Padre 2013

My Padre post and my christmas post are the ones I dread the most all year long. There are sooooo many pictures to be sorted through and then put into order and it takes FOREVER. It has never taken me 2 months before this year...but ehhh whatcha gonna do? This post literally took me hours to compose and if it weren't for the fact that it absolutely has to be documented I would be very tempted to skip over it! :)

Padre 2013- June29th-July 6th

We left EARLY saturday morning. Like had to be AT the airport by 7 kind of early. I was pretty impressed with our crew cause even waking 3 babies and dragging them from their beds, we beat many other family members to the airport who had all adults in their party. Yeah- go us!!! 

 Ready for the BEACH! 

Yes I did coordinate us all in blues & oranges. The kids are all wearing orange shirts. This isn't just for the cuteness factor...I was counting on orange standing out in a crowded airport.

 In the airport the kiddos made themselves comfy and dug into their airplane bags. 

 On the plane and ready to go! They look so big! 

 Charley Bear's 1st flight and he went out like a light. 

Miss molly's 1st flight too!

 What a big girl!

 We have arrived!!! Yeah we took up half of the plane's cargo hold with all the cox family luggage!

 Hallie pushing baby molly around in the stroller while we wait on rental cars. 

 LOL dale & kule drew the short straws and got crammed in the far back of 1 of the rental cars with luggage in their laps. 

Beth with the baby cousins. 

Since we arrived so early to the beach this year we went to Pirate's Landing for lunch, then the women made the trek back to wal-mart for the weeks grocery supplies. And then we tried something new and stayed in the 1st night and got pizza. Since my family has a hard time remembering things from year to year and what we did/ didn't like from the year before, I want to write this down....WE LIKED DOING THIS!!! Going out for lunch and staying in for dinner worked out great for all the tired travelers, shoppers, and babies! :)

Sunday- the 1st morning on the beach!!!

 Our crew got up way early on the 1st morning (ok actually the whole trip). We had cinammon rolls for breakfast and then quickly realized that we wouldn't be able to stall them for long. We hit the beach before 8am. 

Charley's 1st time on the sand

 I think he likes it!!! 

 The nice part about being at the beach so early is that you get the whole place to yourself

My 3 kiddos with the sun just coming up over the ocean. 

The bad part about getting started so early is that our kids were ready for snacks and some rest time before the rest of the family even showed up. 

Miss Molly's 1st time down to the beach. Is she not the cutest???

I think she likes it too! Adorable! 

 Dale & Molly...I don't know why. 

The 2nd night we went out to eat at blackbeard's. 

 Hallie giving her cousin some love!

I don't think molly is too sure about it!

And our 3 babes. Aren't they adorable?

Monday

 And another early morning on the beach for the Moltz 5 

 This day we decided to take charley's pop up tent down to the beach hoping that it would keep the sand out of his mouth & eyes and the sun off his fair skin before the tents were set up. Yeah that was another tidbit we learned this year, that our condo doesn't begin setting up tents till mid morning. 

 Molly on day 2, playing under the tent. 

 The Cox fam. 

I remember those days when we just had aiden wand we got to have family pics like this down at the beach. We don't have single 1 from this year. 

Hallie playing with molly or possibly just playing with molly's toys. 

Little man playing in his tent. 

 Molly catching a nap with cousin Tiffany 

How cute is that???

Monday night we went to eat at a mexican food restaurant on the bay side-the names escapes me right now but it was good. Besides the food it's a great spot for picture taking! 

 Our family of 5

 My larger family of 10! 

 Cousins Jordan, Kyle & tiff. They are ridiculously photogenic!! 

Gigi & poppy with their 4 grand babes!

 Ben attacked me for a kissing picture... I was laughing too hard to kiss

 Just us..sans kiddos. We don't get many pictures like that! :)

 Gigi & Charley bear. Pretty stinkin cute! 

 Kat & Nathan. Engaged lovebirds. 

Tuesday

 Another early day for us at the beach. 

 This is "aiden can I get a pic of you please?"

 "uh oh you had your eyes closed, let's try again!" 

"ohhhh mom"

 Ok officially the best I'm gonna get for this time..

 Let's try this sweet boy...

 Yep there it is! He's easy!!! 

 And now for the girl...

 "hallie can you look at mommy & say cheese?"

"no"

 Almost caught it here but again with those moltz sensitive eyes... 

 Maybe...

 That's it!!! Pretty girl! 

 She loved playing in the ocean. 

Aiden too! This was an especially calm day in the ocean and so they got to go far and do a lot of playing cause there were almost no waves. Ive been going to Padre for 30 years and not sure I had ever seen the ocean so calm as this day. It was GREAT for the kids. 

 Building sand castles

We get to mark that off our summer fun list! Hooray!! 

Our family of 10 all at the beach at the same time! 

Baby cousins

High five poppy!

LOL!!! 

After a long morning on the beach playing the kids had a popcorn snack and a movie in the condo. 

Then it was time for girls night out!!! All the married & engaged ladies of the family get a night out without hubbies and kiddos. My dad- poppy was nice enough to offer to stay at the condo with ben and  help keep the 3 kiddos. Jarod took baby molly with him for boys night out. 

Girls night out here we come!!!

Kim with her engaged daughter Katheryn and soon to be daughter in law MaryLynn. 

We asked the waiter to take a picture of the table. Apparently it was zoomed in cause several people got cut out of this pic! 

Left side of the table

Mamaw & me

Outside of sea ranch after a yummy meal and good conversation. 

Wednesday

By wednesday we were starting to get a little worn out and decided to have a morning off from the beach. We got the kids dressed and went shopping for t-shirts instead.  

 I just think this pic is funny. This is how hallie wanted to leave the condo for shopping! 

 We also met up with some of the family for a late breakfast at 1 of our favorite beachside cafe's. 

Pretty girls! 

After shopping and brunch I went back to the condo with charley for naps and ben took the big kids down to the beach. These pics of that afternoon are courtesy of beth :)

                            

Aiden playing in the sand with Cousin Jordan.

                                         

                                                    Daddy/ daughter beach time!

                                           

 Hallie excited about her sandcastle! Or maybe about to knock it down!

Sweet molly in the sand and look she even knows how to write her name!!! She's advanced for her age! ;)

After naps & baths I got to have some special balcony time with my kiddos, listening to music and relaxing. The family decided to stay in this night and have hamburgers so it was a lazy afternoon just hanging out! 

My biggest boy!!! Love!

Hanging out with molly. These are such sweet pictures, I love that they are all holding hands and hallie is kissing molly. I'm so excited for the special relationship these kids are going to have!

                                              

Our cook for the night- Jarod. And NO we did not eat all this guacamole! We had guac for days!!! 

Thursday

Thursday was the 4th of July and we started the day off with a big breakfast that Poppy & Jarod prepared.

 How adorable is this?? Both baby cousins learning to stand while holding on.

 

Love this smile!!!

 Miss Liberty is ready to celebrate the 4th!

Pretty girls in their 4th gear

Sweet

 It was a lazy day at the beach cause it was SOOOO crowded.

 The fam at the beach on the 4th! This is the only time mamaw went in the water and I'm not entirely sure it counts since she's fully dressed? Hmmm

After the beach it was time to get ready to celebrate Independence Day!!! We always stay in on the night of the 4th and order fish in to the condo so we can watch the firework show.

 Miss Molly looking very festive!

And our 3! Love love love!

Sweet brothers. I adore this picture! 

All 4 cousins together. It's definitely an improvement over the memorial day picture in these same outfits. 

After dinner in the condo it was time to head outside for a group pic and to get ready for the firework show! 

The whole Cox clan! 

Well minus Rob & Lauren and Uncle David who couldn't make the trip this year! 

Family pic

Jarod Cox fam 

Now we're ready for some fireworks!!! 

 

The 2 babies didn't actually make it to firework time :( They were sleepy! 

Finally!!!!

Our big kids got to stay up and watch the fireworks with me. It was on their summer fun list also and they were so excited! 

 But they were DOG tired!!!

This picture is just sad! Put those kids to bed!!! 

Friday 

Ok this is where I completely checked out...I was Tiiiiired by this point in the vacay. Vacationing with 3 babies feels a lot like work and I'm not too proud to admit that this was my hardest year at Padre yet. The scheduling alone was hard since aiden doesn't nap at all, hallie takes 1 middle of the day nap, charley still takes 2 naps a day. Ben & I did a lot of divide and conquering. So yeah anyways my point is... by friday I think I was about done. I don't know if we went to the beach, I'm pretty sure we did but I don't have pics to verify that? So we're moving straight on to dinner friday night which was at sea ranch. 

 Yep on day 7 of vacay- this is really the best we can do!

 Look at these pretty girls!!

Ughhh Perfect lil family pic of 3...on day 7! Whateves!! :)

 Our family of 10. This is actually pretty good!

                                       

Dinner time, waiting on food. 

Kyle & mamaw took this selfie on my pohone when I got up from the table and then posted it to my FB for me. Good one guys!!! 

To further explain how checked out we all were by this point...Ben & I had to take our darling crew back to the condo pretty much as soon as the food came. Too many meltdowns. We got to eat our food in boxes after we put the kids to bed. 

Saturday

Go home day!!! We got up and finished packing, got the kids fed breakfast and checked out of the condo. We all went to eat lunch at Pirate's Landing before heading to the airport.

After lunch it was full speed ahead for airport & HOME! 

 Waiting at check in

I like this picture of hallie girl!

Sweet molly sporting her new Padre shirt on the way home!

And finally....HOME!!! 

Our kids passed out about 2 seconds after picking up our car and getting on the road. I think we all went to bed before dinner that night. We were exhausted!!! 

Now don't get me wrong Padre was GREAT this year and I don't think any other year will ever compare. We have some great memories and awesome pictures to prove it! Our big kids loved loved loved the waves & the beach and ben & I loved watching them. Aiden & hallie both still talk about the beach, draw pictures about it and started asking pretty much the 2nd day back when we would be going back to the beach. I love that they are getting to experience this amazing tradition that was started before I was even born. 

Now that I've rested and recovered, I am already looking forward to next year when Charley will be a toddler and able to do so much more than he was this summer! Padre 2014-Can't wait!!!