Mommio: Texas Staycation Day 1- South Padre Island

Today was the official first day of our Texas Staycation and with all the illness in the house last week we sure were glad to make it to today!  We hit the road this morning in the dark at 6 am, and with an extra family member (that would be the lovely Kalli Grace Sirkel).  All the complaining about waking up early ended quickly with the excitement of the trip-despite the fact that it was just the beginning of a 7 1/2 hour drive.  Yes, Texas is BIG.  Here's a blurry shot of the morning car ride- Connor was pretty grumpy to start off. 

We drove, and drove, and drove...pretty much one long, straight road down to the coast.  But along the way we did have some fun.  There was lots of loud singing, giggling in the back "girls row" and the beeps of numerous electronic gadgets.  We also did a group scavenger hunt.  Here's the list:

As you can see we did really well, even finding some of the ones we thought were impossible.  Who knew we'd see pine trees or a mountain (thank you giant fake roadside volcano).  We'll try real hard to find the rest of the list on the way home.  We did see something exciting that wasn't on the list just outside of Harlingen, Texas- a bunch of police running down the side of the highway with their guns out.  We had fun trying to guess who they were after.  Later in the afternoon we gave the kids an Instant Challenge.  Here it is (we added "swimming" and told them "camping" was optional):

 There were three teams who took on the challenge and here are their recorded songs.  

Pretty great, huh?

After all that fun we finally arrived at the beach, checked into the hotel and unpacked in a frenzy.

 Then we hit the beach. 

 The water was warm, the waves were perfect and the sand was nice and clean.  Plus, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  I already took 120 pictures today so I will try to narrow it
down a bit for you...

 After the beach, we washed off in the outdoor showers and headed to the pool and hot tub.  On the way there we were stopped by an older couple, who had seen us down at the beach, to tell us how wonderful our children are and how amazed they were with how well behaved they were at the beach and how they all stuck together and enjoyed each other.  So nice to hear!  

 Max and Jack (and the rest of us) were getting a little tired so it was time to head up to the room for 

some dinner and down time.

  And now I am writing this pool side at night as the girls and Gabe swim in the pool.  And I actually just stopped to rescue a big crab from the swimming pool while all the chicken children stood on the outside of the pool screaming at me to get it- very funny.

Beautiful night and a perfect first day in Padre!