Ashley Mashley

Every year my paternal grandma rents out a beach house in Galveston for three nights. It’s our way of spending time with family and getting our much needed rest and relaxation. We all gathered at the house for this year, Sea Perch. In the beachside house, near Jamaica Beach, eleven of us came together. Our days there revolve around sleeping, eating and relaxing.

Friday night, me and my cousin were one of the last to show up around 5 pm. Family was already in the kitchen getting the burgers ready for that evening. It’s always self-serve so we began to line up to get our cheesy-gooey burger goodness! After we all devoured that and a sneaky little piece of cheesecake, we decided to play games. My grandma had forgotten to make her awesome fudge and cookies; it’s one of my favorite parts of the weekend! They later made chocolate cake but it just couldn’t compare to her usual homemade goodies. I had forgotten something as well–Apples to Apples–a word association game. Instead, we played Mexican Train, playing with double-twelve dominoes. For the first time ever, we completed it from start to finish with all the original people.

Saturday, we woke up and started all over again. I was the last one up. Heated up some breakfast and headed for a run on the beach. Listened to my loud rock music in one ear and the waves crashing in the other, such a contradiction. I slowly jogged back to the house and got ready to take on the day. It was already time for lunch and everyone was making their sandwiches. We all chit-chatted and a couple hours later, most of us were down for a nap.

My dad and stepmom were the ones scheduled to make dinner for the night. We all went to the local michoacana (Mexican meat market for those of you that don’t know) and picked up pre-seasoned steak and chicken. My stepmom and grandma were making roasted veggies, rice and beans along with all the toppings for fajitas, while my dad was downstairs grilling. This is always, by far, one of my favorite nights at the beach house. Fajitas and frozen margaritas, what can beat that? We drank our margaritas and played dominoes until midnight.

Father’s day rolled around and I was upstairs in the loft when my dad and stepmom arose. I peeked into the living room as my stepmom gave my dad the present from the dogs. He opened the gift and there was a nice, big box of… dog biscuits! As he opened the box, hidden inside were Oreos and chocolate chip cookies. Yum. I went downstairs and wished my dad a happy father’s day and gave him my card. I’m not very close with my dad since my parents divorced when I was still a baby. I wish I had a better relationship with him, maybe one day I will.

That day, I decided I would go to the beach for a quick tanning session, especially since I have some of the palest legs. I took my tanner and baked on each side for 20 minutes. Let’s just say I missed some spots, mostly on my back, because I’m a little burnt. But overall, I have a nice golden glow. Again, we had our sandwiches and naps. There was not a cloud in the sky that day and most of the relaxation time was spent on the deck. As per our routine, Sunday night is the night we go out to eat. We all arrived at Casey’s on the seawall and sat in our same spots. We took pictures and watched the silly kids outside playing in the pool. On the ride home, I picked up ice cream and we all gathered at the table for the last time that weekend. We played Chicken Foot, another domino game, as I sipped my beer. We laughed and cheated, looking at each other’s dominoes, all having a good time.

Monday is always clean-up day. We packed our lives back into our bags and headed down to Ihop. Since the wait was so long, we were split into the “kids table,” mind you I’m 24 years old, still sitting at a kids table. We quietly ate our breakfast, gave our hugs and said our good-byes. I don’t get to see my dad’s side of the family very often, so our yearly beach family weekend is always refreshing. Until Christmas my loves!