Labor Day Vacation

I have a bunch of family in south Texas between Houston and Galveston and my parents are visiting/staying in their motor home in Santa Fe. So for Labor day we drove down south to visit with everyone. Matt hadn't met any of this family yet and I hadn't seen any of them since 2001, so we were both a little nervous. It's hard enough traveling with just our immediate family of 6, but we were going somewhere where all of the kids wouldn't know anyone (besides Grandma Brenda and Papa Bob) and we weren't really sure what we were going to do. We got a hotel for Saturday night and packed the van full.

(Picture is the kids jumping on the hotel bed.)

It was only a 4 hour drive, but with 4 kids, it felt like 4 days. We drove to my Uncle Litton's house in Bayou Vista, just on this side of West Bay. Cute little house right on the water. I was nervous with the kids since none of them know how to swim and we were steps from the canal. I brought a pack n play and tried to keep the babies in there as much as possible.

We ended up discovering that the babies very much enjoyed playing in the inner tube. There were plenty of people though to help me keep the kids entertained. Aunt Debbie, Aunt Vicki and cousin Mindy all took turns with Megan and Morgan. Morgan is so content she'll go to anyone and as long as Megan couldn't see or hear me, she was fine. Uncle Litton and some other guys (sorry can't remember every one's name, nor the relation for that matter) did up a huge fish fry. Papa Bob was so good and bought chicken nuggets and fries for the kids too. (He's like that though, always thinking of the kids. I LOVE it!)

Uncle Litton has a paddle boat and Matt and the big kids took a little ride in it. They had fun.








Mason and Maggie even went swimming in the water. They've been in our community pool here at the house before and have both been real hesitant in the water by themselves, even with their life jackets on. But here, no problem. They were like little swimming fishes. You'd think they did this all the time. They didn't even mind the actual fish swimming all around. The kids even got to ride in Grandma Brenda and Papa Bob's boat a couple of times. (Every time they ride in the boat, they tell Matt & I we should get a boat too. Sorry kids, Mom and Dad won't be getting a boat anytime soon.)

So our plan was to only go down for Saturday and Sunday and come home mid-day Sunday. But we were having so much fun and the food was so delish, we decided to stay another night. We had a sleepover in Grandma and Papa's motor home the second night. The kids enjoyed this too since Grandma and Papa have a tv (with satellite) in the motor home. (Our tv crapped out on us the week before and the kids had been without television for a few days. They were having withdrawals I think.) Maggie did real good with Angel, Grandma's dog, too. Angel even slept with Maggie for a little bit.

Our mini-vacation wrapped up on Monday morning and we headed home. Back in time to unpack, toss in a couple of loads of laundry, and prepare for the next week of school. We all really did have a good time. And since we didn't have any major disasters, I think we might even try a mini vacation again.

Thanks Uncle Litton, Mom and Dad for your hospitality and all the good eats.