Glee

Who needs to watch Glee, when you can see it in action live?!!

(Love the show, by the way.)

Makayla's 5th grade choir gave the glee club a run for their money in their Christmas show. I thought they did such a cute job with the choreography, and they sounded beautiful. Makayla also sang a solo that night, and I was amazed at how brave she was to first, try out for the part, and second, to sing with such a clear, pretty voice in front of all those people. (I would have never dared do that growing up.) My daughter continues to amaze me.

Thanksgiving at the Beach

Jeanette's kids had never seen the ocean, so we thought, what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving than to take them down the coast to South Padre Island?
Lounging in the warm sun listening to the surf roll in sounded pretty good in place of the rain and cold.

Pretty view from the condo terrace.


The first couple days we were there it was a little chilly, but it warmed up and was sunny on the weekend. Jeanette and I also got to hit the 5AM sale at Walmart and got some pretty good deals after we fought off all the crazies.



We had Dominoes for Thanksgiving dinner.

Mike and I took all the kids for a walk down the beach in search of seashells.

Building sandcastles is always a highlight of our trips. The boys built two masterpieces which connected with a waterway and mote around both. Can you say competitive?

Do Brynn and Logan look like they are related or what?

We did hit the end of red tide again. : (

During red tide, the usually clean white sandy beaches are littered with dead fish each morning until they clear off the beach because of the algae in the water which kills the fish and stings your eyes. Super gross! But Mike thinks it's super cool to see what rolls up on the beach. Lucky for us it was almost over and not as strong as the last time we were there.

Ryder had fun exploring the beach.

The 3 Musketeers!

Best buds!

My favorite part of the day . . .

We found some new places to eat on the water. We loved Pier 19!

After dinner, we cruised over the waterway to Port Isabel to look at the Christmas lights.

Lucky for us, Santa also made a stop at South Padre!

We always have to visit the Turtle Hospital

and the Bird and Nature Boardwalk.

We saw so many beautiful varieties of birds. There were also turtles and crabs . . .

. . . and this guy! Hooray! We finally spotted an alligator along our walk. There is a huge sign warning visitors to stay on the path because of it being Alligator Territory.


Some of our friends don't believe there are really alligators there. Now we know!

We had such a fun weekend. We almost didn't want to come back home.

Hooray for cousins!

Jeanette and Brandon's family came to visit over Thanksgiving. We had SO much fun having them here! We played for a week straight and my kids cried when they left. They love their cousins, Brynnley, Brooklyn and Ryder, and we are lucky that their ages match up so well. They played and played all week and I don't think we had one fight??

Thanks for coming to Texas--love you guys!

Savannah and Brooks. Can you get any cuter?

The Thanksgiving Feast

We had pre-Thanksgiving on Sunday this year because we decided to head South for a Thanksgiving spent on the beach.

Cheers!

While the turkey was cooking, we headed down Salado Creek Green way for a leisurely Sunday stroll.

We spent a fun-filled day at Sea World with the gang. Having passes, we don't always do everything at the park. But today, we packed it in.

We caught a couple shows . . .

Fed the dolphins (my girls' favorite part)

Santa even made a stop at Sea World!

Got to experience The Polar Express 3D

And there were a few scared faces coming down Journey to Atlantis

Next stop: The Alamo

After a day of sightseeing, we strolled along the river walk and met Mike for dinner on the river.

I don't know--this might be the cutest kid ever!