Spring Break in South Padre Island

Yes, you read that right.  I took my family to South Padre Island for Spring Break.  We were ready to have some fun in the sun and the beach.

My daughter has been asking us to take her to the beach.  She was born a human but in another life she was a mermaid. 

South Padre Island has beautiful beaches.  We had visited a couple of years back but my husband was not able to make the trip with us.  I am sure my daughter does not even remember since she was so little.  We headed to the island for a couple of days to get away from everything.

My favorite things about this trip:

1)  Family Time-We have not taken an entire week off together in - NEVER!  My husband usually works for Spring Break.  I normally take time off and hang out with my kids.  We do weekend trips, or staycations but never actually plan to get away from it all. 

2)  Location-I love the beach.  I did not realize how much my little girl loved the beach too.  Why do I love the beach?  The beach is a fun place.  I love reflecting on the beach.  I love listening to the ocean.  Seeing the beauty of the sky meeting the land.  It did not matter where we would have went as long as we were together.  But the beach did make a perfect spot for us to enjoy ourselves, each other, and it's beauty.

3)  Memories-A vacation sometimes is not all fun, happy, joy-joy times.  Most of the time we forget something, we get lost, kids have tantrums, etc... but even those memories one day will be funny stories or things you miss once your kids grow up.  I am learning to let go.  I am a very controlling person and this hard.  I am a perfectionist and forgetting, losing, or under planning really suck for us.  Lately I am spending more time laughing at myself, laughing with my kids, instead of stressing out, I laugh, laugh hard. 

A specific moment I am learning to let go is the perfect shot.  I put my kids in a spot, expect to pose and smile, and then it happens.  They move, no smile, closed eyes, etc...  My husband loves getting the moment shots.  He has been telling just take the picture.  Remember those moments who cares if it is the perfect shot.  And guess what, those have been become the shots I am loving.  Check some of them out from this vacation:

My daughter was so excited that we were getting ready to hit the water that she could not sit still for a shot.  I snapped this picture off centered, caught her trying to put her shoes on, and actually didn't even take the picture right.  I normally delete these kind of pictures but not anymore. 

This is one of many shots I took.  Again, I was trying to get her to smile for the camera.  I ended up just clicking a lot of shots.  I loved them all.  You can see how much fun she was having in every shot.

This is when I gave up trying to a good picture.  I just starting snapping action shots.  I like this picture because it has the rest of the family in the shadows.  We were having so much fun just watching how much fun my daughter was having.  The water was freezing but she was running, chasing waves.

Every shot has a story.  Our story.

Have you been to SPI?  Do you hit the beach?  When was your last vacation?  What places do you like to visit with the family to unwind?