We had reservations at our regular spot on the Port Isabel side of Padre Island... a place that we'd gone since I was in High School... a place that Troy and I had sponsored my sister's senior girl's trip, a place where we'd taken our high school youth group, a place where years and years we'd walked the beaches. We would not give up and think that Dolly had ruined our vacation.
But, she did! or at least that was what we thought as we scrambled to find other accommodations......but NOT to be found on that end of the island.....
so regroup!
the guys had gone on before and went IN PERSON to inspect places that might work for our ENTIRE crew!
They did it! what a neat place, what a wonderful vacation awaited us in the aftermath of a hurricane.....God had good things in store for us!
Beautiful sunrises began each day.....occasionally a little hand with a voice close behind would reach across the walls that divided our porches......such sweetness! I loved it! ( I know KG... "you can't love something that isn't alive!"... but I surely did cherish those moments)
even as we looked over our place and SJ found "squeaking ducks" in his room... it was a good place there on Mustang Island!
Of course we started out with the Texas State Aquarium... TS just couldn't figure out the blowhole of the make believe whale at the entrance... he waited and waited... while we laughed and laughed!
we got up close and personal with sharks and other creatures that we hoped would be intimate friends behind the safety of glass!
MY OH MY!!! La Playa is the most amazing place for Mexican food we've EVER found! Sorry Jack.. we do plan to tell you some of our favorites so you guys can perhaps duplicate some of the better parts of the menu!
The Poppy hit his stride in teaching chess to a willing bunch of "students of strategy"... yes, I do think they got it... maybe even the 3 year olds... at least they understood the moves. Now TS was another thing altogether... he found the "pawns, queen and bishop" quite delectable, much to his mommy's chagrin!
This place felt like we had our own personal beach.... so beautiful......only about 1-3 feet for several yards into the waves... the kids LOVED it~~~ much safer than the beaches we've become accustomed to at PI.
Our youngest member became quite adept at her newly acquired mobility... so much so that she'd walk right into the waves by the time we left.
These two were the master builders and excavators of the coastline... not even the "sand castle lessons" guy could hold their interest as they spent endless hours building and digging.
The surf was another source of entertainment... besides the wonderful waves, there were sand crabs (the ones in the ocean have gills... they DO NOT BELONG ON THE SHORE!!!), and sand dollars. Did you know they are purple when they are alive? So fragile, so lovely... so FUN!!! All the living creatures we found were left where God placed them......but now, you can bet all the shells driftwood and barnacles will be made into something quite creative by the ones who found them!
We met missionaries from Mexico who did balloon animals for donations
We spent lots of time in laps and in great conversation!
Em and KG did something they REALLY wanted to do, and (maybe Em will blog it???) then, God showed them something absolutely wonderful... the girl doing the henna was from Israel... spoke little English, but knew Hebrew quite fluently... neat conversation, neat revelation, BUT.... NOT MINE TO SHARE :)
"where the Spirit of the LORD is there is FREEDOM!!"
So Dad.... ya think we can do this again sometime???
I like it that we can all just be...
happy,
silly,
funny,
and just plain ole FUN!!!
(even if we get rather grumpy when we have to do those wayyyyyy too many group pictures we always wait for the last day to do!)
