Beach, Beach and B-Day

Last Sunday, Jeff was working so Mom, the 4 kids and I headed to Stewart Beach in Galveston to soak up a little sun. We had a great time building sand castles, playing in the water, watching the jet skiers and of course eating our yummy watermelon and strawberries. Ok, let me set something straight…the KIDS and Mom had a great time building sand castles and playing in the water…I can’t stand to touch the sand or get in the water. Nasty! I like the beach for one thing - the sun! Today, we planned to go to the beach again however Kiarra had other plans. She came down with strep throat (Taryn was diagnosed with it last week). Now, I’m not 100% positive Kiarra has strep but I’m 99.95% sure, especially since they have the exact symptoms. After she woke up with a fever, body aches and major head ache, I realized our Memorial Day/my b-day beach trip was in jeopardy and that we would stay home – watching movies and well, do NOTHING. I was more than ok with this idea, but Taryn on the other hand was so upset. She’d been looking forward to this trip since we were on our way home from Galveston a week ago. Well, the best husband in the world came to our rescue and volunteered to stay home with Kiarra so Mom, Jayden, Taryn and I could go. Jeff doesn’t really like the beach anyway, well not as much as Mom and I, so after they argued about who would stay home with her, we went ahead and took off (Jeff won the argument and stayed home). We left an hour later than planned and WOW – never again will I leave on a holiday weekend after 9 am. We got to the beach around 11:30 and it was packed, we had to drive over a mile on the slippery sand to find a spot we could set up shop. Last weekend we rented an umbrella and chairs but this weekend we decided to buy a canopy and chairs to take it with us. We thought this would be great because we can use it over and over and not have to waste our money on the teeny, tiny umbrella….but, not so great when we didn’t have Jeff there to help us put it up. You should have seen us!! I’m getting a good laugh just thinking about it. The family beside us must have felt bad for us; they ended up helping after we tried for 30 minutes, looking like fools. Thank GOD for nice people!! Other than the difficulty with the canopy and the dried seaweed, the beach was great this weekend as well. Taryn looked so adorable in her new bathing suite. At one point, she realized she had sand in her water shoe (because we weren’t at the beach or anything) and was freaking out. These are pictures of Jayden helping her rinse her shoe in the sandy water and get it back on.












Every 6 years, my birthday falls on Memorial Day and this year is the lucky year we get to celebrate it along with our fallen soldiers and loved ones who have made their way to sit at the right foot of Jesus. Memorial Day means more to me now than ever. I’m looking forward to my b-day pedicure at a local spa in the morning, and then spending the day with my family and friends remembering loved ones while enjoying nothing other than CRAWFISH! YUMMY. Let’s hope Kiarra doesn’t find an ant pile this year. Last year she got over 200 bites after falling out of a kiddy pool onto a tiny pile of fire ants.

We snapped a few cute pictures at Rainforest Café Friday night during dinner. Taryn is still scared of that place as you can see from her facial expression.

The kids only have 3 days of school left. I can’t believe these are Kiarra’s final days of elementary! It seems like yesterday we were walking her into her first day of Kindergarten. She is growing up to a beautiful young lady.