Galveston was a Blast

So I'm taking a job in Galveston to work and teach. Here is a picture of UTMB, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. It is one of the older medical schools this side of the Mississippi. Anyway, here is a picture of the school.  

After my computer training, I came home and we spent the day at the beach looking for shells, building castles, burying Emmy in the sand, searching for sea crabs, and flying airplanes and kits on the beach. It was really fun. Bridget took kids mini golfing why I was gone. 

At dinner, Dora made a hilarious joke. 

"Look, this chip is sunburned!"

Such a funny little princess!

This kid really wanted Taco Bell!

Princess Her Highness!

My buddy!

After dinner Eli and I went looking for crabs at night. Didn't find any living crabs, but we did find lots of seashells. 

Someone made this. Eli destroyed a couple of other castles. 

Galveston is Fun.

We got up Wednesday morning and decided to do something different. At SeaWolf park there is a submarine and a World War II destroyer. This is one of two left. This submarine operated in WWII and sank several Japanese ships. The destroyer was created to hunt out and sink German submarines. For $6 you can hike all over these ships inside and out. There is really not a lot of room to move around. 

Torpedo!

The wood on top is teak. How cool is that! Eli in front Carla with Amerhyst, Bridget coming up stairs. 

Eli standing next to bunks above a torpedo. 

Emmy spinning a rudder. 

Dora and Eli ran ahead to explore the dining room then engine rooms. 

Dora the Destroyer. 

Big bullet! Oh and some shells too. 

Aiming. 

After exploring the ships, we went to the strand where they have a confectionary. Kids got tons of candy. 

Eli and I found some fun treats. These are ant suckers and scorpion suckers. Yes Eli is already eating his and so excited to say he are a scorpion. But I still csnt get him to eat corn? Kids are weird. 

For lunch we went to Gumbo Diner on the sea wall. Good gumbo. Also beignets  pronounced "Big-Nettie's" for you non southerners. 

We spent all afternoon playing in surf and sand. I left my phone inside so no pictures. Eli and I swam in surf and found about a dozen hermit crabs. Emmy and Dora collected sea shells to make a sea shell necklace when we get home. Emmy liked to dug in the sand then come out into the huge waves. She either hs no sense if fear or self preservation, or thinks a lot more of my life saving ability than she should. 

After dinner we went to Rainforest Cafe. That place is kinda fun. 

Volcano dessert!

Dora offered to give me hair! Combover?

I woke at 4:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. I'm sitting in balcony at hotel watching moon go down and sun come up. I really need to go to bathroom but don't want to wake anyone. 

Galveston continued.

We ate dinner the first night at IHOP. Eli came up with a couple of funny jokes. 

"If this is IHOP, why aren't more people jumping up and down?"

And,

"Hey Dad, what is a frog's favorite restraunt? IHOP! Get it?"

My meal buddy as always. 

In the morning I took the big kids too the ferry. They loved it. We saw three dolphins and lots of huge boats. 

Sweet precious. 

When Amethyst woke up from her nap, we loaded up and went to schlitterbahn. That's when phone got locked up! No more pictures for fear of ruining/losing my phone. 

Galveston Vacation

We took a week vacation once Eli's school ended. We went to church in morning. Then packed our bags and fed the chickens and took off. We are staying at Holiday Inn Resorts. We have a two bedroom condo on the fifth floor. 

Since it was Sunday, we stayed dressed up and let kids walk in waves. That soon turned into swimming in church clothes. Oops. Best laid plans...

We took Tessa's pants off, Bridget changed onto something comfortable. We had fun. Kids were so excited. 

While waiting for our room (there was a delay) we went to Salsas Mexican Restraunt. The kids were wet, sandy, tired, and in Tessa's case poopy. But we had fun. 

Kids were awake before the sun. We had a breakfast of eggs, cereal, and yogurt. 

Look at her glee!

In tradition, Dora wanted to be burried. She is under my hat. 

Sitting up. 

Then she begged me to build her a castle taller than her. It took me an hour to build this with Eli and Emmy knocking it down. It took her three seconds to destroy it. 

Tessa and an icecream break.