Happy Father's Day at the Beach!

We spent the whole day Sunday at the beach in Galveston, which is an hour away by car. Everyone from Texas has told us that it is not a good beach because we get the silt from the Mississippi River delta. Apparently the farther south you drive, (ie the farther from the mouth of the river), the "cleaner" looking sand and clearer water you get. Since we are from the midwest the brown sand, strewn with hundreds of little shells, was fine! We collected shells, made sand castles, and played in the water. The water was warmer than bathwater, and the waves were not too strong. Both factors cured Vivi of her ocean phobia, and enticed all the kids to run and jump in the waves for literally hours.

Tonito had a BLAST playing in the sand- his first real beach experience!

In the afternoon when the beach had less people, the dogs ran and played in the waves (Boo was terrified but obsessed with the driftwood stick, Mingo just jumped in the water oblivious to the stick).

We were so happy that Maya was not afraid of the water! Vivi at this age would yell "adios! Go away" to the waves. Maya just sat down and played even when a wave would come and wash her over. Obviously we kept a good eye on all the kids!

They loved jumping over the waves. Tonio took the big kids farther out and they LOVED it.

Tired and tan Tonito:

Vivi the Little Mermaid:

Sand Princess Maya:

Around 3pm we decided to drive along Galveston Island to check out other beaches. There aren't many rules that we could see about dogs or cars or bonfires, etc. On many beaches, people would just drive their cars onto the sand and have almost a sandy-tailgate party right there. They all had tents and umbrellas, grills, dogs, toys, we saw horses, etc. So here we come with our IL plates and minivan and try to drive on the sand to see the beach. You can guess what happened next:

Very stuck. I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt. We were the sideshow on the beach, even a police car pulled up next to us to watch Tonio try to dig us out. It was almost like quicksand, the more the tires spun, the deeper we sank. (that is wood Tonio tried to put to give me some traction- just for the record, I was not driving when we got stuck:). Finally some teenage boys and their dad came over and helped to push us out. Any tips? What do you do when you're stuck in the sand? I can get a minivan out of the snow using sand... but what do you use in the sand?

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Anyway, we had a really fun day and no one got too sunburnt or dehyrated in the extreme heat and sun. Besides the last mini-adventure in the sand, it was an awesome Father's Day!:)