Reunion at the Beach

This weekend we went to the Bolivar Peninsula for a family reunion of my mom's brothers and their families.  At first, it looked like Tropical Storm Don was going to make things messy for us, but he headed south into Mexico.  It was windy, choppy and gray when we arrived though.  That didn't stop the boys.  We had hardly arrived and naturally they wanted to head for the beach.

 Of course, we were only going to take a quick walk on the beach.  

 Then, they were just going to get their feet wet...

 You can see how that turned out.  They were digging for mussels and other poor frightened creatures.  When I did the laundry at home, my dryer was FULL of sand despite having rinsed out their clothes.  

 The next morning the waves had settled down and the sun was out.  

 They set out to find as many hermit crabs as they could.  Then they put the poor things in this sand pail to count them. They safely returned them all after just a few minutes in the pail.  It was really interesting to watch them dig back into the sand.  I think they found more than 60 throughout the day.

 Such joy!

 Jacob made this "volcano."

 Cousin Sophie was too cute in her hat and bikini. 

After a morning at the beach, we joined all of the aunts, uncles and cousins for food, fun, and fellowship. There were about 23 of us from three generations.  We had a few cousins who were not able to make it and they were missed.  Hopefully next year!

  Sophie and Andrew

My cousin, Keith's son, Bo and Jacob are close in age and had fun splashing and digging. 

The weekend went by quickly and it was time to head home.  We decided to take the ferry through Galveston.  The boys have never been on a ferry ride that is long enough to get out of the car. 

 

 Jacob was scared and chose to spend most of the time in the car.  

 Andrew and Matthew fed the seagulls pieces of bread off the back of the ferry.

We saw a pod of  about 8 dolphins swimming about 100 yards away from the ferry.  It was a great way to end a fun weekend!