to the beach!!

I see you... overlooking the bay in Corpus Christi atop the Aquarium look-out

I don't know if it was more fun for Dan and I or for Grace but the aquarium is always a good time. This one was especially fun for the dolphin show and to see the otters diving and swimming

little sand crab

Funny girl, at first Grace was leery of the sand, didn't want to walk in it or anything- yet she had no problem walking through the seaweed that had washed up on the beach. As soon as we showed Grace the concept of digging in the sand though, she took off with it! We would fill the bucket and flip it over to make a sand castle; Grace was mimicking us but would only put one scoop of sand in the bucket, flip it over to see a tiny pile of loose sand and applaud herself, 'yeah!!' and clap her hands. Its the thought that counts, not the end result :)

Quite possibly the highlight of the trip for Dan and I was the last day as we were walking down the beach... The funny thing is, you can drive your car and park on the beach here in Texas. We were strolling looking for shells and an older Mexican couple had their camp set up out the back of their truck and were playing your stereotypical Mexican restaurant music really loud. Grace couldn't resist and began to shake her tooshie on the beach. The older couple was cracking up and so were we! She stopped to wave at them, they waved back, and then she resumed the tooshie shake. I don't ask for much in life anymore I guess, but that definitely capped off a great weekend of fun at the beach in a different fashion than the usual veg. and bake. A little more chase and play, cringe over sand going in and on things I just assume avoid. Oh well!! I wouldn't trade it for the world!

I see you... I'm going to get you!!!
Every time we were leaving the beach, it was a long farewell process, bidding the ocean bye-bye, 'bye-bye birds', 'bye-bye sand', 'bye-bye water'. Grace was in heaven as water and birds are two of her favorite things to talk about these days

A pearl of wisdom if you're raising a just under 2 year old... if she's in the bathtub and begins talking about diapers, you might want to end the bath at that time. Otherwise it results in wrapping up your dripping wet munchkin only to catch a stinky whiff, hear her say the words 'bye-bye poop' and lift her up only to find a chocolate truffle lying on the bathmat.
(I sincerely hope you're at least smiling, if not bent over in laughter like we were last night!)