Soaking up Some Sun-ity

One of the best parts about living in southeast Texas is that the ocean is just a hop, skip and a ferry ride away. There is nothing like the roar of ocean waves, the wind whipping through your hair, the sea spray exfoliating your skin and the soft sand between your toes to set your world right again.
I am a spontaneous - go to bed one night and think I will do one thing and wake up on the "scrap it all and go to the ocean" side of the bed kind of girl. My husband needs contractual agreements, and plans set in stone weeks before - meaning that if we have to stop at Walmart for a new tube of sunblock along the way, his apple cart is overturned. So, it was no small miracle that he agreed to go on the spur of the moment with me. (You can only imagine what great pains we went through to get the self-portrait of the two of us at the top left here - and to get him to consent to allowing me to post one of them!)
The day was perfect - not too hot, adequately sunny. The 20 minute ferry ride gave us some sort of a ship-show as the bay was full of oil tankers and fishing boats - and even some excitement when at one point it appeared we might collide with one. Galveston has white, fine sand and the ocean floor is nice and solid - not slimy or rocky. We all had a really good time. Travis didn't get in the water - but he enjoyed the feeding the seagulls and pigeons. He met a guy that looked and reminded us all of his best buddy, Tav, and chatted it up with him a while. I soaked up some sun, splashed in some waves with my kids, and found a chance to scribble out some story notes for my writing. It was nice to be away from the computer, cell phone and demands of daily life. It was a great, relaxing day. We're doing it again asap!

In this picture Travis is feeding goldfish crackers to the birds. When he saw this picture he asked me, "What, am I flying a bird kite?" to which I asked, "Did you fly a bird kite?" He answered, "No." This cracked me up. We are one dysFUNctional family. I guess for better or worse.

To Heck With it All

I managed to convince my hubby to be spontaneous with me and say to heck with it all and head out to the ocean. The things of life always seem a lot less significant when you consider the vastness of the deep and the grains of sand of which He knows every number. Check ya later - we're beach bound!

Terror on the Beach

I can't believe I finally figured out how to upload this video that I took back in the spring! It only took me all day long! We took it when our friends Jessie and Tayva were visiting. It has had us laughing so hard every time we watch it. I hope it makes you laugh too! And just for the record, I repeatedly told them not to feed the birds, through hysterical laughter!

TX Man Battling Flesh Eating Bacteria

My mother-in-law told me about this story earlier today. A SE Texas man from a neighboring town is fighting for his life after going in the ocean in Galveston just about a week and a half ago. It is crazy. Evidently there is a certain type of bacteria that thrives in warm salt-water. Poor guy. All the articles that I've read say that it isn't dangerous for normally healthy people, but the man was diabetic with an ulcer on his leg. The infection has reached his bloodstream and does endanger his life. Please pray for Mr. Gilpatrick.

50 SPF is no Match for the Texas Sun!

Man oh man! We went to Galveston Island today with Kendra's friend, Allen and his mom, my newfound friend, Sherri. We had a really good time. The beach was covered with seaweed in uncanny amounts - read this news story from 2005 about it. Evidently it is a recurring problem. It was absolutely everywhere. But that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the Gulf Beach. We had 50 SPF sunblock, and reapplied it several times a day - and we all have sunburn. I know it would be much worse without it - but I can't believe how little effect it seems to have had. It is no match for this intense Texas sun! Blackberry merlot seems to be the best sunburn tonic at the moment!

The Very Good, Wonderful, Not too Hot, Terrific Day

Before the girls friends got here from WV, I made plans to visit the NASA Space Center in Houston. We have wanted to do that since we first moved here. It was a very fun day. We packed a lunch and headed out. For me the traffic wasn't so fun. I am not a city driver, and as we got nearer to Houston, we started having two lanes with no shoulders surrounded by cement barriers on either side. We took a tram tour of Johnson Space Center and saw a mock-up Mission Control room that was used for the Apollo era rockets. There were exhibits of all kinds. The kids had a few hands-0n opportunities such as operating a MMU - which is basically like operating a jet pack that moves you around outside of the spacecraft in a weightless environment, and practice at landing a space shuttle. (BTW - I was the worst at this!) We watched a lot of shows about different aspects of being an astronaut, what life is like in space, and learned about all the technology we've gained by missions to space - such as cell phones.
We met a real life hero - a man who served in and was awarded a Purple Heart for being shot down in WWII. His name was Frank. He also served in Korea and Vietnam. The kids stood and talked to him for a long time as he was sitting inside a mock-up of the space shuttle. He was very friendly - he liked the kids a lot. He kept calling the girls "beautiful". I asked him if we could take a picture of everybody with him, and he was happy to comply. He had more decorations on his hat than I think I've ever seen.
After visiting NASA and learning more about space than you could ever want to know - we ate Chinese and I got to have my fill of sushi! (yum yum) I had promised Jessie a trip to Sonic which I will make good later this week! She was gracious and allowed me to take a rain check!
I had decided the day before to take the kids to Galveston Island - which is only 30 minutes south of where we were in Houston - and make the NASA trip and the beach all in one day. The only trouble is that it was a very overcast, extremely windy day. That did not stop the six of them from jumping right into the ocean. I sat to watch them on the sand, and was freezing! (I was also covered with a fine grit of sand and salt!) The ocean was beautiful though - the powerful wind and waves causing me to worship the Creator.
There was so much salt and moisture in the air that few of my pictures out there appear to be very focused. I took them with the panoramic format in order to get the ocean splashing up on the rocks behind them.
Another fun thing that happened was in part due to my navigation of our route home. We left the beach around 8 pm - and found that you can take a ferry across so that you can make just a short 2 hour trip to our house. I knew that we didn't live far from the coast - but I didn't realize it was just that short of a trip. I was also surprised to find that the ferry is free - provided by the TX highway department. The kids were thrilled to get to ride the ferry. Jessie had never been on one before.
It was a very long day. We packed so much into that 24 hour period. We didn't get home until around 11:30 - held up half an hour by the near-miss accident. But it was a super day none of us will ever forget.
BTW - Kullen was there - and wondered why I never took any pictures of him - I explained that it was like trying to hit a moving target. Here is one of him in the ocean. Trying to get him to be still is like trying to nail jell-o to a tree!