More Birthday's!!

We got to celebrate Dave and Nate's birthdays today! Dave turned 44 and Nate 18! So a little more crazy, happy new family time. Had a great dinner of grilled chicken, fruit salad and carrot cake to celebrate!

Nate, Annie and Dave

Dylan and Papa really enjoying that ice cream!!

During the day we had done prep for the party and packing for the trip home tomorrow. It's been a WONDERFUL visit! Lots of celebration, fun and laughter and some real time to get to know the new and old members of this Wolcott/McClung family. Thanks to everyone for including us in the celebrations!

Hatching of Sea Turtles

Judy, John, Jean and John got up VERY EARLY this morning to go see the Turtle Release at Padre Island National Seashore. It was supposed to begin at 6:30 and since we were an hour away...we were out the door at 5:00. As we were approaching the park entrance we were stopped by the police and told that the road was closed due to fires (from fireworks the night before). So, we decided to go into Corpus Christi for breakfast and then head back to the beach house. On the way back we decided to try the road again and were lucky enough to make the release anyway! The turtles had hatched a couple of days before and they were releasing 168 Kemp's Ridley Sea turtles. They are the most endangered species in the US. For more info on the program visit www.nps.gov/pais. It was wonderful watching the 2" babies make their way to the water and then take off! There was lots of human help in this process, but it was fascinating none the less. They will make their way to Florida and hopefully not fall victim to the oil spill.






After this great morning we headed back to Becky's and packed up and headed back to San Antonio with a stop at Central Market on the way home for dinner fixings. It's a GREAT store! All hit the sack early tonight!

Happy Birthday Tyler & America!

SUNSHINE! It's our first sunrise we could see since we arrived! It was beautiful this morning!

Laughing Gull at sunrise.

Lots of action on the beach!

Party day today. More later!

Tooth Fairy Makes High Wind Stop in Texas!

The tooth fairy made it through the heavy winds! What a girl!!

And Sunshine to boot! Hurray!!

Judy, John, Jean and John headed out early to the newly opened Port Aransas Nature Preserve. It's a 1200 acre site with trails, an very long elevated boardwalk, a viewing tower and into center. We had the place all to ourselves and saw LOTS a great birds.

Roseate Spoonbills, the official bird of Port Aransas with White Ibis above & plover's below.

Reddish Egret

And back home for a little beach time. Boy, the Alex effect is over and the beach was packed! The seas are still a little rough, but it's a big shallow area so the boys could play in the water.

Then home for lunch and a little rest time and then the boys were off to the pool.

Becky and Ernie headed out for a night out alone after everyone cleaned up and the old folks enjoyed shrimp (yum!!) and salad. The boys managed to put a fair amount of the shrimp away also! Another fun day!

Birds and Tall Ship and another Tooth Event!!

This morning, after watching some of the World Cup Soccer, John and Jean decided to head out and do a little birding. Tyler decided to come with us. We went to the Univ. of Texas Marine Science Visitor's Center here on Mustang Island where they had a great boardwalk. John caught this pelican just as he was diving in for a fish.

and then just as he was taking off after his small snack.

Then we headed further down the road toward the beach and happened to be there when one of the four tall ships coming into the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to the Corpus Christi Bay for the 4th of July celebration. It was the Coast Guard USCGC Eagle. Later in the day the Cuauhtemoc tall ship from Mexico and the Esmeralda from Chile came in and tomorrow the Capitan Miranda from Uruguay. The timing has been very unpredictible because of hurricane Alex. It's still very windy and cloudy here, but supposed to clear off some tomorrow. We all know, however, that this celebration is really for Tyler's 7th birthday on July 4th :-) Fireworks tomorrow night and Sunday....sweet.

through the mist...

and almost to us.

Later in the day John and Jean headed out to a birding spot and saw lots of birds...very cool! Then, Tyler worked his loose tooth so much today that it finally came out at dinner :-)


The tooth went under the pillow with a hope the tooth fairy can make it! Another great day!!!