Family Vacation

I am so excited to finally share details about our little family vacation we took over the weekend! We got out of town and went to Port Aransas with friends, and we had SO much fun! One of James' best friends from Austin celebrated his 30th birthday last week, and his wife planned a surprise vacation for their family with us. We got the call about the trip while we were in the ER for Cullen's stitches, so I told Stephanie to just send me the plans. We would have to go!

The toughest part about this trip was keeping a secret from Jason. James and I are both terrible at keeping secrets, but we managed to hold it in for a couple of months.

We headed out of town Friday afternoon and stopped at Prasek's on the way for snacks and a chance to stretch our legs. Because I'm a big kid, I decided to get an ICEE. Why not, right? Over the last eighteen months, I've made a concerted effort to keep Cullen away from most junk food. He'll get an occasional cookie, but nothing wild. Then I gave him a sip of my ICEE. Then he drank most of my ICEE. I don't know why he stayed up so late Friday night...

Who could deny that little face?

We got up the next morning and headed for the beach. We live so close to the beach, but we've never actually taken Cullen out there. I felt certain that our first trip would be full of tears and ingested sand and salt water. It was a little bit on the cool side, but Cullen seemed to enjoy the pull of the water and running around with shovels. I would consider it a success. I can't wait to get him on the beach again!

Why dig with the shovels when you can run with them?

Stephanie and I took the little boys back to the condo for an afternoon nap, and the big boys spent the afternoon on the golf course. The highlight of my afternoon was spending some quiet time with Cullen. I put him down for a nap in the bed (instead of the pack and play), so I went in to check on him after a couple of hours (when he would normally be waking up from his nap). I laid down on the bed to read my book, and he woke up almost immediately, walked across the bed, curled up at my side and slept for another hour. Cullen has never been big on cuddling, so it was a really sweet, rare moment to enjoy. Those little things really are some of the best parts of being a parent.

We went out to dinner that night and went out for ice cream afterwards. James kept a hand on Cullen's ice cream cup, but we let him feed himself. I love that look on his face that shows how he didn't expect the spoon to interact that way with the ice cream. Every day is a learning experience right now.

How do you do this? Eeeeee.

After ice cream was pirate picture time while we searched high and low for a Christmas tree ornament and a t-shirt for Cullen. We ended up leaving with a pirate picture and a ball for Cullen. It was nothing like what we were actually looking for, but Cullen was happy.

Aarrrgh.

The next morning we got up and headed home to catch up on the mundane tasks of life (like laundry). We started out our trip with a quick ride on the ferry. James took Cullen out of his car seat for a quick tour of the water (Cullen knows now that water is also "agua").

Look at all the agua!

It was so nice to have a weekend away as a family. We're already discussing Port Aransas as our family vacation for next year when we might not be able to make it to Garner. Until then, I'll be getting all wound up about our trip to Austin this weekend and our trip to Garner in less than 6 weeks. I can't wait to see my brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew!

xoxo ashley