The Starkes go to Galveston: Part II

Wow! Check me out! Your second riveting installment of the vacation story, on the same day!!!  And with a(nother) trip to the dentist in the way today too. Most of the rest of our vacation was spent at the beach. The pics on this post are mostly beach and they're from 3 separate trips down there too!

Miss Emily having donuts after her 15 hours of sleep!!

As I'm watching this, it looks like fun, but it also has "broken teeth" written all over it.

No children were harmed in the taking of this photo.

Another stop on the "Starke Favorites" tour is the candy store!!  It's LaKing's Confectionery on The Strand. It is an old time candy store and they still make almost everything on site.  They have tons of candy, ice cream, a soda shop and now a coffee bar too.  We went there every day on our last trip, for ice cream, but we only made it once this time. Emily has decided she doesn't like ice cream (as the doc says, "she's not a cow" and she must know cow's milk upsets her tummy.) so she opted for a giant lollipop!  The thing lasted two days before we chucked it. It was worth it just to get this picture ...

My family being silly.

After our trip to The Strand, lunch at Yaga's and goodies at LaKing's, that morning we packed up the circus and headed to the beach. The girls were SO excited. We set up camp and started building our sandcastle empire.

then it was time to splash in waves

then it was time to make "soup"

Then BUBZILLA attacked the sandcastle empire

(which really turned out more like a government housing project)

so we took Matthew (aka Bubzilla) to wash off in the surf.

He loved that the waves came up to him and kept wanting to crawl off into the Gulf.

I was not as excited about the seaweed and little clams he kept trying to eat as well as the jellyfish that kept washing up.  yuck.

After the fun the kids had at the beach Friday afternoon we decided to just do that Saturday. I'm glad we did because it was a great day and the kids had a blast. You can see the blanket in the background. We attempted to keep Matthew contained but it just wasn't happening. What genius thought taking a crawling baby to the beach sounded like fun?  Well, it was fun to watch but certainly a little difficult to handle.  I ended up putting him in the stroller and taking him for a walk up and down the beach. He enjoyed it and my feet got a nice spring spruce-up, thanks to the sand!! I finally had to take him up to the condo for a nap while James stayed with the girls. I got some down time and got to watch them have fun from the balcony of our place. 

The girls making cupcakes while Matthew eats sand.



Swinging in the waves!!



Uh Oh! Daddy splashed Emmy while swinging her in the waves.

Oh the horror!!!

That's not "vacation face" young lady. Buck up!

Megan letting loose and having a ball!!

James and the girls made a stop at the pool before heading up to our place for lunch. We kept everyone inside and resting for a couple hours before we went back down for one last walk on the beach.  We also stopped for a swim before we sent James off for Chili's takeout for dinner (and, ahem, beer). 

As gross as the Galveston beaches can be, I'm glad we have a beach so close to home. We certainly don't live 45 minutes from it anymore but at least it's a one-stop car ride away.  Besides, there's a lot more to Galveston than the beach and that's why we keep going back.  On our way home, we stopped in The Heights (Houston) for brunch with some friends. It was fun to catch up with everyone. We got home around 6:00 Sunday night and I think everyone, even the girls, were happy to be home.