The Browns first family vacation is officially on the record books! My dad had this great idea that he wanted to take all of my siblings and our kids on a vacation. Sadly, last minute my nephew Eric wasn't able to make it because he got a new job through his school and now that he is 20, he has to think about bigger things. We all went to South Padre Texas and most of us had never been before. We were in a condo right on the beach and it was great. The mornings were spent on the beach, the afternoons napping and lounging and most nights were spent on the beach then afterwards laughing around the kitchen table. It was really great being all together like that. Some of you already know that I am a late in life surprise to my parents and, therefore, there is a pretty big age gap between me and my siblings. Jennifer is first and she is 12 years older than me, next is Jeff, who is 10 years older, then the first surprise (birth control baby) Jake who is only 15 months older than me and I was the last surprise (vasectomy baby)! Needless to say we had not all lived in the same house for quite some time and it was an adjustment to some of us. In true Richardson fashion there was a certain amount of drama that had to be met. On the first day, when my brother Jeff was pulling into the condo, he got rear ended by an 18 year old girl in a Benz. After that, we kept getting calls from people saying that there were crazy fires here at home. My dad's house had some damage but nothing too bad, especially since three of his neighbors across the street lost their entire houses. Then came the sting rays. On the first day my brother Jake and my brother in law Brian both got stung by a sting ray while body surfing on the sand bar. Lastly, it wouldn't be a trip if Max didn't get hurt. We were in a 3 story condo and knowing this Jeff and I brought baby gates. Unfortunately, when going upstairs someone didn't put the baby gate back and I found Max climbing the stairs. I was across the room and he lost his balance and fell down about four steps. I felt horrible because I was just watching him fall as I was running toward him. He fell right on his face and screaming ensued and then came the cuddling. Of course there were great memories made and a great first vacation for Jeff, Max and I. Now for pictures so you can have a visual. Ignore the goose egg on Maxwell's forehead at one point. It's not really obvious but it's there.
The drive was around 12 hours and Max did really well. There was a long stretch of 60 miles with nothing and we let Max get out of his seat for about 5 minutes. I know what your thinking but he is fine and made the end of a very long ride a little better.
Headed to the beach the night we got to Padre. This is Jeff and Maxwell's preferred mode of transportation.
At South Padre Island Brewing Company
The next night at The Big Donkey for dinner.
We took a dolphin cruise that was well... eh. Max was a grump because he was tired and there were just no dolphin to be seen. But not for lack of trying. This is Gorgi and he was on the look out for us.
This is as close as we got and one of only two sets of dolphin we saw. We were on the second wave because we had to split up and apparently the dolphin where spry and ready to go with the other boats, dang it!
Max wasn't feeling the photo op.
Uncle Jake offered to take a grumpy Max and he fell asleep in about 60 seconds.
These are all pictures from the only day I took my camera to the beach. It was our first morning out and we learned less is more on subsequent trips.
No comments:
Post a Comment