Port Aransas Vacation

For the second year, we went to Port Aransas, TX with Grandma & Grandpa Baldwin at the end of the summer. We left on a Monday morning & drove all the way there (about a 10-11 hour drive). I am always amazed at how well the girls travel! They loved the little "tents" I made for them with their blankies...they rode like that for a long time, watching movies in their cozy little hide-outs! We had a good time, just relaxing, playing on the beach, going shopping, looking for shells (& not finding any), going on a Dolphin Boat Ride, visiting the Texas State Aquarium, and just being together.

We decided to try hermit crabs again, hoping we could keep them alive longer than 2 weeks this time! Mackenzie picked "Goldie Sally," a yellow hermit crab with flowers on it, and Madison picked "Puppy," a teal colored hermit crab with a puppy dog on it. It was very funny that she actually found a shell with a dog on it, because before we ever went to get the crabs, when we asked her what she was going to name her crab, she said, "Puppy!" So it was the perfect fit! However...."Puppy" only lasted about 2 weeks...I don't know what I'm doing wrong! So far, "Goldie Sally" is doing okay, but Madison keeps asking for "Puppy" and it is very sad. I think this will be our last hermit crab adventure!

Looking back, there is a huge part of me that really wishes I would have been back in Newcastle with my Dad during this week, but we had no way of knowing this would be his last week here on this earth. I am just so thankful for all of the wonderful times we got to be there with him over the summer. I kept checking in with Mom & Dad all week, and while they were giving him blood & they put him in the hospital on Wednesday, things really didn't get serious until late Friday night when they put him in ICU. We headed back very early on Saturday morning, and got to the hospital just in time. We got there around 3:30, and by 5:30 we knew this would be the end for my Dad. I am so thankful that I made it back in time to be able to tell him how much I love him, and basically to tell him goodbye. I will always remember saying to my Dad, the last time I talked to him in the hospital, "I'm so sorry I wasn't here this week, Dad" and he looked at me and said, "Don't you worry about that." I think he probably loved knowing that we were in Port Aransas, a place that he loved, making new memories with our girls. Several times during our trip, I was sad, just thinking about all of the memories I have there with my Dad and knowing that he would probably never get to come back there again with us. Just a few weeks before all of this, he asked me to print out some fishing reports for Port Aransas, because he was really wanting to plan a fishing trip there in September. That just makes me think about how quickly things went downhill for him. I am writing about all of this in this blog post, because these two things are tied together for me...our vacation to Port Aransas & losing my Dad. I will probably never think about this vacation without that coming to mind...but, that's okay. We made many happy memories that I will always cherish & God's timing is perfect, so I just have to trust that this is how it was all meant to be. Here are just some fun pictures from our week! Riding the ferry across to Port Aransas...I remember doing this as a kid and thinking it was so exciting!Just for fun, we made some ocean cookies for our trip...I only did this because I had some extra dough and icing left over! We had fun with it though. Grandma & Grandpa bought the girls' new Minnie Mouse pj's! Madison's 1st braided pigtails...it was quite a challenge, but she was so proud of them!
Still lovin' those cheeks!Eating dinner at Castaways. After dinner at Castaways, we went to the Bay area park, where we played on the playground & watched dolphins. Poor little Mack got a sunburn on her cheeks & her back a little bit. It didn't seem to bother her too much though. These were some of the new outfits Grandma & Grandpa got for the girls. Could they possibly be any cuter?! This was right before we went on the dolphin boat ride. We went into Corpus Christi to go shopping one day, and the girls were so happy to ride on this train around the mall! Here is a video of them riding the train with Grandma Baldwin...they loved it!

We ate lunch there, in the food court & they had this cute little table for the girls to sit at. I think it is the same table we sat at last year. They loved having their own little space!On our last night there, we fed the seagulls a fun treat...cheese balls! A LOT of cheese balls! I bought these, thinking the girls would eat them, but they didn't like them. So, we put them to good use! We laughed that it was a good thing we were leaving the next morning, in case there were a bunch of dead seagulls all over the beach. Madison didn't want anything to do with this, but Mack loved it.