Fun in Port Aransas

The two weekends in a row we spent in Port Aransas. The first weekend, we went with my cousin Marcie, her partner Ann and their two kids Andres and Cruz as well as my cousin Jackie and my grandparents. It was the fourth of July and the beach was rockin'. We had so much fun. It was a giant party of families on the beach. Michael loved meeting lots of people and I loved getting to spend time with my family and a good book.
Davis learned to boogie board on the ocean and Sam learned how to swim underwater without a life jacket. The four boys played and played. We went out for fried fish in town, but mostly stayed on the beach.
We were home for three days and then we turned around and went back to Port A with some of our friends. We had been planning this trip since last winter and were really looking forward to it. On Tuesday night, the kids started throwing up and getting really sick. We were worried that we wouldn't be able to go to the beach at all, but luckily this virus seems to be of the 24 hour variety and we were still able to go.
We went with some fabulous friends who all have two children each. There were eight adults and eight children. We took turns making dinner and spent our mornings at the beach and our afternooons at the pool. We took turns on each others' balconies and really enjoyed spending quality time with each other. It feels like I have barely gotten to spend time with my friends this month between illness and family obligations so this was really extra special.
The kids had a blast. Vacations are getting so much easier now that the kids are old enough to walk, talk, swim and not eat sand. Speaking of swimming, Davis was motivated by watching his brother and friends swim and he took off his life jacket and learned to swim underwater by himself. We are so, so proud. He does an amazing job and where Sam is still not competent (he sinks), Davis is totally proficient. He even learned to snorkel. We took a great movie of the boys swimming together, but somehow it didn't turn out. I'll have to take another one.
the only bummer of the whole trip was that Michael caught the boys' virus and was really sick the morning that we had to leave. He was sick all the way home and it made for a miserable day. Let's hope that illness is gone forever from our home.
We have ten days until we leave for Canada and it feels like I'll be spending every one of them trying to catch up.