The One with Corpus Christi

Grandma and grandpa Evertsen came down to visit us over the holiday weekend. We had so much fun with them. Sadly we just barely had to drop them off at the airport :( But grandma said she's going to try to come back down in a couple months, so we're looking forward to that.
The first day they got here we went down to the river walk to find some dinner.

The next day we woke up and drove down to Corpus Christi. Jon's grandpa Evertsen served in the Navy and the ship he served on, the U.S.S. Lexington, is docked at Corpus Christi and you can go do tours of it.

The ship even has a plank. Although they did say that the Navy did not participate in the "walking the plank" but there actually were some pirates that did. Here is Jon at the end and Taegen trying to make his way down to him. 

 Grandma, Taegen and Grandpa walking the plank.

 Grandma turned around once she realized it was hanging over the edge of the ship with nothing but water underneath them. So here are the brave boys that made it to the end of the plank. 

 Grandpa and Taegs

 The ship was nicknamed "The Blue Ghost" and here's why. 

The anchor

 Huge gun

 Taegs sitting in a small airplane. There were a few of these specifically for picture taking and he loved them. He made sure he got to sit in all of them. 

 I've got my own Blue Angel :)

 waiting his turn to go up the super steep stairs

 up on the flight deck. It was HUGE up there. It was big enough to park 1000 cars on it

 grandma and Taegs in the captains chair

 This is the type of plane is grandpa probably flew. They don't really know for sure but by reading the descriptions of all of them this is the main one that was in operation during his tour.

Grandpa Evertsen was on the ship when it got bombed and the only reason he was saved is because he jumped under the huge gun thing (can't remember the actual name of it). The guy behind/next to him ended up taking all the shrapnel. Grandpa E had bad hearing, part of which was hereditary, but also in part because of the bombing.

 This ship had an escalator! It wasnt working though. At first I thought they added it for the tours, but they didn't. It was added in the 40's.

Grandma, the kids and I got tired of the ship so we skipped out on the remaining tours and went and played in the ocean. This was Taegens first time in the ocean. 

 Not the best family picture, but it's all we got. 

 gma with the kiddos

 mommy, Ellie and Taegs.

 The water was so nice, temperature wise. It was a little murky looking but not enough to stop us from getting in. We had so much fun. Taegen rode on Jon's back when we went out beyond the crashing point of the waves. 

 And when he had had enough this is what he did :)

 It was a two hour drive to get there but both of the kids did pretty good. We did have to stop once on the way there, but that was mainly because of a slight truck problem. I then used that time to feed Ellie, so everyone got out and T had a little fun running around. 

 95% of the time this is how he gets his shoes on. One the wrong feet and at least one foot, if not both, have the toe thing inbetween the wrong toes. 

 Taegen will wear daddys hat every chance he gets. He loves being a soldier

 And this is him saluting. He actually put on the hat, looked and grandpa and saluted all on his own. I thought it was so cute I made him do it again for me. We've tried to correct the direction his hand faces, but he can't seem to figure that out. So for now his salute is a palm out instead of palm down. 

 We found E some sunglasses too. 

 Oh look, here's some pictures out of order. It's late so i'm not going to fix them. But here's Taegs in front of one of the planes they had below deck of the ship.

 and here he is with grandma in another one of those small half planes made for taking pictures in. 

 Seriously these are the best pictures. You should enlarge them if you can to see Taegens face. Classic. He was having so much fun. Grandma was lifting him up whenever the wave would come.