{Weekend Wrap-up // Beachin'}

Happy Tuesday! I tried to make this post happen yesterday, but just couldn't. I was exhausted from the weekend and then, you know, Mondays. Ugh! I'm covering for a co-worker for the next two weeks, so my workload has doubled. Anyhow, we had such an amazing weekend. We decided on a whim to take Mason to the beach as one last hurrah before school starts back. It was such a good decision because we had the most incredible weekend. It was perfect. Not one thing I would have changed! I love those weekends, but wish they could last forever.

Friday night we had a birthday gathering for our two nephews at Magic Time Machine in Dallas. It was a fun, but super late night. We were supposed to get the party room at 9:30, but the party before us ran over. We didn't get seated until after 10. Then by the time all 25+ of us ordered and ate it was after midnight when we left. We didn't get to sleep until well after 1:30 and we had an early wake up call. But, it was worth it.

Before we left for dinner I had Nate grab this picture of Mason and I. Look how tall he has gotten over the summer.

We set our alarm for 6:00 am with a backup alarm of 7:00 am, just in case. I got out of bed at 6:08. I was tired but too excited to sleep anymore. We packed up all of our last remaining things, got ready, scooped up Mason out of bed and pulled out of our driveway at 6:46 am. We wanted to get to the beach as early as possible. We stopped at Bucees which was about halfway to get breakfast. You can't pass by a Bucees without stopping! It's the best station ever.

We got to our hotel around 11:45, but our room was not ready. They let us use the lobby bathrooms to change into our swimsuits. We jumped back in the Jeep and drove 15 minutes to Galveston. We weren't sure where we wanted to beach so we drove down the seawall. Galveston was entirely too crowded, so we hopped on the ferry over to Crystal Beach. It was Mason's first time to ride on the ferry. He was so excited! It was a pleasant ferry ride and we got to see dolphins. That's always exciting.

We quickly realized that going over to Crystal Beach was a great plan! There were far less people and we got our own little piece of beach to ourselves. Before we went to the beach we showed Mason the beach house we stayed in back in May at our adults weekend for Jeep Beach. Then we spent a few glorious hours at the beach! I had such a good time watching Mason play in the sand and the ocean. He was so full of joy!

We cleaned off as best as we could and loaded back in the Jeep. We had to take the ferry back over to Galveston. There was no wait time and we got right on! We went to a couple of beach shops to find Mason some Hermit Crabs! He picked out two, both in blue shells. Then we went back to the hotel to clean up for the second part of our day!

The second part of our day was a complete surprise for Mason! We took him to Kemah Boardwalk for some good food at Bubba Gump, some games and some rides. He had a blast. My favorite part was watching all of the boats/ships come and go from the boardwalk! And of course, the amazing sunsets over the water.

After Kemah we took another drive down the seawall and just talked. We had some of the best family conversations that I will never ever forget. This trip was needed for all of us and we can't wait to do it again sometime.

How was your weekend?