June Gurr Reunion

We were so excited for a whole week at the beach. After a lot of looking up rentals, Camille found this awesome place in Surfside, TX.  It's a very small town--they tell you directions from "the (one and only) traffic light. It was the best family beach spot--no crowds, perfect waves, big enough to body surf but not dangerous with little ones, and the water was so warm!  usually ocean water is freezing this was either warm or just right. We definitely want to go back again!

 The kids loved decorating cookies. They were all doing the thing where you slide your hand up and down in front of your face to change from happy to frowny face.

 Peter's crab that he caught, cooked and ate

We has such a great time going to NASA Space Center in Houston Texas. It was great for kids and adults!  We all learned a lot and had a lot of fun. One of Joey's top 3 jobs is now to be  an astronaut.  We toke the tram and toured all around the center, learning and seeing where they assemble the spaceships and ROV's.

 The boys inside a retired space shuttle. They then got to explore another planet with Peter and Caleb

 The fun tram that took us around NASA to see where they assemble the ships

 We then saw the amazing rockets that carry the shuttles and astronauts into space. We were amazed by how massive they are!

I looked over and saw  Kimball "measuring" himself against the height of some great heroes. I have no doubt he will be just as amazing.

 I just love those guys

 One of the best places for kids to play

 Yup, we really touched a piece of the moon--pretty amazing

We were so happy to have an entire week to play on the beach with cousins. We ate and ate and ate, played in the sand for hours, and loved boogie boarding on the waves. It was always an adventure to catch some crabs.

Peter and I found this great place down the road with tons of crabs. We took everyone back and all the kids found their own crab claw souvenir.

 Family pic. My favorite is Joey, standing as if nothing is abnormal, with a blue clothespin on his nose. I love that kid.

 The second best feature of this house, beside being right on the beach, were the "portholes" in the wall. The kids played for hours there. They took turns throwing balloons to catch or asking questions that were rewarded with stickers.

 All the kids going on a treasure hunt.

 Peter and Steve's crabbing adventure

 The sand castle and moat

 There is nothing like running straight out of your house, boogie board in hand, and heading right for a great adventure in the ocean.

 Peter and I took the boys on a "late-night" (to them at least) crabbing adventure. We searched in crab holes and all across the sand to see those little guys flash across the sand.  They are shockingly fast!

 The picture below is my favorite because it shows their personalities so much. They're all crouched and ready for action, but Kimball's just ready to pounce without hesitation on whatever he sees, and Joey has his hand out to restrain Kimball from scaring away the crabs before Dad can get them.

 We caught 3 crabs with everyone working together to be spotters, cornerers and trapers. We took our find back to the house to show the other cousins that were still awake.

 Then we released them back to their sand homes

 Joey and Megan and Simon played all day int he water together. I'm so glad they got to have that older cousin time. They liked the big raft.

(here's the rest of the NASA pics that uploaded later)

 The kids had tons of fun playing. they loved this one interactive game where you had to catch fruit on your arms without being eaten by the jaguar

 Our little Joe next to the rocket "Little Joe."

 This was our last day at the beach, after cleaning and packing everything. It is always so hard to leave. We love the beach!