Vacation // 2014

It was time for vacation so that meant we were packing up and headed to Gaga and Papa's house.

Dane had his men.

And Chaz packed his favorite suitcase.. don't ask what is in the suitcase, I'm not allowed to know.

The kiddos set up shop in the back while we loaded everything in the motorhome.

And then we saw this. Seriously? Dad did a mad dash to get the motor-home out of the barn and onto the street. He literally walked up to the street workers and said "Yeah, sorry but you have to stop. I have a 45 foot motor-home that has to come down the driveway where your truck is parked" The guys just looked at him... "ummm, ok" Technically, we weren't planning on leaving for at least another hour but we were ready and this was a sign for us to get the heck out of town! What we didn't know is they were, unfortunately, about to hit the main waterline while fixing the road. This put the entire neighborhood on a boil order for the week we were gone. Yes, it was a sign.

If you have never seen this sight, you are not from NWA. This is the Bobby Hopper Tunnel and it means you are breaking free and headed south! Freeeeeeeeeeeeeedoooooooooooooooooommmmm!!

The hubs giving my daddy directions. Yes, this IS funny enough to take a picture. If you know the pops and know the hubs, you are probably giggling too.

What I didn't realize is they were actually all giggling at me. We were about to take the motor-home over a HUGE bridge.. Ugh, my stomach was in knots. This is one of my fears. Bridges. I just don't see how I can trust them.

He doesn't care. It is vacation, he is in the motor-home and he is shirtless.

Apparently we have a theme here.

Being "trapped" in the motor-home give us certain opportunities to be super silly. I say trapped with quotes as it is really far from it. I never want to travel any other way! He makes my heart smile!!

Chaz quickly became a fan of my phone, taking pictures, the selfie..

and the collage. I am pretty sure I had about 20 of these on my phone before the week was over. He is his momma's kid.

 He really is the king of selfies. He actually took these while walking to the car after dinner. He is a selfie genius.

And still loves collages

Back to the trip. As usual, Papa had some great little helpers along the way.

Still at it. This is his you-got-it-boss face, complete with a wink and a smile.

Oh, I forgot... where were we going? Same rules as the past few years, 6 hours max. Well, I took this as a challenge. I agreed to take an extra day off work and leave a day early. Why? Because if I did this, we could break the trip into a two day drive and make it to a beach. It didn't really matter which one, just a beach..with family and fun!! Galveston, here we are!! It was packed!!

We set up shop for the week. As usual, mom and dad were in the motor-home with us in a close room. The kids pretty much floated back and forth between the two.

The boys were happy to arrive and immediately started playing with some goodies we had purchased for the trip.

The pool was awesome. it was an infinity pool that overlooked the park with a view to the ocean.

 

The boys had plenty of room to ride their bikes.

Chaz wanted me to take this picture and send it to his BFF, Hayes. Such a cutie.

My mom is cooler than yours. Enough said.

I couldn't even get the boys to the edge of the beach before they started digging. We took Chaz to the beach when he was Dane's age. This was Dane's first time. He was super excited!

This guy wanted to chase the seagulls.

Finally, we made it to the water

"The biggest pile of sand ever!!"

The hubs decided he wanted to take them out in the ocean.

Gaga helped them build a sand castles.

I mean, for real. When did they get so big?!?!

My third child playing in the waves.

Did you see ALL that time of them getting along?? Yep, my happy place.

 Of course you have to smash it as soon as it is built.

 I heart this face. Heart it!!

and this one. Yummy.

I really have no idea where he got the selfie thing. I mean, really.

He was done with me.. and I just LOVE this one!! If we still had physical photo albums, this would be a cover shot. BWAHAHAHA!!!

Next up victim of my selfie explosion.

He got one of me holding his head too. HAHAHA!

Yeah, there is a time-out at the beach.

He was so proud of his sand castle. The "moat" was in the middle which is not really a moat but who am I to judge.

More beach photos

He got some Cheetos for lunch. Can you tell by the look on his face that he doesn't get these very often?!?

We were having a conversation on the way back to the water about how to float on your back. I told Chaz "remember what Gaga said, you have to put your bottom up" He goes "like this????" Ummm, not really.

Goofy kiddo!

Nobody can take my happy away.

This hair. Nevermind the fact that it is beach-baby-white but it is also long. Always long. Even after a haircut, always long.

Someone is sleepy and sandy.

Yes, it is suppose to be upside down. It is really the only way I can keep up with him!

"Hey momma, take a picture of my mouff"

Such a cutie-pie!!

No, you are a cheeky rascal!!

A little more playtime while I sit in the sun and get totally burnt.

 

After a full day at the beach, this kid was wiped out. 

 The next day was Schlitterbahn.  Before we left Chaz wanted to take another picture and send to Hayes. This kid.

 About thirty minutes into Schlitterbahn and we were finding a time-out. Yep, there is one every where. In his defense, we were running full steam for several days and the result was a cranky two year-old.

Obviously, I didn't get many pictures at Schlitterbahn because 1) I didn't bring my big camera 2) we were moving too fast all day. This park was AMAZING and the kids had an absolute blast. I would definitely rate Galveston over KC. So much fun!!!

The next morning was slow going.. I just let them be lazy. It WAS vacation!

We had some pool time and little more relaxation and then we decided to head to this beauty. We had passed it several times throughout the week so we knew it was going to be a must. It was an entire amusement park built on a pier!

One knew what was up, but the hubs was clueless.m

This place was amazing!!

Love them and the way they love us and our babies. I am fairly certain my parents hung the moon.

Family picture at Pleasure Pier.

It takes more than one to get it right!

The carousal was amazing. It had the regular suspects (i.e. horses, benches, etc) but it also had some awesome ones like sharks, dragons, lions, ostriches, dolphins, etc.

It was also two stories. I am pretty sure I have never seen a two story carousal. Remember, these are my kryptonite. I can ride any roller-coaster but something that goes in a slow circle takes me down. Luckily the hubs and Papa will take one for the team on this bad boy.

This kid and his smile, I simply can't get enough of it!

The cool blue glasses. I was totally conned out of 12 dollars for these things. He kept them entire trip! I really though they would be goners in about 2 seconds. Shame on me for doubting him.

So there were the little TINY car that went around in a circle. Papa was ahead with Dane and Dane decided he wanted to ride them. The ride attendant then told my 6'4" dad that he would have to get in with him. BWAHAHA! Did I mention they were TINY and my dad is a giant? I showed up as daddy was trying to get his leg wedged into the car. I asked him what is creation he was doing. He told me the lady said he had to. Again, the things this man does for us. He told me he had asked to walk beside it but I guess that was not enough safety for this "crazy" ride. Obviously, he wasn't fitting so I traded him places. It wasn't easy for my little self to fit, I have no idea how he planned to pull it off. I jumped in... and the car was HOT!!

 

 Chaz was so pumped to ride this thing.. and the fact that he was all alone was even cooler to him.

I love the sky in this picture!

He rode this thing about 5 times and then some kiddos decided to join him

When he got off the ride he was immediately drawn to this machine. Minecraft. I should have known.

The things Papas will do. He really has no shame anymore. I think it took about 3 years into the first kiddo for some of this to show. I love this man so very much. I promise he really does have super powers!

More of the little cars. Somehow my hubs managed to wedge himself in.

These guys.

I love any and everything that has to do with roller coaster and fast moving rides. The boy takes full advantage of his momma.

And the hubs gets carousal duty. I can't, I seriously can't do a carousal. It is pathetic, I know.

We just HAD to have the shield. It was a must!

He was over, O.V.E.R, my picture taking.

Then we went to eat at Bubba Gump's. It was actually part of the pier. I loved this place. So stinking cute! Chaz thought the shoes were really fun. HA!

Back to the awesome carousal.

I am pretty sure he was done. Naptime was needed but not happening.

They had these little teacup which were just adorable and the kids (including the hubs) loved them!

I can't believe how big they are getting. I love these two!

Even when they pull this crap.

Chaz really wanted to ride the bumper cars. Yes, this place had little bumper cars. SOOOO fun!!

Somehow they managed to convince me to get on the Farris Wheel. Yes, I hate them too. Love roller coasters, love fast rides, hate the carousal and the Farris Wheel. I can't explain it.

The baby wanted to cheese it up with his Papa.

I got a little hug on the boy.

 The hubs and the baby.

My love. Isn't he handsome?!?

Please hold onto him.. he may jump, he is just nutty like that.

The boy and his Gaga. He has her wrapped around his finger.

Me and the hubs..Check the sign in the background.

Oh wait, did I mention a storm was coming? Yes, up on a Farris Wheel, which I hate, AND a storm is rolling in. Ah-Mazing. Look how cool this pier is tough. Those roller coasters are actually on the pier. It was so very cool.

 

They had some swings that went up really high. I was not about to get on them so the folks and the hubs went. I stayed down and took some pictures.

They are so cute!

And the solo rider.

Yep, they are up there!

So cool. So glad I am NOT up there.

Another meltdown. We don't skip naps so this was a little rough on the little guy.

After the mini baby meltdown, we headed to the end of the pier. My "I do it myself" was all about doing it himself.

Love this!

He refused to stay still so my sweet mom spent a while chasing him back and forth.

The seagulls were swarming us.

Ohhhh, well that is probably why. The Papa and Gaga decided to give the boys some seagull food.

I know, I am terrible but I was just waiting for one of them to sh!t on him. Luckily it didn't happen or he would have had one heck of a meltdown.

Then we decided it was probably time to go. We had worn these two totally out.

As we were heading out, the hubs and I spotted one of the most awesome roller coasters I have ever been on. Again, it was ON THE PIER!! It was super fast and crazy scary. Have I mentioned I love roller coasters?!? We road it nothing short of ten times. While we were doing that, Gaga and Papa got to take the kids to play games.

I came out to this. Yep, that is a HUGE blow up alien. Daddy said this is all Dane could focus on so when he won the game, it was a must.

He really looks unhappy but he was just trying to balance the frog on his head. HA!

We played a few more games with them before heading out. Chaz loved this one.

And won a furry snake..

and guess who got stuck holding the giant alien..HA! He is such a good Papa!

This boy had a blast! He was so proud of his winnings!

A man and his alien. Priceless.

Again, this was all on a pier. It was amazing.

Tuckered out.

Uh oh.. The alien busted when we were trying to get it out of the car. Time for some quick surgery before the baby wakes up.

I took this picture and then I looked at it. I have never laughed so hard. Yes, my hubs is holding the alien's junk. BWAHAHAHA!

While we were on vacation, Chaz's baseball team, the Dragons, were competing in the final game of the season. We had to send them a little encouragement.

I order a beer and the hubs orders this. Wowza.

So the luxury of traveling in the sweet motor-home is that when the weather for the beach looks like this, you just head out. When we saw this Wednesday evening, we decided to pack it up the next morning and head out. Grapevine, TX here we come! This was not our first time at the Grapevine park, we love this place!

Playing with his mens. I love to watch his mind work.

The grapevine park had an awesome playground.

Chaz wanted to film his brother going across the monkey bars. Excellent monkey bar skills and excellent cameraman skills.

He was set on the fact that I HAD to get this on video. I am so proud of this boy. He is getting so big and amazing me every day!!

On the road again... Oh wait, who is that driver?!?!

I love this boy so very much. He is such a happy guy.

A happy guy who is super pumped about his all red outfit. Hilarious!

A little movie time in the back before nap time.

I love our vacation time. Time to relax, unplug, love up on my babies, enjoy my parents and the hubs and just have a good time. This vacation certainly didn't disappoint. Special shout out to the folks who are always ready and willing to vacation with this crazy bunch!! Throwing it back 2013, 2012 Parts 1, 2 and 3, 2011 Parts 1 and 2, 2010 and 2009.