South Padre Island 2012

We've been pretty busy around here lately... busy with lots of fun things! Things like my family's annual vacation to South Padre Island (see last year's vacay here)! 
There's something about driving over that bridge onto the island that just makes me feel relaxed and rejuvenated before I've ever even seen the beach. 

Spadre!!! 

We started Day 1 by heading straight to the beach! 

My pretty sisters!

My parents

The day was full of pretty scenery, nice cool waves, reading and relaxing, and quality time with my sisters.

Day 2 was filled with beach time as well, and we had lunch at Wanna Wanna's, an on-the-beach grill that we go to every year.

Me & Karoline at Wanna Wanna's

My parents

Jeff and Kristen

Wanna Wanna's

The view from our lunch spot!

Our rented condo was right on the beach, and the moonlight over the water was just so beautiful! 

We figured out that moonlight made for some crazy photos if you shake the camera around...

 We had dinner one day at Dirty Al's, the BEST place ever for fried shrimp and fish.

We also watched plenty of Olympics (yes, this all happened a couple weeks ago... I'm way behind on blog posts!).

We all had a lot of fun time on the beach! 

When we got a little tired of the heat on the beach, we walked around some of the cute shops on the island. Isn't this little couch setup adorable?

We spent one afternoon/evening on the far North end of the island, where the road stops and there's just a bunch of sand dunes. Every year we pick the biggest dune we can find, and we race up it. This was the dune of choice:

Here we are ready to race:

Here we are after my parents yelled "go!" . . . 

... and here we are realizing the sand was BURNING hot and quickly turning around. Haha! 

Jeff was the only one who made it to the top... I guess we normally don't try to run up dunes so early in the day (usually we wait until the sun is going down and everything is a bit cooler). 

We had a picnic dinner by the beach where the road ends...

My sister Kristen is a dancer, and we always take some photos of her on the beach in South Padre. 

Of course, we had to get a few photos of the rest of us too! :)

There's nothing quite like burgers and s'mores on the beach. :)

On the way back to the condo, we stopped by the dune for a real race, without super-hot sand. 

We all made it! 

The rest of our time in South Padre was full of beach time, along with a flea market stop, and some quality ice-cream making time with Karoline! 

Thanks for another fun year, South Padre! We'll see you next summer!