I have tried to get on here all day and I just got through! I’ll make this quick in case the blog goes down on me again.

We headed to Galveston Island State Park yesterday for Father’s Day. We’ve been wanting to check it out for some time now to see if we’d like to camp there. The kids have been begging to go to the beach for ages now. The last time we went to the beach, Robert wasn’t even walking yet. We’re terrible. We have a beach an hours drive away and haven’t taken the kids in 3.5 years.

Robert LOVED the ocean. He ran into the surf, crashed into the waves, fell under the waves and got up each time smiling. There was no stopping him. And Clara loved it just as much as the last time we were there.

Not even the seaweed phased them. Ew. Look at this beach. It’s just awful. Thankfully someone had cleared a path to the water, so I didn’t have to walk through calf deep seaweed. Kids were running back and forth through it and it was to their knees. Blech.

I didn’t get in past my calves because the seaweed grossed me out. It would wrap around my legs and then back out to sea with each wave. Like I said, these two couldn’t care less.

Since our stuff and their sand was so far from the water’s edge, they had to go back and forth getting buckets of water to make the sand suitable for building.

Truth be told, neither Chris nor I particularly enjoy a day at the beach. We both can enjoy an hour in the sun and are then ready to go. So I decided to buy a couple of beach chairs and umbrella at Costco thinking that would help. Oh my goodness, how have we not taken chairs and shade to the beach all these years? It was lovely! We were comfortable the entire time and probably could have stayed a while longer no problem.

The day use area at Galveston Island State Park has rinse off showers and changing rooms, so we didn’t even have to take the beach home with us. And we got in free with our Texas State Parks pass.

After cleaning up, we decided to have an early dinner before heading home. We hit Clara’s favorite, Rainforest Cafe. It amazes me that she still gets a little nervous when the thunderstorms start and the animals start moving around. They both jumped at the chance to get a hug from Cha-Cha.

And finally, we decided to take them on the little ride at the restaurant. We’d never been and didn’t know exactly what it entailed, but I thought it was fun. Clara was a little nervous as our boat launched, but Robert was all smiles.

As we got further in and there were more noises and more animatronic animals startling her, she lost it. She had her face buried in Chris’ lap for the majority of the trip. Robert only got a little nervous as we passed under a large snake suspended from the ceiling.

All in all, it was a super fun, but exhausting day. And we’re ready for another trip to the beach now that we’re prepared. Hopefully it won’t be another three and a half years.