A Galveston Vacation

Dear Jack,

We just got back from your first big family vacation. You had so much fun!

First of all, we went to the beach in Galveston. You thought the beach was wonderful. You loved the sand and the seaweed and surf coming up to the beach. Mostly, though, you liked the sand. By the time we left the beach, you were pretty much covered, head to toe, in sand. I think you even managed a few bites of sand while we were there. Ew.

After the beach, we went and saw your Grandma at Moody Gardens. She was so happy to see you and and you enjoyed seeing her, too.

We went with Grandma to the Aquarium. You had been before, but you were a little baby at the time.
This time, you were old enough to look at the animals yourself and you thought it was the coolest thing ever. You were screaming half the time, just in the sheer excitement of it all. Aaaaaaaa!

You crawled from one end of the aquarium to the other. You thought all of the penguins and fish were so neat to look at. You also enjoyed playing with your Grandma at the aquarium. You thought she had brought a stick for you to play with, but that's really the sign of how much she loves you. That's a cane to help her walk because her knees hurt her a lot and she still came to the aquarium and walked all around it to be with you and your sister. Wow.

At the gift shop, I found an orange crab, which made me very happy. You kept throwing it out of the stroller, but in the end, I bought it anyway knowing that it was more for me anyway.

We also went to Schlitterbaun. Fun, fun, fun!

You had so much fun playing in the water. You walked and crawled and splashed and played until you just couldn't play any more.

Then I got to do one of my most favorite things, hold a sleeping Jack. Aw.

I also succeeded in not killing you that day. Your cousin Lillia pointed out that I have, so far, succeeded in that every day, but Friday it was a closer thing than on most days. We were on an inner tube together and your dad gave us a push to help steer us and it knocked me off balance. You and I both went underwater and I am proud to say that I had you back up, over my head, out of the water before your dad even realized that we had capsized. Whew.

After Schlitterbaun, we went to the Flight Museum. They closed earlier than I thought, so we only had about thirty minutes to look at all of the planes. Sad for Dad. Not so sad for the rest of us.

Since the Flight Museum was closing, we went on back to Moody Gardens to the Forgotten Gateway exhibit.
You were completely unimpressed by the exhibit, but you did enjoy eating the glass. Yum?

After the museums, we went out to dinner. I should recount at this point how you are in a shrieking place right now. I figure it has to do with language development and your frustration at not being about to communicate, but we practically got kicked out of the place we went for lunch on Thursday (actual quote from the very nice manager: "Tell me what you want little guy and I'll get it for you. Whatever it is. I'll get it for you!") so I came to dinner Friday prepared. I had bought a book in case you and I were stuck in the car, sent your dad and sister in first to get a table and drinks and ordered, first thing, a chocolate milk shake for you. Sugar. Protein. Fat. In one delicious concoction. You spent the rest of the meal slowing coming down from your sugar high. Mostly quietly.

The following morning, we met up with your other family for breakfast. If you ever run away from home, I'm not going to worry because I'll know where you'll be going.

You even enjoyed shopping since Lillia and Aunt Dani were sweet enough to walk you around in the stroller until you could fall asleep.

At the Strand, there is a large chess set that magically appears from time to time (Aunt Dani says you have to rent it but no one knows where you rent it from) and this time, it was there, so I asked the older boys who were playing if you could play with their already captured pieces and they said that would be fine. Checkmate!

For lunch, we went to the Rainforest Cafe which had lots of fish to look at, cool animatronics and every so often, a thunderstorm. Cool!

Myles even helped you to look at the fish while you were waiting for the food. And just for the record, you still shrieked, but because you never got louder than the gorillas or the thunderstorm, we figured it was okay.

So really, up until that point, it had been a very good vacation. A perfect vacation even. Nothing in life stays perfect, though, so here's where we get to the Worst Ride Home Ever.

In the car, you cried. You shrieked. You whined. But mostly, you screamed. We kept thinking that you would cry yourself to sleep. You had missed your afternoon nap and your morning nap was just a thirty minute stroller nap so we knew you were tired. But you would not stop crying. So finally, we took the hint and stopped for ice cream. It had worked so well the day before after all.

Ah. Sugar. Protein. Fat. In one delicious concoction. You felt so much better after the ice cream (and the water) and were able to make it the rest of the way home without any more fuss.

But, and considering the sand you ate, the crawling around Moody Gardens and Schlitterbaun, chewing the glass at the museum, and the foreshadowing of all of the shrieking, this shouldn't be a surprise, as soon as I pulled you out of the car at that Dairy Queen, I knew you were getting sick.

At home, I confirmed that you are running about a 102 degree fever. You are asleep right now in your own bed, having had a nice bath and the proper dosage of Tylenol. We'll see how you are tomorrow and Monday. I expect that you'll be pretty miserable the next day or so, but sometimes, that's the price of a really good vacation.

Don't worry. One way or another the rest of the family will help you pay up.

Love,
Mom