Diana and Stephen's Wedding on the Beach!

This past week, we headed to South Padre Island to celebrate the wedding of Diana and Stephen!  It was a whirlwind trip full of fun, family, and celebrations!  We headed south on PopPop's birthday, May 4.  Unfortunately, the direct flight is only seasonal and ended at the end of April, so we were stuck with a much more expensive and much longer flight option.  We had a 3 hour layover in Houston, which is tough to accomplish with 2 little kids.  We survived and the kids were actually really good, all things considered. Sarah napped much of the time of the plane.  Despite the high ticket price, it is still worth every penny to get Sarah her own seat, just like we did with Austin when he was little.

Austin happily watched CARS on his portable DVD player.

When we arrived, we headed to South Padre Island to stay at the Cronk's really nice (and huge) house/condo with lots of other family.  Gramma and PopPop's dogs came along with them and Sarah was terrified of them at first, but still was interested in watching them - as long as they were behind glass!

She actually got used to them pretty quickly and became more and more brave about approaching them.
The next day, it was time to try on some new summer clothes that hadn't been weather appropriate at home.  Sarah loves wearing her hat and when I take out my camera, she give me her "cheese" face.

Swimming suit time!

To the beach!  The beach access is about a block away from the house and was a beautiful private beach.  Gramma and PopPop had all the beach gear ready - umbrellas, chairs, toys, shovels, etc.  We all had a blast!

Heading down the walkway to the beach.

Sarah's checking out the beach for the first time - very excited!

Playing in the sand was the favorite activity of the week for the kids.

Sarah pointing out the waves.

Daddy took Austin in the water and Austin had the best time jumping in the waves and wading out as far as he could until the waves knocked him over.  Since he can't really swim yet, Daddy had a good hold of him the whole time.

Attempt at a family picture on the beach. Of course, we can't get everybody looking the same way at the same time.

 More fun in the waves.

 Getting knocked off his feet...and loving it!

 Sarah discovered that she loves water bottles and can actually drink from them pretty well.

 Of course, she still spilled it all over herself now and then...and I caught that exact moment on camera.

 Beach babes!

I also caught the moment when Sarah decided she was going to use the shovel like a spoon and eat the sand!

She thought the bucket of wet sand was really fun to get all over herself too!

 Having a blast!

 Then on to the pool!

There was a 1 foot deep kiddie pool that was just the right size for Sarah to sit in and splash.

 The big pool was lots of fun for kicking and splashing too!

 Austin swam around in a little tube.

 I caught him on camera mid-jump.

Here's a bit of video of the kids on the beach and in the pool.  I love the part of the video where I ask Sarah about what she thinks about the beach and she says, "Wow!"  So cute!


At one point, we headed to the fire station to check out a wheelchair that could roll on the beach. The idea was that Steve's Grandmomther (the kids' great-grandmother) couldn't use her walker out on the sand, so other solutions for getting her down to the beach for the wedding were under consideration.  The fire station had rescue chairs available that roll on the sand, but they were huge and really quite terrible looking, so we figured the ushers could help Grandmomther get to her seat instead.  However, while we were at the fire station, the very nice fireman there showed Austin around.  I found it comical that one of their rescue vehicles had a surfboard on top.

 The big fire truck.

 Austin got to sit in the driver's seat and the fireman even turned on the truck and let him honk the horn, turn on the lights, and see their equipment.

 He also got to climb around in the back where they have the jump seats and more equipment.  This photo includes Austin and Austin's image on their thermal scanner.  Cool!

 A stop at CVS on the way home yielded some fun toys for the kids.  Here, Sarah is showing off her Barbie sunglasses and her pinwheel.  "Look, Mom!"

 Austin with the bride, Diana!

 Headed to the beach again.  This shows just how close the beach access is to the house.  To Sarah's left in this picture is the house, and the gate straight ahead is the gate to the beach access.

 Flying kites.  The kites didn't last long in the high winds on the beach, but they kids had fun with them while it lasted.

 Sarah chasing the birds on the beach.

 Austin hanging out under the umbrella playing in the sand. 

 Beach babe hanging out.

Then it was time to get ready for the rehearsal.  Austin and Sarah were the ring bearer and flower girl for the wedding.  Aren't they the cutest ring bearer and flower girl ever?  At least I think so!

 Trying out their walk on the beach together.

 Heading off to explore while the grown ups hear about how the ceremony will go.

The rehearsal dinner was delicious and was at a really fun place right on the water.  The kids had fun after dinner throwing bread and scraps of food to the fish and birds.

 Family pic - a bit blurry, but still nice.

 Wedding day!

Hanging out with PopPop.

The bridesmaids all came over for the morning to get their hair and makeup done.  Gramma catered lunch for the group and Sarah was really excited to sit at the big girls' table.

Hair and makeup time!

We took the kids to the pool after lunch, then got them down for naps.  Then I got to get my hair and makeup done too. What pampering!  Then the kids got up and we got them ready.

 Mommy and Sarah ready to go to the wedding.

 Family pic!

 Diana getting her wedding gown on!

Time to go!

I didn't really take many photos after that because the professional photographers were taking photos of everything and I've been promised a digital copy of the photos once Gramma and PopPop get them.  I'll post some more photos when they arrive!  Here are a few I did take...

The kids had a blast dancing before, during, and after dinner.

Here are Austin and Sarah sharing a quick hug amidst the dancing.

Check out this short video of the kids dancing.  I didn't catch Sarah's dancing, but she is running around exploring for part of it.  If you notice at the end, the videographer got his camera and lights on them for a while too.  It should be entertaining to see what footage he got.


Sarah dancing with Daddy.

That's all I've got so far from the wedding.  More to come later.  The photographers seemed to think my kids were pretty darn adorable, so they took plenty of photos of them.  I can't wait to see the rest of the photos of the beautiful bride!
The kids actually did really well at the reception.  We stayed until about 10:15pm, when Sarah was just getting way to tired to stay.  Austin was a little dancing machine and was on the dance floor most of the night.  He was still going strong when it was time to leave.
By the time the cake came out after supper, Sarah didn't want any and Austin was too busy dancing to stop for cake!  The next morning, I let Sarah have a bit of cake after breakfast.  She loved it...and managed to get some in her hair.

Back to the beach one more time on Sunday before heading home on Monday.

We headed home on Monday and got settled back in to our normal schedule today.  Today, Tuesday, the day after we arrived home, it was actually funny to look at the weather.  At home in Minnesota, high temp was 87 degrees with "feels like" 93 degrees noted on the weather channel; in South Padre Island today, high was 84 degrees.  It's like we brought the weather home with us.  Too bad we didn't bring the beach too!

All in all, we had a wonderful trip!  It was busy, fun, exciting, and exhausting.  We got to reconnect with family we hadn't seen in a long time and got to meet family I'd heard of, but never met.  We got to celebrate with Diana and Stephen on their big day and the kids got to be a part of the wedding party.  What a fun way to spend the weekend!