beach vacation 2010: day 1

this past wednesday we were up before dark, not because of insomnia, but because we were headed to the beach!  the boys had never seen the ocean and never experienced the beach so we were all excited about this trip.

our destination:  rockport, texas.

we settled on rockport after my facebook polls of the best place to go (in texas) for a family-friendly beach experience.  my sincere thanks to all those who weighed in.  i love facebook for getting people's opinions of things.  and to think i resisted the facebook bandwagon for so long!

and thanks to our great friends from church, we had the ultimate hookup:  an amazing condo right on the ocean with its own pier and swimming pool.  we were in heaven!

but back to our trip down south.  we left early, at 5:01 am to be exact, for duel reasons.  one, we had hoped the boys would sleep some in the car, making the trip a little shorter for everyone!  they didn't exactly sleep, but they were pretty quiet for the first couple of hours so the time zipped by.  our second reason for leaving so early had to do with timing.  we wanted to roll into austin around 8 am so that we could eat once again at our favorite little breakfast joint:  magnolia cafe!

noodle loves drinking his orange juice out of these coffee cups!

we ran into a little morning rush hour traffic as we drove into austin and by that time, we all needed a bathroom break.  you can only imagine the hysteria that ensued when this truck rolled up next to us on the highway. 

we began to sing crazy songs about needing a port-o-jon and with two boys, potty humor is the ultimate reason to laugh and go crazy.  we had a good time being silly and we busted out in potty songs more than once on our trip, ha!  look real close at the picture to catch the slogan of this "unique" business.

from austin, the trip went by relatively quickly, despite noodle's incessant question of "how many more minutes?"  before we knew it, we were crossing the bridge into rockport.  this is the boys' first reaction to seeing the ocean:

burrito, of course, is using his hands to communicate his excitement.  he always does this when he gets excited!  don't you love his ducky blanket scarf?

noodle just took it all in from the comfort of his carseat.

we knew that there was a good chance of rain the entire time we were to be down there, so we had planned on dropping our stuff at the condo and heading straight for the beach.  we didn't want any missed opportunities.  and that is exactly what we did.  and it worked out perfectly because we were there for about 2 hours before the storms rolled in. 

they put their life jackets on when we first got there but quickly realized there was no need and off they came!

the beach in rockport did not disappoint.  it's like a little island that jets out into the ocean and is equipped with cabanas, covered picnic tables, restrooms, good sandy beaches and shallow, clean water.  the boys could go way out and still touch, which allowed them to really explore and play without me helicoptering about!

we searched for seashells, we built sandcastles, we dug in the sand, and we swam, swam, swam.  it was so fun!  john found two really neat shells out in the water, but we soon discovered that they weren't only shells, but also a home to little crabs.  we tried to get the crabs to come out so we could keep the shells, but they weren't interested!  burrito loved it when john would throw him up into the air and then let him crash down into the water.  noodle and burrito both thought it was hilarious when john pretended to be a shark and swim after them.  both boys quickly discovered that the water in the ocean tastes a little salty.  burrito said it tasted "disgusting!"

in the picture below, you can really see the clouds and the storms that began to roll in.  you can also see how clear the water was when brief moments of sunshine hit the water.  it was beautiful!

we stayed until it began pouring on our heads.  we headed back to the condo to clean up and head out for some dinner.  we went to Paradise Key, a local seafood restaurant just 5 minutes from the condo.  john and i ate mahi mahi, crab cakes and grilled shrimp.

we ended our first day by sitting out on the balcony of the condo, watching the waves coming in and revisiting our adventures of the day.  it was a perfect moment and one of those moments that you know will be etched in your memory for years to come.