We woke up today to the unusual, if not totally rare, occurrence of snow in Austin. It started with the typical hard icy rain/snow mix and at first we thought that was that. But then after a bit it really did snow. Real snow. Big flakes that actually stuck to the ground, and get this, accumulated. We had about 1.5 inches of accumulation by midday. It continued to snow the rest of the day, but because it had warmed up it didn’t really stick much after lunch. We did what pretty much everyone else in Austin did. We took full advantage.

Because of doctor’s appointments, sick children and other considerations (not least of which is that no one in Texas can drive if they are even predicting snow) I ended up at home rather than at work today. So Wesley and I had a great time. Jillian was pretty sick and though she came out a couple of times she didn’t have nearly as good a time as we did. We started with a good old fashioned snowball fight.

He really, really liked having snowball fights. Look at his face. He was loving it.

We took a break and made a little snowman. This was before we got most of the snow. It could have been bigger, but served its purpose. He later knocked it off the deck with a couple of snowballs.

This was about as much fun as Jillian would have: standing around near the door and looking before getting cold and going inside.  It took us longer to find her boots and mittens than she was actually outside.

After getting hit with a few too many snowballs we did a bit of cardboard sledding (we don’t actually own a sled) and then played some snow baseball.

After the snow fell a bit more heavily Amber and Wesley made a snowman in the front yard. It was really quite nice, complete with carrot nose and rosemary hair.

Like his smaller brother in the backyard, this snowman was not long for the world. His enemy was not global warming, but a charging Wesley.

It is nice that we finally got a “real” snowfall. It was quite a bit a fun. It gave us an excuse to drink hot chocolate and cider and just have a really good time. Wesley would have stayed out until his arms froze off. Even Redmond, who normally refuses to go out in the cold and wet did his share of playing with us.

I ended up doing more yard work in the snow than I’ve done in nice weather of the last few months. I learned that if you snow covered overhead branches you will get a face full of snow and wet when you least expect it. I also learned that said branches, rather than landing gently on the roof and needing a tug to get them off, will come careening down every which way and you’d better be prepared to move.

 

Since we were so near Corpus Christi (for Texas anyway) and since the kids, especially Wesley, love aquariums, we decided to stop at the Texas State Aquarium on our way back to Austin from Port Aransas. From the website, we got the impression that the aquarium was a bit larger and dare I say nicer than it actually was, but it was plenty big enough for us to fill a few hours before getting back in the car. I wouldn’t make a special trip from Austin just to go to the aquarium, but it was worth stopping by since we were in the area.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Before we got to the aquarium, we took a small ferry across the entry to Corpus Christi Bay. The ferries held about 20 cars each and made the crossing in about 3 minutes. During the crossing we saw some more Dolphins.  As you can see from this image from Google Maps, the ferries are pretty maneuverable (compared to the much larger Washington State ferries) and they’ll just go around obstacles.

In our case the ferry waited a bit and then zipped around a large oil tanker, the Eagle Augusta. It took us about an hour to get the aquarium by car. An hour after we got there we saw it go by us while we were watching the dolphin show at the aquarium.

The aquarium has three dolphins and they put on a pretty good show for about 15 minutes.  Jillian was more interested in climbing up and down the stairs, but Wesley got into it.

During and after lunch Wesley really got into the touch tank. They had a few kinds of ray, which by getting his sleeves really wet, Wesley could get a quick touch.  Too bad the water stank so much.

While there were a few nice exhibits (a couple were closed for repairs), the best part really is the dolphins. We spent a lot of time (more than the kids cared for) watching them under water. We thought they were swimming back and forth looking at us. Turns out the their side of the glass is mirrored. Probably a lesson in that for us somewhere.  On the upside, the aquarium wasn’t busy so we had the whole room to ourselves.

Jillian was still in the midst of being sick and was pretty warn out. Even though we were only at the aquarium a few hours she had had enough. J broke down and we decided it was time to go.

We had another four or so more hours to go in the car. We stopped for dinner at a kind of creepy Mexican restaurant (the food was okay, but not great) and had a very long drive home. It was a very long drive home. A very, very long drive home. But we made it and we’ll never go back, so it is all okay.

 

We picked my mom up at the airport and drove the four and a half hours more or less straight through to the beach house, stopping only at target (the kids were supposed to be wearing shoes when they got in the car) and the What-A-Burger By The Bay in Corpus Christi for dinner (Wesley likes their fries). Amber got the privilege of sitting in the back seat between Wesley’s booster and Jillian’s car seat.  She is both skinny enough to fit between them and has short enough legs. Lucky her!

The house, by the way is gorgeous. Much nicer than ours frankly. It is fully appointed with TVs, cable, internet access, dishes, silverware, pans, appliances, towels, blankets, sheets, pillows, you name it. It has four official bedrooms, plus a Murphy bed in the living room. So much bigger than our house! The kids enjoyed the jetted tub upstairs in the master bath.

The weather when we first got their was very Northwest only warmer. It was mostly overcast and windy, but still nice enough to walk around in shorts and a sweatshirt. Because of an offshore storm the waves were much bigger than normal. And apparently every surfer in Texas was out as the waves were rather unusual. By the time we left the waves had flattened to just a few inches high, the often driving wind had subsided and the sun was coming out. So we got the full range of weather possibilities (minus the rain, thankfully).

Both kids were in varying states of illness. Jillian, usually opposed to napping when healthy, seemed incapable of staying awake when in earshot of the shore. So we don’t have too many pictures of her awake at the beach. The couple of times we took her she passed out after only a few minutes.

For Jillian it only took about ten minutes for this:

to turn into this:

It happened to her on the pier, at the beach, anywhere she could hear the waves. Apparently Jillian’s Kryptonite is white noise.

A reasonable walk or short drive down the beach from the house is Horace Caldwell Pier. Oddly you have to pay to go on the pier even though it at first appears to be public.

Anway, $2 per person and you’re on. The day we were there the waters were full of surfers and the pier full of people fishing for anything but Hardheads (but not catching anything else apparently). The Hardhead or Sea Catfish is apparently abundant and according to one State of Texas website “it isn’t very tasty and the fish is difficult to clean”. They also have mildly toxic barbed spines that cause swelling and are really hard to pull out. What this means for the fish is that people catch them all the time, they want to throw them back,  but can’t touch them. So they take quite a beating as people fling them around, thump them on railings and yank on them with pliers trying to get their hooks out. It was a little disturbing. One gentleman, who seemed to have enough experience to treat the fish humanely caught a fish and let Wesley reel it in before smoothly removing the hook and dropping him back in the water.

I don’t know if it is typical or if it was because of the storm, but the beach was lined with all sorts of shells, sea stars, hermit crabs, crabs, and jelly fish in varying states of life.  Especially in the morning, before it had been picked clean, we had great luck finding shells and even some very large hermit crabs (bodies 4-5″ long).  Wesley “saved” several sea stars that had washed up on shore and was very proud of himself for doing it.

We found a surprising variety of shells: Lightning Whelks (the state shell of Texas), Olive snails, Sharks Eye snails, sand dollars, sea biscuits, Giant Eastern Murex, limpets, a plethora of clams, cockles and scallops, just to name a few. We also saw some dead cabbage head jellyfish and some moon jellyfish, too.

The shells spread out at home.

Lightning Whelk - Side View

Lightning Whelk - End View

Olive Snails

Great Eastern Murex

Cabbage head Jellyfish (We didn't bring him home)

The outer edge of Mustang Island is open to the ocean the inner edge is open to Corpus Christi Bay and is a much calmer swamp marsh; an ideal habitat for birds. We visited a bird sanctuary and saw pelicans (a couple of species), turtles, ducks, herons and most importantly, though at some distance, Roseate Spoonbills. It was really windy so most of the birds were just hunkering down on the lee side of the reeds. But we still saw quite a few for the few minutes the kids would put up with it.

Roseate Spoonbill

Pointing at Spoonbills.

Though there were many warning signs at the bird sanctuary, this is as close as we came to being eaten by a ‘gator.

Port A is nothing if not a typical tourist town. The population is only a few thousand and it is clear that tourism is the main industry. Here you’ll find everything you’d expect at any small tourist town, plus some things I hadn’t seen before. They had restaurants that would cook your catch for you, candy shops, places to rent these little gas golf cart things (primarily for driving on the beach road I guess), many giant sharks statues, at least two gift/surf shops on every corner and a good number of playgrounds and free piers for fishing. We did most of touristy stuff including taking the obligatory goofy pictures:

Inside a giant walk-through shark. These were all over town.

Giant Seahorses along the road.

Amber did a really good job of finding things for us to do that the kids would enjoy. She really ran the whole trip and kept everyone having a good time. At one pier we were able to see dolphins just swimming in the channel. We weren’t able to get a picture because they came and went so quickly and because the surf was rough due to winds, but it sure made Amber’s day. Wesley had a pretty good time, too.

On the pier where we saw dolphins.

My favorite photo from the whole trip.

Excited to go to the beach. Run!

Perhaps the kids’ favorite part of the house (mine, too) was the widow’s walk. We had to go up at least twice a day. Because the house is about a half block from the beach and because the beach has some pretty hefty dunes that block views of the ocean most of the houses in the neighborhood have some form of widow’s walk.  I imagine it would be great to sit up there  with a cool drink and read a book on a warm day.

Note the spiral staircase up to the widow's walk.

Looking up from the top of the spiral staircase.

On the walk near sunset.

Here is a 360 degree panorama from the widow’s walk near dusk. Click for a much larger view (it will take you to Flickr).

Panorama at dusk

We’ll post a “part two” about the trip to the Texas State Aquarium soon.  If you haven’t gotten enough pictures yet, you can check out our whole “Port Aransas” set on Flickr. But be warned it contains 450+ photos.

Oh, and one more thing… If you go to Port Aransas BEWARE THE ROBOTS. They’ll get you!

Look out!

 

We got there right at 6, but Santa was a bit late…

Sitting in Santa's Chair.

The kids were really excited while we waited in line.  But as soon as they got up close to him… that was a different matter.

So I showed them that Santa was nice.

Then Joshua told Wesley that, THIS was his chance to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas.  But he was pretty nervous and a bit terrified.  But he really managed to pull it together an conquer his initial fear and sat with Santa like a champ.

Drying his tears...

This is right before he said he wants a FISH TANK from Santa.

We really wanted to try a picture with Jillian too…

I was really surprised that she even sat with him.

This was after about 10 seconds, she had really calmed down. If only we had 10 more, she may have even smiled.

I promised the kids cookies, to try to get them to cooperate with Santa, so we went over to the rec center and had cookies and hot chocolate.

Enjoying their snack.

Yummy!

He just did not want to smile for me!

Time to go home.  But first, a few more pictures…

It was about 50 out tonight.  It felt pretty good.  But we (When I say we, I mean the kids and Joshua.  Of course I was in a jacket.  I even had a scarf on too.) were the only family without jackets on.  And most kids had on mittens and a hat!

It was a good night.  We are looking forward to walking along the trails tomorrow and looking at the luminaries and the Christmas lights.  The tractor train will be out tomorrow, so I can’t wait to get photos with Joshua and the kids!

 

We made Wesley’s old room into the “sleeping” room.  I was calling it this to the kids, because it was a bit confusing for them.

Jillian and Wesley were pretty excited about all the changes.  They helped me take down the crib.  It is hard to believe we used it for 4 years!

View from the door.

Jillian Bed

We will have Jillian on the floor for a while, so she can get used to not sleeping in her crib.

Wesley's Bed

Window with big basket of blankets... we don't really need them too much here!

Sharing the closet space.

Then I turned Jillian’s room into the “play” room.

View from the door.

Game table and train table.

Toy bins, books and blocks.

Doll house.

And now with all the shelves in this room, we have a ton of room for our games!

I am very hopeful that the kids will do well in one room.  It will make our bedtime routine so much easier.  It will take a couple of weeks for it to really sink in – but should be worth it!!

 

At first we just trudged through some mud and didn’t get too wet or dirty.

Check out the mud caked to her shoes.

What is Jillian pointing at? Vultures. Lots of vultures.

We saw at least 50 vultures on two towers.

We were staying pretty dry until we crossed the creek. Because of the rainfall the creek was running higher than usual.  The only thing to do? Fall in of course.

Wes fell in a hole and got really wet.

Once you get wet you might as well get muddy.  Really, really, really muddy.

This was just the start.

Time lapse of the kids in the big mud puddle.

We had a fabulous time. We stripped the kids naked before they got in the car and had to tie Redmond in the back of the wagon to keep his muddy self off the seats.  I hope it is muddy next time we go.  A lot better than the trips in the 100F+ temp this Summer.

 

Looking at the bugs they found.

Looking under a rock for bugs.

Wesley putting the rock back where he found it.

Look, there are more bugs under the log too!

Sitting nicely for Mom.

Trying to run together.

Blowing kisses

We could have kept playing for much longer…but those pesky mosquitoes drove us back into the house!

 

We had another great year of Trick or Treating in our Wells Branch neighborhood.  Like last year the Godfrey and Myers families came to beg candy from our neighbors.

This year Wesley wanted to be a ghost. He was keen on the idea of running around saying Boo!, but less keen on the idea of getting his hair sprayed white.

Jillian was less clear on what she wanted to be. A duck, a turtle, a ghost-duck, a ghost-turtle. Since she actually fit into the costume we made for Wesley’s first Halloween (after cutting out the feet) she got to be a turtle.  Plus, I wanted pictures of them both in the same costume.

The only downside to having Jillian dressed as a turtle was that she walked as slow as a turtle. She only hit every third or fourth house and was often being carried. On the upside she was pretty well content after she got three pieces of candy and would often stop to show me how much she had gotten.

By the end of the night the kids were ready to come home. Wesley raked in 3.25lbs of candy!  His bucket was pretty much full to the brim. He is currently hording it in his room. I just don’t understand that boy. I never could have let it sit like that. I’m more of an eat until I’m sick kind of a guy.

All our Halloween 2009 Photos on Flickr!

 

I made his line out of a piece of string and his hook out of a clothes pin.  The bait we packed was just bits of things we found in the kitchen.

So right after dinner, the whole family walked over to the pond.

Ready to GO!

Using a bit of lettuce as bait.

Getting ready to cast his bait into the pond.

Our bait: dry pasta, veggie straws, lettuce, cheese ravaoli & onion.

Wesley is trying out different fishing strategies & Redmond really wanting to play with the ducks.

Trying to share with Jillian - but he could not bring himself to do it.

Now it is Jillian's turn to sit on the ledge.

Today, Wesley asked if he could go fishing again…I wonder if it is time to get a real fishing pole!