Beach trip - Lots of pics

We spent this weekend on Galveston Island with my folks. Our anniversaries are 3 days (and 31 years) apart, so we sometimes spend them together. We drove down Friday night and met them at the State Park where we were camping. They brought Elena's new play house with them (they picked it up for her at a garage sale). It ended up being a god send, she loved playing in it all weekend.

Saturday morning we made our way down to the beach. This is Elena when we arrived:

She stayed this way for an hour, until I gave up and woke her up. She didn't like that. She didn't like the sand and she didn't like the water. While Elena slept, Mom and I built a sand castle.
and Dad took a nap . . . Actually, he spent most of the time riding waves with Kathryn
Elena, Mama Janie and Kathryn Elena had a better time with her pail and shovel in the RV. I joked about using Photoshop to make it look like she had a good time at the beach.
Sunday morning it was back to the beach and back to the waves for Kathryn and Dad.

Elena was awake when we arrived and had a better time. I let her just sit and play in the sand for quite some time. She got used to the sound of the waves and eventually started having fun. I also realized one reason to keep the binky around for a while. She won't take it out to put something else in. It was the only way we were able to keep her from eating sand. After some beach play we moved to the edge of the water and let it lap over us. Eventually, I put the life jacket back on her and we went into the deeper water (knee deep). She had a good time and relaxed enough she fell asleep in my arms.
Elena tried to bring the beach home in her shoes
After lunch we did some site seeing at the Elissa Tall Ship and Harbor Museum.
Here's the Elissa - it's kind of the Black Beauty of ships. It was a beloved ship of a rich man from the UK in the late 19th century. Then it became a motorized cargo vessel and eventually a smuggling ship, with its masts completely removed. In the 1970s it was found in a salvage yard and restored. It was pretty cool to go onboard and check out life on a sea vessel in the 19th century.
The girls onboard the Elissa.

We had a great anniversary weekend with our family. Kathryn had such a good time she hasn't left Galveston yet.