Padre Island

We made our annual trip to the beach last weekend.

We only live three hours away. We really need to go more often.

It's really beautiful down there on the gulf. The weather was breezy and perfect and the water was perfectly refreshing.

We make the trip every year with some friends from our ward. We practically packed up our whole house and brought it with us. (Anything to make a trip with two children that much easier.) We were pretty bummed we forgot the pack n play though. Out of all the things to forget that was the last thing I wanted to forget. Kaleb did good sleeping in his carrier though. Luckily we had this extra blanket that stayed clean from the wet dirty sand. Brayden had tons of fun this year now that she's old enough to play with the "big kids." She's also old enough to understand that the big waves can push her over and can be a little scary. She didn't dare go too deep and stayed at the shore. Glad to know she has a little fear in her. She loved chasing after the sea gulls... ...so we needed to keep a close eye on her or she would've chased them wherever they led her. She helped Brandon and all the big guys play "botchy ball."

We had this little pool packed away that we used last year for her and it looked like it shrunk a little this year. The little girls had fun playing in it though...

...that is until the big girls showed Brayden how you can make your own pool in the sand.

She preferred it that way and stayed in her little sand hole for hours.

All the kids had a great time building a fun sand castle and Brayden was such a good helper...once we stopped her from being the wrecking ball.

Here are all the kids.

(Sydney, Jacob, Victoria, Ashley, Lauren, Rachel, Brayden, Kirsten)

We eventually got her away to eat something.

But it wasn't for long.

Here's the whole group.

(Davids, us, Watsons, and Adames)

We had a great time and hope to be able to do it again this summer.

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Today I was in charge of teaching our learning playgroup.

We learned about traffic lights and street safety.

I made this fun car for Brayden and then decided to make one for all the kids that came. I meant to get a picture of them all but it gets kind of crazy when you have a group of two year olds in your house, so I forgot.

We learned how it's important to STOP at the curb, look both ways, and hold an adults hand to cross the street. I taught Brayden this a while a go so she was my little helper and demonstrated to everyone how we do it.

Brayden does this so well that when I just grab her hand and forget to stop at the curb, she lets go of my hand and stays at the curb screaming, "Stop mommy! We need to STOP!" She will then make anyone and everyone walking with us stop and won't proceed until we do.

I'm glad she's learning this.

We had this yummy treat afterwards.

Thanks, mom, for the sugar cookie recipe.

It was my first attempt and they turned out really good.

It was a lot fun.

We moms were talking about how much our kids are learning from this learning playgroup. At times we don't think they're listening because they won't sit still and then they astound us by showing us how much they've picked up.

It's because of what she learned in this group that Brayden now eats broccoli, if you remember from a few months ago.

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Well, we finally got a little rain today....but only a little. It's so annoying. The thunder starts rolling in and you think there is going to be this horrendous down pour...then all we get is a little trickle.

We went outside to watch the rain. What started out as Brayden telling me she was just going to touch the rain with "only her hand"....turned into this...

This is what happens when we don't get out enough.

(This one's for the grandparents. 5:13)

It was fun just letting her be a kid.