Port Aransas

For a mini-family vacation, we spent this past weekend in Port Aransas celebrating a couple exciting events and spending time together. Toby and I, my mom and dad, Paul, Jamie, and Maddie as well as Toby’s mom and step-dad, and a couple added friends, had a wonderful time! The weather didn’t entirely cooperate with us as the cool front blew in while preparing for Maddie’s 2nd birthday party Friday afternoon. Yes, she turned 2 already!!

She had a really cute barn cake complete with farm animal cupcakes.

But she was more into the cookies than the cake...

Our other celebration was Lord of Life’s 20th anniversary. For those of you who don’t know, that’s the church where Paul and I pretty much grew up. Our family has made lifelong friends there, who we don’t get to see very often unfortunately; but when we do, it’s always a great time.

We spent as much time as we could down by the water - which Maddie loved.

Maddie and Grammy...

One benefit of that silly cool front blowing in was the added wind it brought, which provided Toby and my dad the perfect opportunity to take on a new hobby… kites. Oh yes, I said flying kites. The course of events was somewhat entertaining. Toby and I decided we’d run into town and buy a kite because it was so windy, so we found one that we thought would suffice for $3.99. After all, it’s just a kite and all it has to do is stay in the air. After much heckling from my dad, we learned that kites don’t just have to stay in one spot in the sky, but rather… they can actually do tricks, care of the person flying the kite. So somehow, the three of us (my dad, Toby, and I) ended up at an actual kite store – I had no idea those existed. An hour and some change later, we walked out with two “stunt” kites and a lesson on how to fly them. Back at the beach, dad was so excited about these kites, he realized he needed a bigger one. Oh yes… a bigger one. So the next day, back we went… to the kite store… with my brother this time who was about to get suckered into this new hobby… and out we came – with a kite the store owner actually said was not recommended for beginners (uh huh… dad). Pshhhh… there are no beginner kite flyers in our party – we’ve been flying kites since we were kids - just not the ginormous ones that pull you through the sand.

They pulled their kites with Maddie's red wagon... boys... so cute.

The first set of kites... for the beginners...

And round #2 with dad's 2nd kite... the big daddy kite... for the master kiter - or my dad.

So as we celebrated Maddie’s 2nd birthday party, Lord of Life’s 20th anniversary, and developed a newfound hobby… the weekend came to an end and here we are – back in reality. It was just too short… but ever so exciting, nonetheless.