The LaRoche Family: Summer Annual Beach Trip 2009

We just got back from taking Grace to the beach. We went with my parent's and my brother. We stayed at the same place as last year, Little Bay Club. Although we had a different cottage. This time we stayed in one that was directly across from the water. There's nothing better than waking up and walking out on the patio to watch the sun rise on the bay. We were all in heaven!

DAY 1

When we arrived at our cottage, the boys unloaded the car. My mom and I quickly organized everything and set up "house." Grace was so excited to be at "the beach." She was such a little trooper while we got everything situated. The boys decided to open up a cold one and the girls decided to take a stroll down the fishing pier right across from our cottage. Then my parents decided to take Grace to the swimming pool while I got dinner ready. There's nothing like sitting in a beach cottage, smelling a homemade pot pie cooking, catching up on celebrity gossip all while looking out the window to see the bay.

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DAY 2

The first morning we all got up around 5:50AM (yes, we set our alarm on vacation just to see the sun rise and to take an early morning jog). Ate breakfast and were off to the fabulous pool. Lounged at the pool until around lunch time and then went in to feed Grace and put her down for a nap. While Grace was sleeping, my mom and I went back out to soak up some more sun before we had to head in to take showers and get ready for dinner and the Corpus Christi Hooks game.

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After we all were dressed and ready to go, we headed to Charlotte Plumbers (a seafood restaurant right on the water in Rockport) to eat and then took a little drive over to Corpus Christi to watch the baseball game. Being in Corpus brings back so many memories of my childhood and going to the beach with my grandparents every summer. Grace had so much fun at the game. She danced to the music they played (twisted her little bottom, something Jeff and I had never seen), ate cotton candy, used the bathroom at the ball park (I wasn't too keen on this idea, but she had to go. I laid the law down not to touch anything in the bathroom.), shopped for a cute Hooks outfit, met a little girl named Madelynn and she was still going even after the game was over with.

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DAY 3

The boys got up around 5AM to head out to do some kayak fishing in the bays. While my mom, Grace and I slept a little longer and then headed out to do some shopping and eat lunch. Rockport is growing by leaps and bounds. There are all these little boutique shops popping up all over downtown. Our favorites were Bay Window ladies boutique (I got some really cute things here!), Bay Window Home Furnishings, Oh, My (lots of coastal art work), Comforts of Home (my mom and I decided that when we buy our own place down there this is where we will go to buy the decore for our house), and Rockapulco (accessories boutique). After shopping all morning and after buying Grace some Webkinz animals (a "Nemo" fish and a pelican), we decided we needed to find a place to eat lunch. A lady that owns one of the boutiques recommended a place called Jama's. It was right across the street from where we were at and it sold sandwiches, salads, flavored teas, etc. We ordered Grace a PB & J sandwich with fresh green beans, chocolate pudding and apple juice, my mom ordered ham salad and I ordered chicken salad with mango tea. Grace wouldn't eat her sandwich because she didn't like the strawberry jelly, but she sure did eat her green beans, chocolate pudding and drank her apple juice. My mom and my food was really good. I will have to say that the service there was not very good. After lunch, we headed to pick up some fresh shrimp for dinner and then back to our cottage to put Grace down for a nap and my mom and I put on our swim suits to soak up some more sun. Although, this time I couldn't stand the sun. It was way too hot. I opted for the shade and caught up on all my celebrity gossip and my mom toughed it out for an hour laying in the blazing hot sun. By this time the boys were on their way back from fishing and needed to clean their fish that they had caught. We made steak and shrimp for dinner and then took a stroll down our pier to watch all the boats out in the water. Headed in to take showers and then were fast asleep.

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DAY 4

This was our last full day and we decided to take Grace to Little Bay Beach. We loaded up the car with the beach chairs, ice chest and all of Grace's sand toys. When we arrived it was really crowed which was to be expected because it was Saturday after all. My mom hopped out of the car to walk the beach looking for a cabana, while we drove in the car searching too. We were so lucky...we found one and it was the last one on the beach. I quickly hopped out of the car and ran to claim it. I felt a little like Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in that movie (the title is slipping my mind right now) where they are claiming their land by staking a flaf in the ground. We quickly set everything up and took Grace down to the water. I was a little disappointed because it was very low tide which caused a lot of grass, jelly fish and yucky things to be up on the beach. We walked the beach a little and then Grace began to play with her sand toys. Then Jeff decided he was going to take Grace out to the next sand bar. He was going to let her walk out there (it's was really shallow, ankle deep), but she put one foot in the water where the grass was and decided she wanted to be carried out there. I don't blame her! I made Jeff carry me too! :o) Once we got out there, the sand was so soft, the water was so clear and there were all kinds of shells and hermit crabs out there. We collected a few of each and brought them back to shore! Grace played some more on the beach building "sand castles." My mom wrote Grace's name in the sand and the boys chilled under the cabana drinking cold beer. Every once in a while Grace would walk across the very, very hot sand to go show the boys something or tell them something and can you believe the sand never bothered her. She's such a little toughy! I couldn't even walk across the sand...I had to jog! After some fun in the sun, we headed back to the cottage to eat lunch and for Grace to take a nap. My mom and I headed out for a little more shopping and then back just in time to grill hamburgers for dinner. We walked out on the pier again to watch all the boats in the bay and to see the sun set one last time and then we jumped in the car for our tradition of DQ blizzards. Yummy! Ate our ice cream and then put Grace to bed. We all sat out on the porch one last time, chatted and felt the cool breeze come off the water. At last the day had to come to an end and we all fell fast asleep.