Port Aransas

(click on photos for larger images)

Every year we head to the Texas Gulf coast for a long weekend.  I seem to have yearly posts on the trip (although we've been going many more years than I've been blogging!) and it's fun to look back. I was shocked, however, to realize how easily Sammy took to the sand and the water the past couple of years because this year, from the very first step off the end of the boardwalk, he had an absolute phobia of sand.

Yes, sand.  Terrified, I tell you. 

As you can imagine, it isn't so easy to avoid sand at the beach!  We never figured out what the problem was and he never got past it.  He was convinced that the sand was scary in some way.  It was a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy because his instinct was to try to wipe the horrific substance off the bottom of his foot on the inside of the other leg... and that is exactly where he has the most trouble with his eczema.  It's not surprising that salty sand is really painful on eczema-cracked skin.  But even when he seemed to be able to accept that no rattlesnake or sand crab was going to get him, and the sand wouldn't hurt if he didn't rub it into his wounds, he was still frightened!

James went to town and bought Sammy some water shoes that encased his feet more than his little flip-flops and they helped... but they didn't fix the problem.  He wanted to be carried from the boardwalk to a chaise lounge, where he would sit on his platform and lean over to dig in the sand with a shovel.  He seemed to have a good time and was mostly happy doing that.  Occasionally he would venture onto the hard-packed sand near the water but never, never onto the softer sand farther from the shore.  We really tried to talk him into it, coax him along, insist that we weren't carrying him... but he was frozen with fear and screaming in terror.  And then he would end up grinding the sand into the already bleeding skin from the last time and we had to scoop him up and go wash him off in fresh water... so it ended up seeming just not worth it.

I showed Sammy pictures of last year when he played in the sand with no problem.  He says he's going to be done with being scared of the sand next year.  Even with the strange sand-o-phobia we had a great time overall!  The weather was beautiful.  Two days were sunny and hot and two days had some rain and a lovely little fall chill, though still plenty of time to be on the beach. 

I've been playing around with some of the images I liked from the trip, so I thought I'd share those.  (As always, click on the images to see them bigger.)

[If you are interested in the post processing done on these photos, check out Pioneer Woman's FREE photoshop/elements actions.  Those are what I used and they are really fun!]

Port Aransas

We love to spend a weekend at the Texas coast each October. We've normally visited an elderly friend there and gone with a group of friends and other families. This year nobody could make it so we weren't planning to go... but Zack had a day off school and we just hated to miss it. So we went just the four of us and ended up having a fabulous time.  We stayed in the same condo place we like, the Sandpiper, and brought groceries for our meals.  That way we didn't have to drive to the beach or to meals and could really enjoy our time.

Zack has always been wary of the waves, but this year he just ran right in. We couldn't believe how much braver he was about getting knocked over and getting water in his face.

See Zack waaaay out in the distance (above) ?

Sammy was much more inclined to play in the sand. I can't blame him - those waves are a lot higher on him compared to his hieght than on the rest of us!

I borrowed my dad's big digital SLR camera and tried it out to see what I could capture.  I really don't know what I'm doing with it, but it was fun to experiment.  I would have liked to do more but I was nervous about getting sand or seawater on it.  I definitely need to try playing around more with the camera to see what I can figure out!

To the Water

You know how everyone says how your kids will shock you by being so different? Well, in most things, my boys are very similar. Their sleeping patterns have been the same (both as infants and as toddlers), their eating habits have been the same (both in nursing and in baby food and now in table food), they are both entertained by really similar things (like books and buses) and they are both quite social.

But looking through the beach pics from our annual October weekend in Port Aransas has me thinking about how different my boys are when it comes to the water. As a young toddler, Zack was very nervous about the ocean. As he grew older, he alternated between timidity and outright fear. He especially did not like the feeling that waves were continually coming closer to him. I think this year, at five years old, was the first year he was really comfortable running in and out of the shallows, filling up the buckets with water.

Sammy, on the other hand, at one and a half years old was already perfectly delighted with the water. He was most fascinated by the little shell creatures that appeared as the water receded and then burrowed themselves back down into the sand, but he was also tickled that his feet became buried in sand as the water swirled around them. He giggled when the waves covered him to his waist and pointed to all the bubbles. He didn't show any of the trepidation that we expected. It made for a very easy and fun time on the beach!

Let's just ride last weekend's wave, shall we?

This was part of last weekend's scene.

This weekend's scene had bloody noses, scraped faces and knees, teeth knocked back into the mouth and all-together too much bleeding. There were some really fun moments this weekend, but I'm not sure they were captured on film. From last weekend we've got plenty of great beach pics, so I'm going to focus on those for a bit. Now that my mom is visiting, we've got more good fun coming, for sure!

The Beach

Last weekend was our annual trip to Port Aransas, Texas for a beach visit. This is our sixth year to go, always in October, always timed to visit our dearest 89 year old friend, Judy. She lives in Austin and we see her at church weekly, but that's just not the same. She spends October in Port Aransas so we arrange a weekend to visit her there for that special time the beach brings. We go with other families (not pictured, since I haven't asked permission) whose kids are roughly the same age as ours. We have so much fun, and as the kids grow, and we add new kids, the fun just increases. This year we reflected on how the kids are so neat and how we genuinely LIKE them. I feel really blessed to be able to say that.

The only fly in the sunscreen was that I was so very sick. The friends were quite nice about it, but if they get what I've got, they are going to hate me forever. Luckily, they'll have no voice during the worst of their ire, so I won't have to hear much about it. Then, after that, the whites of their eyes will turn solid red (yes, my current state) and they won't be able to show their faces out of their houses. Suffice it to say, I was not in optimal health for beach enjoyment. But, I still had a good time and got down to the beach quite a bit, considering.

Now I'm spending an inordinate amount of time staring at the pictures and playing with Picasa 3's collage function. I'm mesmerized by the photos and the combination of photos. I'm looking back at previous years and how all the kids have grown. I'm sure it's a mom-thing, but sometimes the way the light catches on my kids' skin or hair makes me catch my breath. This view of Zack staring up at a kite combined with his mischievous little water kicking is what currently has me delighted: