Beach trip, el fin...

So even though it didn't get much above 70 during our trip, there was no getting out of putting on bathing suits and braving the cold ocean waves. The Es and Dijar managed to stay in for five minutes or so, while their wimpy mama kept her clothes on and only walked in up to her ankles. Ella had been begging to surf on her little kickboard, and she got her chance on Wednesday.

After that quick dip, we headed back to the hotel hot tub (or as Egan calls it, the "hot pool")to warm up. All of us enjoyed ourselves there. The hotel had a really nice pool area--it's too bad it wasn't warmer.

On our last full day in Galveston, the sun came out for awhile and we headed for one of the newly reconstructed beaches to work on the sand castle we'd been talking about since before we left home. Here's a photo at the beginning and one towards the end of construction. Dijar headed up the building, while Egan did the digging and Ella hunted for shells and rocks to decorate with.

Nico and I sat on the beach and played. He's sitting up pretty well by himself lately and had a great time trying to get the sand into his mouth.

Those of you with keen eyes may have noticed that everyone in the first sand castle photo was dry and everyone in the second photo was wet. That's because they took a break in the middle for one last dip in the ocean. The previous trips had made them brave enough to explore out into deeper water. Ella came running back in to visit N and me, and this was her response when I asked her if she was a surfer girl:

No words necessary, huh? Egan had fun too, as evidenced here:

We ate at the Rainforest Cafe twice on this trip, even though the animals moving around really scared Egan. He spent most of those meals glued to my hip or in my lap. Nico thought the whole thing ws great. He especially liked the fish pattern on our table and being able to sit in the highchair and watch us all eat.

And thus ends the first beach trip we've all taken together. Overall it was a really good experience. All of us had fun and it wasn't quite as hard as I'd anticipated to keep all three kids (and two adults) occupied and happy.