Superman, with a little help

 
Sammy got this costume from the Doman's for his birthday. He also got some toy guns - Dave finally found them at Walmart, since Target and Toys-r-Us don't carry such things anymore. Yes - we're politically incorrect down here in Texas.

Cap'n Sammy

 

Sammy and Max both took a turn at the helm on our Friday night fireworks cruise. 

Dolphins at sunset

 
Jenny caught this great photo of the dolphins and sunset that we saw on our cruise. 

Diver Maddie

 
Here's a closeup of Maddie underwater. 

Swimming with the fishes

  

Sea Monkeys!

 
This picture reminds me of those old sea monkey ads that would be in the back of comic books. Jenny, Maddie, Ben & I did Sea Trek at Schlitterbahn, where we put on these funky helmuts and spent about 20 minutes underwater in a tank with fish and stingrays. It was a lot of fun. 

Too tired to eat

 
Sammy had so much fun at Schlitterbahn he couldn't stay awake for dinner at the Shrimp Haus. 

Round the lazy river

 
Mika and Ellie had a great time floating around the lazy river and going on the rides at Schlitterbahn. The park is set up so that you just float into line - you never have to get out of the water. 

Boogie Bahn Ben

Ben tried out the surfing ride.

The turtles have left the building . . .

 

Thursday morning we got up at 6 am to quickly dress and drive over to the beach. The Sea Turtle people had said that some eggs would be hatching very soon and they would release the baby turtles at 7am to swim into the gulf. Maddie didn't want to get up - this is a picture of her curled up on her vacation bed (the couch). We rushed to the beach, only to find out the babies had hatched at 2am, and got in some sort of turtle frenzy earlier than usual, so they were released at 3am. I guess none of the Sea Turtle Inc. staff were available to change the answering machine message that they told us to call and check before coming. Now we're up extra early, getting ready for Schlitterbahn, except for Maddie who's still snoozing. 

Riding on the beach

 

Wednesday afternoon we went for a horseback ride on the beach. 

Catchin' some dinner

 

Ben caught us some yummy fish to eat on Wednesday night. 

Surfer Men

 

The boys went and got boogie boards and tried to ride the waves. It's harder than it looks on TV. 

Surfer Girls

Ellie and Mikayla took to the ocean like little fish. There's a fairly strong current that pulls to the north, so about every 15 minutes we had make them get out of the water and start over again a little downcurrent from us.

Beach Boy

 

Sammy spends most of his time at the beach digging in the sand, only making an occasional foray into the edge of the water. 

Turtle In-Laws

  

Sea Turtle Inc.

 

Tuesday morning we visited the Sea Turtle conservation center, run by Sea Turtle Inc. There was a presentation with all sorts of interesting stuff about the turtles. Some of them can live to be 120 years old. The turtle in this picture is Gerry - he lives at the conservation center permanently because he's been domesticated and would not survive in the wild. 

Swim Team

 

We all got a little sunburned on our first day at the beach, so on Monday we waited until it was dark to hop in the pool. 

Oreo Filling

 

Ellie managed to remove the filling from her Oreo, all the better to get more sugary goodness with every bite.