Galveston 2012

At the end of August we set off on our first real family vacation.  We decided to spend a few days in Galveston because we wanted an easy and affordable trip considering the huge purchase that's coming our way.

First, let me say that Korey and I have always been anti-DVD player in the car kind of people.  We just don't believe in constantly making our child consume TV at every chance he gets.  But roadtrips?  A whole different ballgame.  So we loaded up a DVD player, toys, snacks and Hunter kicked off his shoes as soon as we left.

Our first stop was in League City to see where Korey's paternal grandparents were buried.  Korey's grandfather was an architect which is how he inherited his drawing skills along with his drawing desk.

Since Hunter didn't nap at all during the car trip despite two doses of milk, we tried to get him to lay down once we go to the hotel.  Fail!

Hunter was not bored at all in our room.  As you can see below he loved playing with the A/C.  He would constantly turn it on and off despite us telling him numerous times to stop!

Underneath the night stand was one of those pouf seat things so I put it in front of the bed and that became Hunter's way of jumping on the bed.  He easily entertained himself in the room.

I guess he had to yell while he jumped, too.

Haha just noticed the TV caption "Party City."  I think that's fitting for this picture.

Poor Monkey was tired after all that.

That night we went and walked on the beach.  This was Hunter's first time to see the ocean.  Pleasure Pier is in the background.  I have no idea why we're both looking in different directions.

We got our feet wet.  Poor thing wanted to go swimming so we kept telling him tomorrow he could go.

I picked up a seashell to show him but he didn't stay interested too long.

The next morning Hunter woke up and literally said, "Hi Mommy, go swimming ocean."  It made me laugh!  But unfortunately it was raining so we took the ferry to Bolivar.

Korey and I both grew up taking vacations in Galveston and feeding the seagulls off the back of the ferry so it was a precious moment to see my son doing the same thing.  Some nice kids gave him some bread slices to feed the seagulls so in between bites for himself he threw chunks to the birds.

Once we got to Bolivar we headed to a neighborhood where Korey's other grandfather used to live.  He has many good memories of staying there with his family.  Sadly, the cabin isn't there anymore.  I did see this on one of the streets so I just had to take a picture.

After lunch we threw caution to the wind and decided to let Hunter swim instead of napping.  Day 2 of no nap!

We got him dressed in this flotation shirt that made him look like he was wearing football pads.

He was happy playing in the sand.  When we walked him out to the water he was scared so he ended up sitting in my lap and we let the waves splash on us.

A boy's dream - miles of "dirt" to play in.

Then we chased the birds and while we tried to "catch" them Hunter would say, "Hold chicken."  Gotta love that.

After dinner that night we took him to LaKing's or rather we took me so I could indulge in all of their goodies.

Hunter raced boats and horses while Korey and I ate ice cream.

I took this picture of Murdoch's to show the original pilings in the back where this location used to stand.

Not a happy car rider.  I think he wanted to go back to the beach.

And yet another horse he got to ride outside of a Mexican restaurant.

Our last day on the beach.

I finally snagged someone to take a family photo of us.  I have a better one but I guess it didn't upload.

Then we walked around the beach some more....

and we found a HUGE rainbow!

It was gorgeous!  I was pointing it out to everyone that walked by.  I thought it was a great finale to our vacation.

This final picture is a quick one I took at LaKing's.  It's the candy maker feeding salt water taffy into the machine which cut it, wrapped it and dropped it into a basket.  If you stood and watched he would toss you a piece.  I loved this place!

Kerusso Retreat - Part 2

(My computer has been acting up thus the delay in posting part 2!)

If you missed Part 1 of the Kerusso Retreat go here!

Now where were we?  Hunter was acting as the local horse whisperer.  The black horse loved having us around.  I think if there hadn't have been a fence Hunter would have probably hugged the horses's legs.

I noticed there was a nice, clean line of grass at the edge of the fence where the horses had eaten it.

Again, I have a thing for barns.

I tried to move to another part of the Ranch but Hunter decided he'd rather be with the horses.

Mmmm...clover!

This was the inside of the barn.

We found a pinecone tree and I had to take photos.

This is the bear skin that greeted us in our cabin.  The light quality isn't very good but you get the idea.  I took a picture of the bathroom but for some reason it wouldn't upload.  The bathroom cabinet literally was so tall that it came up to Korey's waist.  So that was probably about four feet?  I think it came up to my chest.  Korey loved it because he didn't have to bend over.  I was miserable.

Then there was the bed.  It was super tall too.  There were no steps up to it just a little bench at the foot.  When I tried to climb up onto the bench in the dark, I fell.  Take two.  Korey had to hold the bench while I catapulted myself into bed.

This table sat near the door and had the guestbook, a large basket of chocolate candy, and the cabin rules.  Check out the beautiful colors outside the window!

This was the front porch of the cabin which connected to the stone building.  That building is called the Loft I think and was a hunter's dream and a vegetarian's nightmare.  There were full-size animals everywhere that I guess the owner had hunted and then had mounted.

This was the view right off of our porch.  Gorgeous!

I found a little chair perfect for Hunter's size in our living room and we had a mini photo session.

Here are the men of Kerusso.  They are looking at someone else's camera so I just snapped a quick photo.  The guy in the middle is Jay who is the founder.

It's a sippy break for Hunter.  Check out his sick face.  Yep, sick again.  No fever though.  And on Saturday I woke up with another round of a dreaded crud that I'm still not over.  We didn't stay the whole weekend though for which I'm glad.  We drove back Saturday night once the meetings and dinner were over.  On Sunday we all stayed home so we could conquer our sickness.


This was the front porch of the bunkhouse.  Love this red rocker!

I think this was called the Guest House.  It's where we would have our meals and our meetings.  There was a screened-in porch off the back that led down to the dock.  I loved the back porch because Hunter could run around, explore, and he was contained!

Thanks to the Tuttle's for letting us crash their Ranch for the weekend!

Kerusso Retreat - Part 1

It is a little known fact that I do non-profit accounting on the side, in addition to my day job.  The organization is called Kerusso and the founder is married to a girl I went to college with.  Since I have mad accounting skills (haha) they had recruited me to help and I've been with them for about a year now.

This past weekend was a combined Board meeting and retreat out near Canton, TX at a placed called Tuttle Ranch.  Korey and Hunter picked me up after work and we set off down Hwy 80 towards Terrell with a sick, fussy toddler.  Fun times.

However, we stopped for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Terrell called Dos Aces which provided great food, the MOST FRIENDLY people we've ever met in a town (we're going to move there now), and some fun music provided by an old country soul named Bob Dilley.  We would have stuck around but adventure called.

After we made it to Grand Saline I realized our directions specified that we should have been heading to the ranch from Canton and not Grand Saline.  Our directions also specified that we should be looking for a specific Country Road and a meat market sign to turn near.  Can anyone see sign landmarks in the dark?  We couldn't and it produced many "lively" conversations.  But we made it and after saying Hi to another college friend we headed off to our cabin.  We were greeted by a huge bear skin displayed on our living room wall.  I'll show you that pic tomorrow.

The next morning we joined everyone for breakfast and then some acoustic praise and worship and devotion time.  This is Shane and his wife leading us.

After a long day of meetings and no pictures, we ventured outside to play.  This little guy soaked in the outdoors.

He discovered this big guy and proceeded to feed him lots of clover at the fence.  Hunter is definitely not shy around animals.

I couldn't ignore this rustic barn nearby.

Korey took our picture by the barn.  Hunter is probably trying to take his hood off.

Korey claims he also took this photo.  This was the other horse that was on the ranch that Hunter was fascinated with.  We compared them with our Harley and Camo because of their colors and personalities.

And this photo I get to take credit for!  This was our gorgeous view on the grounds of the ranch.

And back to that old barn.  I have a thing for architecture, but only in photo-taking.

And then it was back to the horses.  Stay tuned for more photos!