First Time at the Beach

Yea! The girls have now seen the ocean! Their reaction was PRICELESS and amazing! When we left the apartment, we were intending to spend all day out there going from beach to beach. There are some fun places and neat beaches I had been to years ago, so we wanted to explore everything we could. But after getting stuck in the sand, the car was making weird noises and was shaking so bad, that we came home to wash off the engine and tires. Thus the reason for planning another trip to the beach soon.

I like the beach, but HATE having sand everywhere. It so grosses me out to have sand on everything. Eric vacuumed out the car, but it still ought to be done again. :)

Sorry, but I just really like this picture. It's fun! We were approaching High Island at this point.

See? :) I have so many fond memories of this place from biology field trips at UMHB.
Our first view of the water...the girls were asleep when we first pulled up.
Then they woke up and saw the ocean...this was Lilly's first reaction to seeing the ocean!
Daddy and Lexi walk along the beach for the first time.
The first time the water approached Lilly's feet, she grabbed my leg so tight! Thankfully, I got this picture of her doing it...good memories!
Lilly was one happy girlie.
Wait, so was Lexi...
So it's not the Bahamas...oh well! It's still the beach and the ocean. It only took a few minutes before both girls were running in the water and giggling when it hit their toes.
Lilly...
Lexi...


Then they spent half an hour throwing the kelp stuff back in the water. It would wash up on their toes and they would chunk it back.
Lilly looking for shells with Daddy..

Lilly splashing...
Mommy and Lexi toes!
More...water...
My handsome hunk!
The girls LOVE piggytails...

I actually got some great pictures of birds and wildlife. These were brown pelicans soaring over the water. It was fun watching them catch fish.
Lilly just sat in the water a lot enjoying the waves.
My girls...Lilly in the purple shoes.
After we played in the sand and water for about an hour, we had sandwiches, milk, and water. Thank goodness for Uncrustables...the girls are addicted to these things when we are out and about. Then we got in the car and quickly dug our tires into the sand. Immediately people started showing up to help pull us out. There were no other places to park than on the sand, so tons of people get stuck all day long. The locals told us that they should really charge to pull people out, but they couldn't possibly start with a disabled veteran. :) Eric's license plates saved the day! He he!

SO about half an hour later, we got out. It only took 4 buckets of water poured onto the sand, 3 shovels (2 of them were kid play shovels), 13 people including 8 grown men, 2 large trucks, and 1 tow rope to pull us out. Then as we were backing up to leave, someone else got temporarily stuck. It was so funny! Eric was about to hop out and help, but they managed to make it. It was cool to see so many people stop and happily help out some strangers. That's Texas for you!

Lexi enjoyed watching everyone that stopped to help get us out of the sand. :)
Lilly also thought it was pretty exciting and funny!
See those beautiful ruts we left behind. It was totally even and flat when we first pulled up. That nice man in the picture ran the big bucket back and forth full of water. He just stopped fishing to be helpful. :)
The next time, we are planning to drive through and take the ferry over to Galveston. I think the girls would love to ride the ferry, visit some local shell shops, and eat some seafood overlooking the water.

I also took a lot of pictures of the few (seriously, just a few!) structures left after Hurricane Rita. High Island and Crystal Beach were totally decimated after the hurricane. I think the eye went directly over Crystal Beach. I would say that 99% of the buildings on High Island were brand new. I took some pictures of the houses and a gas station that was still in shambles. That will be a post for another day too. It was really sad and interesting to see how almost everything was new.