It’s the one time of year that we usually all get to see each other. We never know who’s going to be at which parent’s house for the upcoming Christmas or Thanksgiving, but we can count on seeing each other at the beach each summer.

Every Summer my Grandma “Gammy” rents a beach house somewhere on the Texas coast – usually near Galveston or Surfside. For the past couple of years we’ve stayed in Surfside. It’s a tiny beach town that’s pretty run down, but does the job. The prettiest waters and coolest attractions don’t matter… as long as we can spend time together as a family (usually around food). The beach seemed extra clean this year for some reason. We were in an extra large house, too.  Since most of the grandkids are grown-ups now (some of us married with kids, with the exception of 2 still in college), it’s difficult to get us all together for a week. Therefore, the majority of the grandkids only stayed for the first weekend- which included Brian and me.  We were all sad to miss our cousin, Kayla, who drove in a couple hours after we left that Sunday afternoon.

This year our time consisted of long walks on the beach (no joke) catching up with each other’s lives across the past year while the water lapped at our feet, and enjoying good laughs over delicious homemade meals (specifically Gammy’s famous cheese rolls). We’ve each grown and changed so much, while still remaining the same at heart. I love my cousins so much. I wish we could get together like this more often.

You can view the entire album here on Flickr.

Here are some of my fav’s.