South Padre Island

 

These kids boogie boarded for hours in jelly-fish infested waters.  While there were a lot of jelly-fish, I guess the sting was pretty mild because it didn't keep them from having fun! 

We celebrated New Year's Eve at South Padre Island so we tried to find some Martinelli's to ring in the new year.  There was none left in the store so we went for a mexican version of carbonated apple juice.  Unfortunately, it tasted like carbonated apple cider vinegar.  Nobody was a fan.  

Supposedly, South Padre Island is a destination for sand castle building.  This was only the beginning of the sand castle building that took place on this trip. 

Chris had the sand castle process figured out.  He purchased these buckets, cut the bottom off, then would put watery sand in it, tap the sides and slide the bucket off.  Then there was a solid tower to carve away into the sand castle creation. 

Chris met a family from Utah that had taken a sand castle building class the day before.  Chris lent them some of our supplies so they invited us to join them in building a more large scale sand castle. 

Birthday cake for Grandma Hills' birthday. 

Our view.  Those tennis courts were pretty busy the entire time we were there, often by members of the Hills family. 

See what I mean about sand castle building destination?

Camrin and Brandon's family joined us on our airplane so we all crammed into Herbie on our trip to the airport.

These sand castle sculptures were definitely made out sand, but had been sprayed with a glue to help them hold their shape long-term. 

El Buen Pescador...a fabulous authentic mexican restaurant where we tried some of the best tacos ever, empanadas and Zach enjoyed a rare treat...seafood!