't wear his swimming trunks (aka, he lost them on purpose, I think), and I think he finally decided to go find some swimming trunks, so he left to go shop around. He came back in a swim shirt (only Mike would do this) & trunks, and proceeded to have as much fun as the girls did.

While Mike was gone, my mom got in the ocean w/ the girls. She loves the water as well. I waded up to my thighs as well, and stood by Katie as she waited for the waves. All of a sudden I saw a floating white "thing".... JELLYFISH! I made the girls get out of the water ASAP. After walking a ways, we finally found the jellyfish washed up on the beach, and the girls had fun poking at it and rolling it to Papa to show him their prize.

When Mike came out later, he went out pretty far to do some mini surfing as well, and he said there were jellyfish everywhere. Why he didn't come in is beyond me. He likes danger, I guess.

The rain finally came, and we had to hurry to the truck for protection, and so we ate our picnic lunch. After the rain had passed, we walked the beach some more, then decided to call it a day.