September

We started off September with a little family vacation to Galveston. It was much needed family time in the middle of a lot of work travel for Dan.  We started the 5.5 hour drive with Brooks falling asleep -yay! And ended it with me in the back seat trying to keep him sane for the last little bit.

We checked into our hotel (thank you Dan's hotel points!) then drove town to Pleasure Pier. We went down to the beach and showed Brooks the water and saw the lights on the pier. It was dark by now but he wouldn't have ran out into the ocean if we let him! He loved the lights on the pier and the sand. We came back to the hotel, got Brooks to bed and Dan made a trip to Walmart to get some groceries for the week for lunches and Sunday.

Saturday was Dan's Birthday!! I gifted him his presents before we left (and RTIC cooler) because I wasn't going to lug that with us. We had breakfast at the hotel every morning and just like at home, every morning Brooks loudly requested, "CER-RAAALL" for breakfast haha! We went to the Railroad museum

He could have stayed here forever!

That afternoon we went to the beach. I didn't take my phone because sad, water, watching a toddler by the ocean etc. It was pretty busy but we had a great time. We brought beach toys and had tons of fun digging holes and finding shells. When Brooks says shells we whipser-yells it, it's hilarious! We took him out in the ocean and although he was kinda scared at first he warmed up to it and loved the BEACH! We ended the night with a birthday dinner and cake for Dan. Happy 30 Dan!

Sunday we went to church, saw it rain a ton while we took Sunday afternoon naps. Then we walked down the seawall by the shore. We walked out on the piers, saw bugs, seashells, fish and birds. We came back to the hotel and made dinner then walked out to the beach to watch the Sunday night fireworks. Such a perfect day!

We're cleaning up dinner and I turn around to THIS?! HAHA what the heck??

Monday we went to the Moody Gardens. It was raining pretty hard and when we got there parts of their parking lot were starting to flood. We just prepared to get soaking wet that day and decided to make the best of it. We had a great time at the Moody Gardens! We saw all sorts of animals in the Jungle Pyramid and saw some monkeys up close. Brooks had a great time chasing birds and pointing out turtles. 

When we were done Dan pulled the car around and we RAN to the car but were still soaked. We were expecting to get soaked so it wasn't a big deal. What was a big deal was trying to get home. The roads flooded a lot more than I had anticipated but we knew if we could make it to the main road we'd be fine. We turned around A LOT to get out of there. We were following this car but it was larger and higher set than we were. He went down a street we didn't feel comfortable trying. Then every street looked to deep... then we were out of roads to try. We followed a truck and tried our luck. There was a hill at the end but all the water was pooling before the hill. We were cheering on our car, "C'mon! C'mon! Keep going! Don't get stuck!" and honestly I was pretty nervous but thankfully we made it and phew! I was relieved!

After naps and the rain had stopped we wandered down to the beach. It was so empty because everyone left after the rain on Sunday, perfect!

Tuesday we went to the Seafare Park and toured a submarine and a battle ship. It was so neat except for the fact it was a mosquito feeding ground. I learned I would die of claustrophobia if I had to live on a submarine, so I'm glad that's not a reality for me!

There was a great park next door too! We had snacks, played and even saw some dolphins off the shore!

Next we toured the Moody Mansion (because I wanted to. Dan and Brooks endured it) It would have been really cool if it was more family friendly. We got he DON'T TOUCH OR BREATHE ON ANYTHING vibe... but it was still so magnificent and pretty!

As a reward we went and got donuts after. These were the best- Shipleys!

Our trip to Galveston came to an end but we had the best time. Seeing Brooks at the beach, trying new foods, making memories and going on adventures together. It was a nice break from reality and a good get away for all of us.

We rounded out the month by playing and catching up with friends (often eating their snacks)

Then I got the stomach flu and Dan had to run Primary for the day. I'm not sure if I mentioned this previously but our ward split, Dan got released from Scoutmaster and I am now the Primary President. Thankfully I have a capable husband who was able to make it all happen that Sunday when I was suddenly out. A couple days later then poor Brooks got sick too.

Once we were all better and Dan was in town I went to have some me-time at target. I come home with Daniel Tiger PJ's for Brooks - so typical right?

Also found this kid chewing on my new shoes! I feel like I'm raising a puppy sometimes.

We took advantage of the last hot days before the pool closed and swam a couple times with friends. It was so fun!

Dan was gone the last two weeks of September. We tried to stay extra busy and plan lots of fun activities. Playing out back with my bud.

We went to an event at Tanger Outlets and he got to sit on a firetruck. He was one cloud 9! He loved it so much!

Gave Brooks a haircut

It got pretty chilly here for Texas so we took advantage of it and went for a nice cool walk!

We drew some friends on our driveway in chalk.

We had a fun movie night

We went to see some Alpaca's. Brooks kept calling them 'ca-ca's" or "SHEEP!" 

Then Dan came home and earned the best husband award because he brought me cookies all the way from Utah! They were amazing, seriously so good! And that's where we ended the month!