We had a big Vaughn family first - Our First Family Vacation! We have been on trips with my family and to visit grandparents, for a D&K weekend away, but never on a "real" family vacation. My parents graciously offered us a week lodging through their Time Share points, so we booked a week in Galveston. I wanted beach, we all wanted close enough to drive to, and most of all, we just wanted a place where we could be away together as a family and make some memories.
Now Galveston is NOT the most lovely of beaches or water areas in the world for sure, but I always love the sound of waves crashing on the shore, and love the feel of dirt in my toes. The big boys and DV enjoyed being out in the waves . . .until a nice little jellyfish stung Tyler and his wave days were quickly ended! Colby wasn't a big fan of salt water in the mouth, and Brady really loved building sand castles. We ALL loved the pool at the resort more than the gulf waters for sure, and there were lots of other fun things to do on the property as well. They had a fun little miniature golf course that everyone enjoyed and Colby and Tyler got some good basketball lessons from Dad.
There was a little crowd gathered around these two fishermen guys when we first arrived on the beach . . .one of them had just landed this mad looking sting ray. Should we be concerned that they were catching beauties like this from out in the water not too far from us?!?! They threw it back in - it gives me shivers to think about encountering that thing in the water. Did I mention I'm not a fan of sea life AT ALL??
This was just a little bit before the dreaded jellyfish ruined it for Mr. T - he had just told Donny, "This is the greatest! I love this!!"
We were very curious what Galveston would be looking like post hurricane Ike. The scars are still there . . . .but you can tell the city has been hard at work repairing and rebuilding. It was really sad and shocking to drive by and see a house with roof and part of a wall ripped out and all the furnishings still sitting in there - paper towels, TV, chairs, couch. It was like life just ended for a family at that place. I pray whoever had "life" at that place has found good life somewhere else.
We called this house the "Leaning House" - surely no one was currently living in it?!?
We spent one day in Houston at the Johnson Space Center - I think this was a
huge hit for everyone. They had a George Lucas exhibit at the time, which meant lots of Star Wars props from the different movies, as well as character sightings! There were some cool Indiana Jones things as well, including a costume worn in one of the movies . . .it has resurrected Tyler's love for the character and he's been dressing up at home ever since! We learned a lot about astronaut life in space, as well as the history of space exploration. Saw lots of models, replicas, and even went on a tram tour that took us to the actual room that used to be the command center for NASA - you know, "Houston, we have a problem". VERY cool.
On the tram ride . .taken by a guy who gave DV a hard time about being a Cowboys fan (since he was from Boston and was a die hard Redskins fan - whatever!!)
Mission Control Room (outdated and replaced by a modern one that we weren't allowed to see)
Brady's favorite "little space ship". It was just his size . . .actually it was a photo booth!!
Colby practicing landing the Space Shuttle. After a few tries he stopped crashing it and actually landed it pretty well! ha!
So excited about to go into the exhibit!!!!
Brady would only "meet" the Star Wars characters if Mommy was holding him. A little bit intimidated . .
This was Tyler's favorite of the day - and
Indiana Jones Temple of Doom Bounce House! It was kind of an obstacle course one with the giant slide at the end. He did it over and over and over . . this time was a race between he and Colby - I think Colbs beat him by a hair.
We took a free ferry ride from the mainland to Bolivar Island, and the best part was feeding the seagulls who were crazy about bread. So crazy that they circled around our heads, made eye contact and waited for us to toss a piece to them, then caught it in mid air!! Never seen anything like it. We caught a couple of glimpses of dolphins on the way back from the island - I LOVE watching dolphins. I learned an important lesson on the ferry ride: Don't wear a sundress on a ferry. Much too difficult to keep it from swirling over your head. Don't worry - I kept mine down, but it was a tricky feat, let me tell ya!! I haven't laughed that hard and felt that helpless in a long time!!!
Other vacation favs: We took some family photos a-la self timer (quite a task on a beach) with quite a wind factor involved. We ate a REALLY nice dinner on the sea wall at Landry's seafood, then followed it with a yummy Ben and Jerry's treat and a walk on the sea wall area. We played lots of Uno, I even scrapbooked a little, ate desert after every meal, coooked our own suppers, ate big breakfasts, basically broke every rule we have at home about WHERE we eat food, how we treat furniture, etc. It was a GREAT vacation that we will all remember, I think.
On the journey home, we took a detour up through Brennam to tour the Blue Bell ice cream plant. LOVED it. Ok, mostly loved the free scoop of ice cream that we all got at the end, but it was cool to see how and where they make one of our favorite treats! We had to drive through Aggie land so Donny could see Kyle Field, home of his favorite college team. He and Colby got a good look while the rest of us uninterested ones stayed in the car watching a movie. We finally made it home after a long day of travel and are glad to be sleeping in our "very own beds" once again.
If you made it this far in this massive post, you have learned more about the Vaughn family vacation than you probably ever wanted to know - congratulations!! Blessings -
