South Padre Island 2013

We are freshly back from vacation.  As I write this, I’m tired, crabby (Avery keeps asking me, “Why you not happy?” – one of her catchphrases) and going through vacation withdrawals.  South Padre Island, I miss you.  WE miss you.  Avery asked me this morning while getting dressed if it was going to be hot today.  And I had to break it to her that we’re in MN again and its still winter.  She then shouted at me, “I WANT TO GO BACK TO TEXAS!!!!”  You and me both kid.  Siggggghhhhh.  Anyway, without further delay – I give you – VACATION RECAP!

We got to SPI late at night (late for us, anyway, hehehe) so this was what we woke up to our first morning.  Ahhhhh.

And we promptly headed down to the beach.  

We stayed at the Saida Towers this time instead of the Royale Beach and Tennis Club.  Its all part of the same complex, but it was a little different than what we were used to.  Gma and Gpa H stayed at their motorhome a mile down the beach (their winter home this year) and the rest of us were in the condo.  Gma and Gpa W were with us this trip as a wedding anniversary present from their kiddies.  

South Padre is ALWAYS very windy.  Okay, thats a lie.  But when its not windy – thats weird.  So we came prepared for wind.  Especially in the mornings.  You could lose your ears if you don’t have a hat on.

Beach boy was VERY excited to see the beach and ocean.

So was this guy.  

Here’s the complex we stay in.  We were in the far right building, top floor, third balcony from the right.  Really awesome views.  But apparently this is the junker unit in the building.  It really wasn’t as bad as what the long term renters said it was.  Just needs some serious updating and a good cleaning.  Gma Kim offered to do it for them in exchange for some living quarters for herself.  :)

The desperate seagulls.  Hungry seagull eat anything. Including seaweed.

You just HAVE to write your name in the sand!

Dylan is all set for his first trip to the pool.  Hurry up Gpa!  Put down that iPad and lets get a move on!

Here’s a shipwrecked boat we watched bobbing along for at least 3 days.  No info on it.  When we zoomed in on the picture though, there appeared to be a hole in the front of the boat.  Perhaps a rock impact caused it.  

Back on the beach for a pre-dinner photo shoot.  And its a good thing we did!  The rest of the evenings were cloud-tastic.

They are being birds here.  

We gave Gma our old SLR so she was having a ball snapping pics with it.

Avos the photo bomber!

Dylan, Dylan, Dylan….

I love these two pics.

Gpa and Dylan were best buds the whole trip.  

Our best family pic of the trip!  So glad we got a good one!  Props to Gma Kim for taking it.

These pics were Eric’s idea.  It was supposed to be a 1, 2, 3, JUMP.  I think it turned out cute.

Love this one too!

Sure glad I brought my blue jacket!  Fab!

Last morning with a decent sunrise!  From here on out, it was fog-tastic in the morning (another typical occurrence at SPI). 

Also glad that I was able to get in some ocean view workouts before the fog set in.  Great way to start the day!

Here are some of the “lame” seagulls, as Gpa Danny called them.  This guy was missing a leg.

And this guy was missing a foot.  He flew away as I was snapping the picture.  Must not have wanted his picture taken looking like this.  Leave me alone, I’m HIDEOUS!

Time for some shell collecting!

Avos the babos on the beachos.

Eric wanted a fun perspective photo, but with the giant lens, it wasn’t meant to be.  I brought my small lens later on, but the darn fog ruined any chance of getting the picture done.

Pelicans passing by.

We had to make a stop at the Turtle Rescue Center.  Its a must stop every time we visit SPI.  The kids LOVE the turtles.  Here’s a “lame” one.  

Avery and Gerry – Gerry is a lifer at the turtle hospital.

Dylan looking around.  He still showed lots of empathy for the turtles and flinched while watching one get a shot.

Gma Tone posing outside the turtle hospital like my Gma did many years ago.  My grandparents were winter Texans, so I figured we must get a pic of my mom posing like my Gma used to when we’d come down for visits.

Dylan played tennis a few times.  If I wasn’t so lazy right now, I’d upload a video of him playing.  I’ll do it later, stay tuned.

Beach time again!

The sand castle master hard at work.  He thought our castle was pretty sweet til we came upon a sand mansion a little ways down the beach later on that day.  Those jerks showed him up!

Fun in the sun and sand!

Our beach babies.  They love it so much on the beach.

These are the best swimsuit shots we got on the beach.  Le sigh.  Oh well.  

A wave hit and everyone took off.  No more photo ops.

Another attempt at the 1, 2, 3, JUMP.  Didn’t go as well.

Gpa Danny, always the jokester.

Another beach walk.  Gpa Tom joined us.

When we’d walk too far down, they’d request to be carried back.  

The kids got new kites while were down there from Gma and Gpa H.  We were worried that the kites might snap off and fly away in the extreme wind.  Happy to say that that was not the case.  However, we DID find a kite that someone else lost tho!  Score!

Here we had walked down to the “jetties” at one end of the island.

Dylan made us all nervous scampering across the wet rocks in his crocs.  

I don’t know which Gma took these, but they are NOT hired.  Off center!

Another posed picture!  Channeling Gma Pat.

Gpa Danny strikes again!

Gma Kim insisted she take a picture of my Mom and I.  I think they turned out cute.  

We were laughing at how many pictures she was taking.

Time to fly Avery’s kite!

The spectators.  We had fun with the zoom lens this trip.  Lots of sneaky, unsuspecting photos were taken.

Dylan sat with me in the sand to watch Avery fly her kite.

She flew it for literally 60 seconds and then handed it off to Eric.  ”I’m done.”

Some of the aforementioned sneaky photos.

The kids spent a CRAZY amount of time in the pool.  Both of them advanced their swimming skills quite a bit on this trip.  Dylan can swim pretty far underwater and Avery is now swimming doggy paddle style for a few feet at a time.  

More beach time!

It fogged up SO much after I took this picture that the rest of the pictures did not turn out at ALL.  You can’t hardly see anyone!

Time for some scenic yoga poses!  Took a few tries to get this and stick it b/c the wind was at hurricane speeds!  Sheesh!

My mom volunteered to pose too.  Fair game for posting, Mom!  I stepped on a man o war right after we took these pics and it splattered onto my leg.  Turns out that YES even if you ARE wearing shoes, the splattering of the innards of the man o war can still give you a sting!  It wasn’t as bad as I’m sure it COULD be, but it definitely itched and stung!

Dylan got a little squirrelly here and was trying to shove me underwater.  He knows I’m not a huge fan of going underwater. 

It turned into an all out wrestling match.  He’s a wire-y little bugger!

Avos was trying to protect me.

But he still managed to succeed.

The kids got to pick out towels at one of the big junk stores they have on the island.  Out of all the choices, Dylan went with the hundred dollar bill.  We had to laugh.  Avery went with Hello Titty of course (not pictured).

Cheesing for me poolside!

This is the Walrus.  Eric gave him his name.  And we kept tabs on what the Walrus was up to all week.  He even got sniped with the zoom lens a few times from up in the condo.  Eric thinks that the Walrus is the king of the pool and he watches over all the people there.  He also thinks the Walrus had it out for us, as he often seemed to be glaring in our direction.  It could be that he has supersonic hearing and knows that we called him the Walrus.  Even the kids were calling him that and they weren’t saying it quietly!  We got this picture of him by pretending that we were taking a self portrait of ourselves.  The Walrus and everyone else fell for it.  My mom and aunt both said, “oh that’ll be a cute picture of you two!”  Muahahahaha!!!  I am the Walrus!!!!

OH!  Here’s Hello Titty!!!  Super purdy!  They were pretty wiped out from all their swimming.

I had to include this photo!  See that really purdy peach colored pot there? Well, there was an incident and the original pot met an untimely end (did I mention how WINDY it is in SPI???).  ”It was an ugly vase, anyway.”  ;)  We found this lovely replacement at Tuesday Morning and got a deal on it.  $2.50!  Now, if only the owner of this place would follow our lead!

And finally, our last attempt at beach photos.  We waited too long on this day and the fog had set in too much. Boooooo.

Last attempt at 1, 2, 3 Jump.  Lame.

Last pictures at SPI!

We had a wonderful trip!  I wish we could have stayed forever, but alas, duties call.  I tried to get Gpa Danny to take over for me here, but it was a no go.  How rude!  Guess we’ll have to start dreaming of next time.  Now, let the countdown to summer begin!!!

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