Water Boys

No, I'm not referring to the classic Adam Sandler movie (which we used to refer people to when they asked where we lived while down in Southeast TX, ha!)...I'm referring to my amazing sons.

My parents invited us and my brother's family to a quick weekend trip to South Padre Island. It's a looonnnnggg drive from here but it was worth it. Beautiful beach, clear water and family.

SP and Grandaddy

Cousin MP cracks us up...this time putting on Grandma's hat

J has always loved the water, be in tub, pool or ocean. However, he has never ventured more than 5 yards into the ocean b/c he has to be on his belly or knees.

However, this trip, he finally let us take him further out and he realized he could still touch but we had to hold him. He LOVED it! When a big wave crashed over him he yelled out at T "Dad, THIS is what I've been waiting for!". 

First steps in the Gulf

 At one point, we had both he and SP out there at the same time. I was holding J, T was holding SP and we were all riding the waves :-) It was so relaxing, tiring but relaxing. I wish we had pictures from this part but since we were both in the water with the boys, Grandma was at the pool with Kam, Aunt L was on the dolphin trip with Grandaddy and KK...so we just have our memories ;-)

He actually spent more time in the water but really liked carrying around the little shovel :-)

This was before he ate sand

Aunt L, cousins KK and MP (plus J's hiney)

 And not that we were worried because SP also loves water, be it tub, pool, sprinkler...and he loved the ocean as well. We stayed out there for about 5 hours and he never fell asleep just played in the water and ate a little sand. It didn't taste so good from his facial expression, but now he's tried it. yep.

Feeding big bro some cheetos

Dinner with everyone Sat. night

 I even got to go crab hunting with KK and my dad Sat. night on the beach ;-)

She ended up catching 3 and then was given a big one by some other hunters...it was creepy but cool!

Back at our hotel

Now we are planning a late summer trip to Galveston (mucho closer to home) so we can spend more time in the water with our boys :-)

Boxes of joy

My mom has discovered the fun of ebay :-) And because of this, I unknowingly (until yesterday) have reaped some of the benefits! 

Meet my china...it's called Autumn, by Lenox. 

I loved this pattern even as a young girl, before there was a groom, before there was even a high school graduation or college.   So when I became engaged, picking out china for me was a no brainer.  Which is funny because I'm not typically a blue person, but I love the small fruit and flowers on the plates.  It just all works very well and elegantly together in my opinion.

As with most china, it spends much of it's time in a pretty cabinet (antique, of course!). But with encouragement from my friend Jan, I have been seriously pondering actually taking it OUT of the cabinet for some daily use. Well, not the Holiday pattern, but I do use that one during Christmas. 

I have also been encouraged to use it more now that I have discovered this pattern is one of the earliest created by Lenox back in 1919.  It was also used by Richard Nixon in the White House.  Ok that one might not make you all run out and buy it but still an interesting fact.


So as you might have guessed...the benefits I reaped yesterday from mom's ebaying?  Two boxes of fragile china...A place setting of my china AND a place setting of the Holiday china!  

Want to know something even cooler?  This Autumn place setting (except for the tea cup) is from the pre-gold stamp era in Lenox china, it has the black backstamp.  Yep, that means it was made between 1918 and 1960.  This makes sense because the yellow and the blue on these plates is more vibrant than my others.  Because it doesn't say "Made in USA" which wasn't stamped on their china until 1930 (although Lenox has always been made in the USA), it could possibly be these plates are at least 85 years old!  For an antique, sentimental (and very spoiled apparently) girl like me, that's an unexpected joy :-)

Thank you mom :-)
 

Water fun

 

Well, T has said NO to any more larger pools from Wally World, so we opted for the smaller rectangle blow up pool. This way SP can play and J and I can at least sit in the cool water :-) 

 J is such a great big brother, the small pool was a bit boring for him but he played it up with SP. SP had a blast!

 

Independence

Thank you Grateful for Grace for this video.