Galveston Mardi Gras!

 A few weekends ago, the Butler, Bromley and Knott families went to Mardi Gras in Galveston.  After the Sugarland concert, Kevin, the kids and I headed straight down to the Butler's beach house.  We were there all day Friday with just the four of us.  While I ran to get groceries, Kevin and the kids enjoyed playing at the beach.  The weather was REALLY foggy that day, but warm enough to play in swim suits.  The water was still very cold, but Cooper wasn't scared to get wet...even if it was by accident.

After a few hours at the beach, we had a picnic lunch (per Addison's request) in the "crazy trees."  We have been to the beach house now a few times and she remembered from another time we were there, they have an area in the neighborhood with great climbing trees.



The tree climbers



It's hard to tell how big these trees really are, but look at the top of the picture below compared to where Addison is standing...I think we have a monkey in our family!

Early Saturday morning, bad weather came in and it rained like crazy!  By the morning, the ditches were filled to the top, the temp was colder, the wind was crazy, and it was still raining.  The rest of the families arrived early that morning - but with this weather, we weren't even sure we would be able to do any parades or other Mardi Gras activities.  Luckily, the weather got a little better late afternoon and we planned to go to the parade. 

One family that we met up with had experienced Mardi Gras in Galveston a few times, so they knew just where to go and just where to park.  It worked out perfectly - we only had to walk a block or two and we had a great area to keep track of all 8 kids with us!  We didn't go into the Strand area for the parade - I am sure that would be a little less family friendly.  We were on a street with houses and most of the houses were decorated and having a party.  They were playing some fun music that kept us all entertained before and during the parade.

We didn't really know what to expect from the parade.  We were hoping that it wasn't too wild since we had the kids with us.  It was GREAT!  The kids all LOVED it and had the best time seeing the floats, costumes, and catching beads.  Both of the kids surprised me at how well they could catch the beads - especially Miss Addison.  She caught the most beads by far.  It probably helped that she was on Daddy's shoulders the majority of the time!  ;)



All the boys got glow in the dark swords!



I don't know why I didn't think to get pictures of the kids with all the beads - these were before the parade even started.

All the girls got light up butterflies!

 The next day, we went to the Pet Parade on the Seawall, which was fun too.  Unfortunately, didn't get any pics of that and the kids were so worn out by then, we left right after it finished. 

We had so much fun and look forward to many more Mardi Gras celebrations in the future!!!  Thanks for the invite and letting us stay at your beach house, Butler's!