Family Day

 These first pictures are of Ben and Elizabeth with their book caterpillars from camp read a lot with Grandma. 

                                            Whoo - they read a lot of books this summer!

                                              They were very proud of their accomplishments.

                      The kids then opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa for back to school.

 For the last few years we have had a family day before school starts.  Tom takes a day off of work and we go do something fun.  This year our plan was to go to Six Flags and when we woke up in the morning it was raining and never stopped so that plan had to change.  We decided to try the aquarium.  The kids thought it was so much fun. 

We saw so many great fish, it was a ton of fun.  After the aquarium we went to see a movie and then out to dinner.  It was a good way to celebrate one of our last days of summer. 

Last Day in Galveston

 On our last day we woke up early, put on cute clothes, and went to take pictures on the beach.  Unfortunately my camera must have a tiny crack in it somewhere because the camera instantly fogged up and wouldn't stop!  I took one of Elizabeth and gave up, I was so disappointed!

                                     Such a gorgeous beach, I'm sad I had such a foggy camera.

 We came back to the house and hung out with the kids and decided what our plan was for the day. 

                                               The kids all wanted to go outside and fish. 

                         Elizabeth FINALLY caught one!  It was so tiny, but at least she got one!

                                         I don't think Ben ever got one, luckily it didn't bother him.

                                          Poor Tom, he spent lots of time spent baiting the hooks. 

 After fishing we went to the beach.  After the beach we all came back to the house to get ready for dinner in the main part of Galveston.  After dinner we walked down to the Pier.  We decided not to actually do the rides - it was pretty expensive and we had only about an hour or so until it was going to close so we thought it wasn't worth the cost. 

 We did walk out onto these rocks out into the ocean.  I was hanging onto the kids for dear life!  There were big spaces around each of the rocks where a leg could easily fall, it was scaring me on those slippery wet rocks!

I have to end with Mark and Blakely :)  We had a great time on our vacation...school will be approaching way too quickly now!

Day 2 Galveston

 We had this great idea to ride the ferry from Galveston to this other little island.  It turned out to be this big fiasco.  We got a little bit of a late start with all of our families, and by the time we got to the ferry there was about a 2 hour line.  We finally get onto the ferry and on our way off the ferry we see the line to get off the island - it was miles long!  We were all so bummed that we had decided to do the ferry!  We left the new island a few hours later and luckily the line had gotten much shorter so it wasn't too long of a wait on the way home, phew!

 Checking out the views from the top deck of the ferry.  There were tons of working boats and cruise ships on the ocean. 

 We were looking so hard for dolphins, the main reason we wanted to do the ferry was to see the dolphins.  Nothing on the way there!

                                                                 Annie and Blakely

 We finally got to the beach and the kids were so ready to just run!

                        The boys were having the best time flying kites and searching for shells.

                    Blakely is so stinking cute!  She was such a trooper sleeping and eating on the go!

                           Back on the ferry for the ride home.  We were so hoping to see dolphins!

 Success - a dolphin!  We actually saw quite a few, and up close, but this was the best picture I got.  See the dolphin fin?

           After the ferry we headed back to our house and ate dinner at home, it was a great day!