Spring vacation

Brigham and Mosey playing in the sand on Port Aransas Beach

Great sand for drip-castles

Joseph making a castle

Silly Mosey

In the water

Running out of the water

Running back into the water

On the boat

Brigham and Mosey peeking out of the porthole

Hard to see, but that is a family of whooping cranes out there. Whooping cranes mate for life.

Brigham at Rockport beach

Joseph working on his tan

Mosey being silly again

Those birds are called Black Skimmers. The boys attracted a whole bunch of them, throwing pieces of bread up into the air.

More black skimmers

Eating out of Ben's hand

Got it!

Ben and the boys on the Fulton Pier. Joseph wasn't into having his picture taken.

But he did deign to pose next to me.

So last week was the boys' spring break. For the first few days we pretty much just hung out at home, slept in, watched DVD's and otherwise loafed about. Wednesday I took them to ride bikes up at the church parking lot.

Then on Thursday we decided to go down to Port Aransas. There is a line of barrier islands along the gulf coast, very much like the barrier islands in Florida. South Padre Island is the most famous one, but last week was also UT's spring break, and South Padre tends to get overrun by partying college spring breakers, so we decided not to go there. Port Aransas is closer anyway, about 3 hours. It is a GORGEOUS drive through the beautiful countryside, and it was exciting to get back to the ocean.

We stayed in Rockport Beach, just north of Port Aransas. On Friday we drove down to Aransas Pass, took the ferry out to the island, and spent the day at the beach. It started out beautiful, but then fog rolled in and it got just a little chilly. Ben still managed to get quite sunburned on the side of his face (he was lying on his side on the sand). The boys had a fabulous time, though, making sand castles, finding jellyfish, and playing in the water. Mosey ran into the water about 10 yards, then ran out again, ran in, ran out, ran in, ran out, for about three hours!! That boy is tireless. Port Aransas has the nicest sand I've ever seen at a beach, I think. Very fine and soft and perfect for making sand castles.

Late in the afternoon we drove down through Mustang Island and Padre Island, and then drove across the bridge over the intercoastal waterway into Corpus Christi. I was also totally impressed with Corpus. At least, driving up the coastal highway in Corpus is amazingly beautiful. We saw Horton Hears a Who (great movie, btw, Mosey LOVED it), and ate at Chili's before driving back to the motel.

Saturday we took a boat ride out of Rockport along Blackjack Peninsula, which is a wildlife refuge, and the winter home of the only wild flock of whooping cranes left in the world. It was a beautiful sunny day and we saw lots of whooping cranes and other birds. The water was perfectly calm, so no seasickness!

After the boat ride we spent the afternoon at Rockport Beach. This is also a very nice beach with calm, clear water, and NO trash. There were only families there, and everyone was well-behaved. The water stays shallow really far out, probably 200-400 yards at least, so it was really fun for the boys to play in, and I could just relax and not worry about them. At Port Aransas the day before, the water was rougher, and I freaked out a couple of times when Mosey left my sight.

I have to say, the beach is much more fun when you can walk, though. I managed to get across the sand (with Ben's help), and then waded a few feet into the water before just sitting down. Too hard to wade against the resistance of the water, and when I can't clearly see where my feet are going, it is impossible. But then I couldn't get back out! So I had to wait for Ben to get back (he got all our beach gear down on the beach, and then went to check on the dog at the motel) before I could get back up to my beach chair. But after that I relaxed on the sand and read my book and enjoyed the sun. It was very nice. When it was starting to get dark, we packed up our stuff and then drove around Rockport a bit, touring Key Allegro, which is exactly like the ritzy part of Ft. Lauderdale with enormous houses, waterways and posh boats winding around behind the houses (the waterways were winding, not the posh boats!). If someone had just dropped me there and I didn't know where I was, I would swear I was in Florida. Very nice. And expensive.

That night we ordered pizza and watched "I, Robot" on TV.

Sunday we tried to go to church, but after we finally found where the Rockport branch meets, there was a notice saying it was Stake Conference down in Corpus Christi. Oh well. So we checked out Fulton Beach, walked down the pier there, drove past the Fulton Mansion, and then headed home. We were home by about 4:30.

What a nice weekend!

Now we are back in school. The boys were ready to be back on a schedule, and even though it's hard to drag myself out of bed every morning at 6:15, it's also good for me to be back on schedule.