We started out the 2020 Daugherty beach trip at Nate's West End. We checked it out last year and loved it. So we decided it deserved a return visit. It did not disappoint yet again! I believe we'll make it a beach tradition. Great food, nice people and a perfect outdoor spot for the kids to hang out and take peeks at the ocean while we wait for the food. Flynn still hadn't been out to eat very much in his life at this point due to Covid restrictions, but I think he approved of the atmosphere here as well. :)
We finished off the day with crab hunting!! I stayed back for this hunt to put Flynn to bed. It was Ellis's first time to go! She had a great time! Xan had to stay since she was a little to young to go, 3 is the starting age, but she was fascinated by the crabs they brought back. I think she'll be thrilled to go this year!! She LOVES crabs. We did find out that since we were so close to the ocean and there weren't many dunes for the crabs to hide out in that crab hunting was a lot harder than usual. Not nearly as many to find as last year. But the kids still had a blast! Once the kids were asleep it was time for games! I like to get Scott a new board/card game for his birthday, so that way we all get to try it out together. This year I chose Brain Freeze! I definitely recommend it! Look it up. So much fun. Probably one of my new favorite card games. We laughed so hard. My dad hates it though. ;) It takes too much quick thinking brain activity late at night for him. He humors us and plays too though.
Just before lunch, the sun finally came out and it was warm enough to get in the water! As we were out there the beach started to disappear! The beachy part of this beach was already small with no completely dry sand. We kept moving our towels up and within the two hours we were out there we had to move our stuff all the way back on to the patio of the beach house because every so often a bigger wave would come and almost make it all the way up to the fence. I don't have any pictures of the kids actually in the ocean because I was always out there with them. The waves were a little harder to deal with because of the tropical activity starting to move in, so we had to be extra vigilant when they were in the water.
As soon as we finished eating we zoomed right down the road to the beach house! The first thing we had to do when we got there was to check out the awesome double decks! The top one made you feel like you were right on top of the ocean and the bottom one had an awesome porch swing and picnic table. The little April birthday buddies (Xan and Ellis) were so cute on the porch in their twinning outfits. We definitely didn't plan that out. Happy accident! The only problem with the bottom deck is the stairs didn't have a gate like other beach houses we had stayed at before. So it was a little harder to keep the kids corralled while we let them hang around out there. Otherwise it was perfect.
After a quick unloading of the cars the next item on the itinerary was to get on the beach!! We had to make it down there quick so we made sure had time to get some good beach time before the sun went down. This was the view of the fam on the beach from the deck! so cool. I had to snap a pic before I headed down with Flynn and Atlas to join them. Still can't get over how close we were.
Yup, definitely got some awesome beach time in that first day. Can you tell Xan loved it?! Flynn was very unsure. Oh and of course Jane and Atlas were in heaven. They both adore the beach. One of the few things they whole heartedly agree on. Once the sun started to go down they got really chilly in the windiness and headed up to the house. Flynn fell asleep on my shoulder and I was really enjoying the beach at sunset and wasn't ready to head up yet, so Anna and I stayed down and chatted awhile. It was so nice.
We finished off the day with crab hunting!! I stayed back for this hunt to put Flynn to bed. It was Ellis's first time to go! She had a great time! Xan had to stay since she was a little to young to go, 3 is the starting age, but she was fascinated by the crabs they brought back. I think she'll be thrilled to go this year!! She LOVES crabs. We did find out that since we were so close to the ocean and there weren't many dunes for the crabs to hide out in that crab hunting was a lot harder than usual. Not nearly as many to find as last year. But the kids still had a blast! Once the kids were asleep it was time for games! I like to get Scott a new board/card game for his birthday, so that way we all get to try it out together. This year I chose Brain Freeze! I definitely recommend it! Look it up. So much fun. Probably one of my new favorite card games. We laughed so hard. My dad hates it though. ;) It takes too much quick thinking brain activity late at night for him. He humors us and plays too though.
It was a chilly morning! A little too chilly to get in the water yet so we took our time reading books inside and swinging on the porch. We decided we didn't want to miss out on a whole morning on the beach though, so we took a walk on the sand and the kids got their bottoms halves wet anyway. Haha! By this point we knew Tropical Storm Beta was definitely going to be coming into Galveston unfortunately. We weren't sure how it would affect the trip quite yet. Another development was Sam had been planning to come up Saturday - Sunday for the trip, but he called while we were on the walk and said he had terrible congestion and cough and would be miserable being up there feeling so bad and probably just end up infecting everyone. I understood of course that he couldn't come but the kids and I were both sad that he had to miss.
Just before lunch, the sun finally came out and it was warm enough to get in the water! As we were out there the beach started to disappear! The beachy part of this beach was already small with no completely dry sand. We kept moving our towels up and within the two hours we were out there we had to move our stuff all the way back on to the patio of the beach house because every so often a bigger wave would come and almost make it all the way up to the fence. I don't have any pictures of the kids actually in the ocean because I was always out there with them. The waves were a little harder to deal with because of the tropical activity starting to move in, so we had to be extra vigilant when they were in the water.
Around 1-2pm it was time to head in for lunch time and nap time for the babies. As you can see just half way through the day and the beach was gone. There was no more hanging out on the sand. But we did really enjoy some fun deck time. We kicked a ball around, did lots of swinging, my dad tried flying a kite, he got it up for a bit but the wind was too inconsistent and it kept forcing it down. After naps we went back down to the beach... I mean, ocean, there was no beach left, so we could swim in the water one last time. I have no pictures of that at all because there was no where to put my phone and it was sooo hard to keep up with the kids. I already knew the waves were too strong for Flynn and Xan so I left them up at the house with my mom. My dad and I took Jane and Atlas down to the water on our own. Atlas just likes to float in the ocean, but as soon as a wave came by it took him like 10-15 feet down the beach from me if I wasn't holding on to him. We didn't last too long! It was pretty exhausting.
Jane was pretty bummed we couldn't say out on the beach any longer. So I told her we should try to fly her kite that she had gotten for her birthday. But we had the same luck as Pappaw, the nice beach breeze had been completely replaced with crazy tropical wind. A blast one second and calm the next. I think we got it up for like 5 seconds at most. (see those puddles behind Jane with the kite, that's the ocean already coming up on the road from some of the bigger waves) Once we gave up our plight, I noticed one tiny patch of beach sand that was still dry and protected from the crazy waves. I realized we hadn't really done any real castle building yet! So as the sun started to set we all played in the dry sand and built a sand castle together. It was a fun moment with us all playing on a tiny patch of sand together. All trying to squeeze the last bit of beach fun out of our trip before the storm sucked the rest of it away from us. Pappaw even found a crab while holding Flynn.
We tried some crab hunting that night but with no beach left there really were no crabs to find. We did find a couple I think but were unable to catch them because they were staying so close to their holes and clambering back in as soon as we came close. We did find a big dragonfly which was cool! Afterwards I put Flynn to bed and Pappaw read some books to the kids in his fun Pappaw way. Just how I remember as a kid. So special. <3 We had been keeping a close eye on the storm surge and by this time we were pretty sure we were going to have cut the trip a day short and leave that next morning but we were waiting to make the final decision when we woke up in the morning.
Yup, thanks to Tropical Storm Beta we had to say Goodbye to the beach a day early. :( I had also scheduled my friend Mindy to come take family pictures of us on Sunday evening but the tropical storm canceled those as well. Sunday morning the ocean was creeping up on the road next to us and we weren't concerned about the house but we were most worried about the cars flooding or not being able to drive home because the roads eroded. It was a windy, drizzly, cold morning. We couldn't even really enjoy the deck anymore because the wind was driving the cold rain all over. You can see the disappointment on mine and Jane's faces. We were pretty bummed. But Marmee saved the morning with special sticker nails for the girls and Anna made a fort out of the bunk beds for the kids. Those birthday buddies still being super cute together made me smile too. :D Xan was cold and Flynn was jazzed for some reason. Maybe because he was finally starting to feel better. He had been congested all weekend and had slept horrendously both nights. I spent a lot of time on the deck swing with him in the middle of the night. Honestly I'm not sure I could have made it one more night with all the beach activity and not sleeping well at all. All's well that ends well. We still had a great trip and made the most of it! Definitely made so many wonderful memories and captured some priceless pictures. I mean look at that one of Bryn and Scott. Adorable!! I had to take a picture of this sign advising us that the beach was indeed that way. It made me laugh even more because of how much closer the storm surge had made the water. Anyway, what a wild ride of a trip! 2019 we were postponed a day because of crazy tropical storm flooding and 2020 we evacuated due to the storm surge a day early. We've been praying for good weather and health for this up coming beach trip for months now. If we have tropical trouble again we're probably going to have to schedule our next family trip some other time than September. ;) Here's to a fun and safe trip this year!!
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
