Surfside

We finally went to the beach.  I told myself that if I lived another summer in Houston without going to the beach, it would make me the most boring and useless mom on the planet.  So when a couple of friends invited us to surfside, I made sure we came.  Violet immediately felt at home in the sand and water.  To make things even better, there was a little girl there that she knew, so she stayed self-entertained the entire time, which was great because I had to spend a good amount of time trying to keep Charlie from crying.

 Yes, Charlie hated it.  The sand was gritty, the air was sticky, the fish were smelly, and it was impossible for him to stay asleep.  I set him down and got a couple of cute pictures of him before some water washed over his legs and he started crying.  Then I took a couple more pictures before picking him up, just to be mean.

 But both of the kids got lots of daddy time, and that made everyone happy.  Brandon is so much fun.

 One thing Charlie did like was being held by me in the water.  I guess the rocking motion of the waves was soothing for him, and he would just lay his head down on me and stare off in the distance.  I love having such a cuddly baby!

 Violet and Brandon built a pretty cool sand castle.  This is what Violet spent 75% of her time doing (and undoing).  She also told me that a little princess named Mary lived in it.

 And Charlie didn't mind digging around in the sand while propped up on my leg.  All in all we had a great time, but by 2:00 we were worn out and headed back home.