Happy Wednesday, blog readers!

Today, I’m going to share a few pictures from our vacation in Port Aransas, TX. As you know by now, it rained on us mostly the entire time, thanks to Tropical Storm Karl (maybe? I think?) and Hurricane Igor. But despite the overwhelming dampness of it all, we had a blast!

My parents went with us, which was really nice. We all stayed together in a condo on the island, called The Sandy Turtle. It was part of a complex called The Pelican, which isn’t much to look at from the outside, but the inside was super adorable and very cozy. I’m so glad I found it, because it made a great home for us for 4 days!

Once again, I admit, I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted to of us just out walking around. I really did intend to, but heavy driving rain isn’t really compatible with the Canon 5D Mk ii. So, I just left it in the condo a lot of the time, and focused on running the baby in and out of the rain. 🙂

Still, we ended up with lots of great pictures that I hope you’ll enjoy looking at!

Let’s start with my ridiculous and beautiful children being silly in front of souvenir  shops:

My dad also got in on the silly storefront action… he and Jack are best buds:

For a few hours early in the morning on Friday, it was actually semi-clear and sunny. We spent this time at the beach, obviously! But, so did everyone else on the island… so the sunny pretty day was actually my least favorite day we spent on the beach. Clearly, my dream vacation is to have a private island!

We spent some time burying each other in the sand… fun! You saw one picture a few days ago of Jack buried. Here’s a shot of when we just had him buried (standing) up to his knees).

And here’s a shot of Jack feverishly trying to dig himself out because he got a little freaked.

I also got buried, laying down. This was a big deal, since I’m claustrophobic. I’m proud to say I survived… until my Dad starting making comments about how heavy the sand must be on my chest. Then I needed Mack’s help to dig me out FAST.

Oh, quick side note… we made a very concerted effort to catch and eat crabs on this trip. We researched. We bought supplies. We worked. What did we catch? Not a dadgum thing. The picture below represents the only crab we saw on our entire trip… other than the ones that came pre-cooked at the restaurant, obviously. 😉

Also on Friday, we got to introduce Dottie to the ocean. She was quite taken with the waves. So much so, that she tried to escape from my arms more than once…

The wave in this next picture nearly knocked us over. But fear not… I never once dropped my baby in the ocean. 😉

The next morning, the beach looked completely different. It was all gray and cloudy and ominous and AMAZING. I love that sort of weather.

The following image might be my favorite shot of the whole weekend… we bought Jack some disposable cameras, because he loves taking pictures, and he really got into it. I’m thinking a point & shoot digital might just be on Santa’s list for him this year. 😉

Mack built these rather interesting sandcastles, so I played with photoshop for a fun color effect:

This next picture isn’t really beachy or vacation-y… but it’s Dot thoroughly enjoying her bath in the kitchen sink of our condo, and I can’t help but share it with the world!

On Sunday, we wanted to go see the U.S.S. Lexington in Corpus Christi. But… um… the storm was CRAZY. This is when the residential flooding happened. We saw stalled cars. And the view we got of the Lex from the parking lot was this:

See that dock to the left? The one that’s underwater? Yeah… it was a lot of rain.

So we opted to tour the mostly-indoor Texas State Aquarium instead!

This next picture of the jellyfish had that color straight out of camera. WOW.

Jack was off running around like a crazy person the whole time we were inside, so I didn’t get as many pictures of him as I wanted to. But since Dot’s pretty captive, we got some cool shots of her discovering the creatures… like this one, of my Dad pointing out to her a poisonous dart frog:

Mack caught this next shot of Dot giving me kisses, and I was so happy I cried. I just love everything about it. It’s already been my default on FB for a few days, but it’s my blog so I can repost if I wanna.

I wish I could find the picture I have of Jack in this little bubble thing in this exact aquarium when he was 2 years old… making a very similar face… but I can’t. Boo on me.

Spend 5 minutes with Mack, and you’ll understand where Jack gets it…

I just LOVE this next one. Dorothy sang and talked to these fishes for as long as we’d let her. She actually got very sad and a little miffed at us when we had to keep walking… we might have to invest in a small fish tank!

And, of course, I’ll end this McGowan Hurrication 2010 blog with a photo booth picture. How could it end any other way? Whenever I see these things, I pull on Mack’s arm and jump and whine like a toddler until he lets us all squish in… I just love them so much! (as an aside… we had no idea until we got done that we’d chosen a background that included a fish swimming up Dorothy’s nose. I think it makes the whole picture!)

Thank you guys for caring about our rainy little vacation. I promise, what you’ll be seeing from us over the next two months is a whole lot less personal and a whole lot more Pretty People Gettin’ Hitched!