Fourth of July 2012

It has become a tradition to head down to my Dad's house in Port O'Connor ("POC") to celebrate the Fourth of July. POC is a tiny coastal town about halfway between Corpus Christi and Galveston. It is primarily known as a fishing town and is the most relaxing place ever! This year was especially fun, because it was Ava's first trip to POC (unless you count her in-utero visit last year). 

I drove down to Austin with Ava the Thursday before the Fourth and worked from T&K's Austin office on Friday (Bunny was more than happy to take care of Baby A during the day), and Josh flew down early Saturday morning. The drive to POC went fairly smoothly, except for the poop-explosion that necessitated a pit-stop in a Lockhart CVS parking lot. It....was...everywhere! Luckily, my sister Bonnie was in the car with us, because it literally took three people to clean up and dispose of the mess. At one point, I was holding Ava up in the air completely buck naked as Bonnie was moving the poop-covered changing pad out of the way. At just that moment, an older couple walked passed us and laughed out loud in a "we have totally been there" kind of way. Once Ava, her car seat, and we were cleaned up, we hit the road again....finally arriving at the coast. 

The best part of the vacation was how much time Ava got to spend with my family. 

She loves all her aunts!

And she thinks they are hilarious!

Ava especially got to spend a lot of time with her Grampsie.

And she was very intrigued by his beard.

One of Ava's favorite things was to hang out on the porch that faces the bay, which made for some fun, wind-blown hair :).

Ava also sported a lot of red, white, and blue in honor of the holiday.

I can't tell you how much I love these tiny shoes!

And these thigh rolls :).

And of course, we had our annual "Dolphin Point Olympics."

With all the baby crap we had to pack this year, I totally forgot to bring costumes. But Sara, Stephen, and Lily came strong as the "Pirates of the POC" (although Lily's Jamaican outfit was slightly out of place). 

There were four events, with gold (30 points), silver (20 points), and bronze (10 points) awarded for each one. We played trivia first. Dad and Bonnie (aka "Big Kahuna") won gold, Hannah and Cameron ("Team Funkytown") won silver, and the Pirates of the POC won bronze. That's right...Josh and I came in dead last in trivia. The horror.

Then we moved on to beer pong. Thank goodness, Josh and I were able to redeem ourselves in this round. We won gold, Big Kahuna won silver, and Pirates of the POC won bronze.

Next was cornhole. Team Funkytown won gold, Team Shep won silver, and the Pirates of the POC won bronze. 

We ended with ladder ball. Team Shep won gold (what, what!), the Pirates of the POC won silver, and Team Funkytown won bronze.

We had a blast as usual, and things got progressively interesting as the night went on. 

Exhibit A: This picture.

Exhibit B: My Dad sporting the Jamaican hat/wig.

Exhibit C: Sara and Stephen playing with their dog's frisbee. 

And Exhibit D: The pirate hat finding its way to Josh's head.

If you were keeping score, you would realize that (despite the extremely poor showing in trivia) Team Shep was victorious at the end of the night!! 

Overall, we had a great vacation, and Ava really enjoyed her first trip to the coast. POC is such a wonderful place to celebrate the Fourth, and I love that we have made this a family tradition.

It's pretty hard to beat this view...

Also, we finally remembered to buy a lovely redfish magnet to add to our collection.

On the way back to Dallas, we spent one more night in Austin, where Ava got to spend some time with her Uncle Jesse, Aunt Charlotte, and Nello.

She also got in some more pool time with her Bunny.

My Mom's family also came over for a quick visit before we headed back to Dallas. Ava got to see her Mimi, Great Aunt Laura, and Great Uncle Ryan. She also got to meet her cousin Grace, who is home from school in New York, for the first time. 

It was a wonderful vacation, and I think our little firecracker really enjoyed her first Fourth of July!