The McWoodells do Port A: July 2016 -

We made it back to the beach in Port Aransas, TX this year, and with our 'Frimily' .. . The McDonnells!! We drove out to the beach on a Sunday morning, and stayed through Thursday. The house we booked had enough rooms for both our families, and also a separate little room downstairs that we weren't using! SO we asked our nanny, Jaime, if she would like a little beach trip with a bunch of kids!!! SO happy we did- it was wonderful to have an extra pair of hands out there with SEVEN kids!! She had time to herself, and we also got a few double date nights- it was awesome!

Sunday afternoon - headed to the beach!! Yay!! Full packed car- even Bella got to come!

Wine time! But we couldn't find an opener... so we tried a trick we saw online where you just hit the bottle against a wall until the cork pops up... IT WORKED!!!! 

Story time with Uncle Mark = kids in heaven!!

Monday we got up, had breakfast, and hit the beach!!! This was Ellie's first time to really play and spend a whole morning on the beach! And in true Ellie form- she loved it and was frighteningly brave!!!

Started with a group shot of these precious kids.. LOVE IT! 

Poor Bella didn't get to come to the beach with us! We thought she would be happy in the AC than tied up under a tent! Not sure if that's right- but we had a lot going on and didn't need an extra element! Seven kids under 6 years old was enough :)

Josie!! 

Kate, Barrett, LJ... 

Me with sweet Katie-bug! 

Probably my favorite picture of this little beach beauty from the day!

Kate and Evan!

Dads!!

Jaime and I with Ellie! Ellie did NOT want to get out of the ocean!!

Tuesday!!

The McDonnells took a Lady Bug farm Kate had gotten for her birthday, and it was time to release the Lady Bugs! My kids were so happy to get to share in the release! They each got to have a lady bug crawl around on them before flying away! 

Then we went back to the beach! 

A snack and break in the shade! 

Charley and Ellie! 

And Charley and Evan!! Charley is the sweetest, most loving girl!! And while she and Ellie are going to be forced besties, she and Evan have something pretty special going on too!! haha! 

Boys making a splash!! 

Happy and busy beach buddies!! 

Serious dirt loading going on! 

Nap time for Baby Josie!

We went for a walk down the beach to look for shells, and a random lady was catching small fish in a net. She gave all the kids a fish to feed the sea gulls! They were so excited! 

Kate holding her fish...

The toss to the sea gulls! 

Ben helping Evan grab his fish! They were wiggly!! 

We attracted a LOT of birds quickly!! 

Busy girl! 

Evan and Charley.... seriously!!! 

Water baby!! 

The McWoodells do Port A!!!!!

The first afternoon we were there, the dads took the older kids to the pool... but apparently is did not feel super clean! So the other afternoons we came up with other activities to do... Like a visit to the big shark and candy store! 

Aunt Sang crossing the street with the older kids! 

In the shark's mouth! 

Jaime having story time with 5 kids... I love how much they enjoy reading!!! 

And we had to end the day with a night adventure to the beach- just us and the dogs! 

Wednesday was our last day at the beach! We had the set-up routine down and everyone got busy playing! 

Squirting muddy water... so fun! 

Sweet Ben helping Ellie!

They got nets and were attempting to get fish! 

LJ found this crab and took this picture! They actually got a couple live crabs that we made a pool for and watched for a while. Then we put them back in the water before we left! 

A few other stories the kids are still talking about from our beach trip: 

-The boys did catch a few fish, but all were released! They love that they caught crabs and fish though!

-We think poor LJ got stung by a little jelly fish! We didn't see the jelly fish (although there were a lot out there), but he felt it while he was fishing and had a red mark on his ankle! 

-While Mark and Barrett were playing catch with a football, LJ was walking backwards right as Mark turned to run for a ball- and he basically tackled LJ! LJ loves that he 'survived the tackle by Uncle Mark!' hah! 

- The kids loved that we were staying in one big house, and I often hear how they miss 'when we were all sleeping in the same house together!' 

Thursday driving home... we lost two boys to a long nap while we drove! Successful beach trip!!!