Growing up, my maternal grandparents had a beach house on the Gulf Coast just outside of Houston. After one of the massive hurricanes and big floods, they sold the house. Since then, we’ve rented a beach house in either Galveston or Surfside probably for the past 15 years or so. This year my mom’s very generous and gracious best friend let us invade her beach house in Galveston for almost a whole week. Family members usually come and go throughout the trip. All the cousins were together for the tail end of the trip during the last weekend. It’s always such a fun time with my cousins. I’m so grateful that we all get along and truly enjoy each other’s company. There’s constant (laugh ’til you cry) laughter, joking, sharing stories, teaching, encouraging, catching up where we left off, etc….

Last year I was big and prego and this year we had baby Brady with us! This was his first beach experience and we were so excited to see how he enjoyed and interacted with the ocean/sand. He loved it. After lunch each day, we lathered him in sunscreen, and layered him in a hat, shirt, and bathing suit. Naturally, he ate handfuls of yucky sand and attempted to eat seaweed. He enjoyed the warm Gulf of Mexico and the mild waves we held him in. He liked using this little plastic baby shovel and bucket. He was very focused on exploring the sand. The texture. The taste. Everything about it. hah.  Within 10 minutes he was covered in muddy dark sand. We’d shower him off in the outdoor shower at the house, which he loved, before plopping him down for his 2 pm nap.

Unfortunately, Brady boy did NOT sleep well the entire time we were at the beach. I thought it would have been the contrary. Oh, he’ll be playing in the sun on the beach and get worn out by all the family playing with him, etc.. Nope. He was up for sometimes hours on end in the middle of the night unconsolable. Sometimes he’d eventually fall asleep on my chest as I laid sprawled in bed praying that I’d get some sleep somehow in that position.  There’s no telling why he didn’t sleep. He napped  well during the day as usual, but sleep at night? No way.  Once we got home he took approx 1 night to re-adjust and was fine. Babies. Who knows?!

It’s become a tradition that every year I bring my tripod for a big family photo. Most years we’re missing 1 cousin or something. This year everyone was in the photo!  Here’s 100+ of my favorites photos from the week at the beach.  Thanks for always corralling the family, Gammy. We love you and are grateful for the memories made.