South Padre

Sept. 19-24, 2014

Vacation time!  We, along with Gunnar, Brittney and kids, my mom and dad, and Chelsey, spent 5 fabulous days in South Padre!  My parents and Chelsey flew to SA, and then the next day we drove  5 hours to paradise!  The drive there wasn't too bad, we did hit a couple of down pours that slowed us down a little, but Camden did pretty good…Chelsey might think other wise…;)  It was evening by the time we got there, so we didn't have time to go to the beach, but we did walk to it to check it out.  We stayed at the house on the left side and the beach was a 2 minute walk away.  It was perfect!

Couldn't get them to look at the same time!

We spent our first full day (Saturday) at the beach in the morning and Schlitterbaun in the afternoon/evening. We had perfect weather that day.  Blue skies and sunshine!  Camden wasn't too sure about the sand and water when we first got there, but he warmed up to it pretty fast and was trying to eat it in no time!  He loved to chase the waves and didn't mind when the water got in his face.  Schlitterbaun is a water park that is pretty famous in Texas, there are 3 locations here.  The one on South Padre is so-so.  Not that great, but I know the kids had lots of fun!  Camden had a blast splashing in the water and being able to crawl around in the shallow parts.  We did put him down a couple of small kid slides.  He didn't cry, but had a pretty frightened look on his face!  He loves being in the water.  We saw some pretty spectacular sunsets on our trip, and of course, the pictures are never as good!

On Sunday morning we headed to Brownsville for church and then relaxed the rest of the day.  That evening we decided to take some family pictures!  Despite the wind and humidity I think we ended up with some good ones!   

We got to sit at the Captains table!

We saw lots of Pelicans!

Eric was trying to get Camden to give him a high five!  He did end up doing it!

We didn't get much beach time on Monday.  We played in our pool in the morning and then had planned to go to the beach in the afternoon, but the big black clouds in the sky had different ideas!  We spent a whole 5 minutes on the beach before deciding it wasn't worth it.  We had a pretty good rainstorm after that, but we played in our pool a little more and then decided to explore the port town, Port Isabel, when the rain stopped.  There is a light house, but it was closed…and under construction, so we walked around some little shops and then decided to eat dinner at Pirates Landing.  It was a fun restaurant, with good food.  After we walked on the pier and saw another beautiful sunset!  

Grandpa trying to get Camden asleep.

Our last full day we spent at the beach!  It was beautiful weather in the morning, so we packed everything up and spent our day in the sand.  Camden had a blast the last day, just exploring everything, chasing waves again and probably eating sand and seaweed.  Christian, Jackie and kids were also in South Padre so they headed over to our beach and all of the kids had lots of fun playing with each other.  We had some threatening clouds, but luckily the storm split and we didn't get rain while at the beach.  We also got in one last swim in the pool afterwards.  That night we had a pretty good rainstorm, but it cleared up just in time to go get dessert and see the beautiful sunset!  It was really pretty!  We couldn't stay outside in the dark too long though, there were lots of mosquitos that especially liked to eat me!

The babies had fun playing in this huge Jacuzzi tub each night!

Our last day on the island we had to be out of our house by 10am.  Once we left, we had one last stop at a Sea Turtle Rescue Center.  They find turtles that are hurt, rehabilitate them, and send some back into the ocean.  It was cool to see the different ones.  After that, we headed home.  We had so much fun, it was hard to leave!  At least we are only 5 hours away…and only 2 if we go to North Padre.  So we know we will be back!  Oh, and how good is a road trip if someone doesn't get a ticket….yup, happened to me.  But, it wasn't for speeding, ran a red light! :/  Darn it!  I learned my lesson, it's better to just wait at the light than have to pay for that ticket!