Thank you all for the great responses, I really appreciate your help! I'm sure I will have lots of questions between now and next summer, so bear with me.
NotDeadYet - I love Texas, but I hate the beaches! I am a beach snob who loves blue/green water, so the brown stuff in Port A and South Padre Island just don't cut it for me! My kids however love the beach so every summer we make the trek and rent a beach house. We all have fun, but I really want my kids to experience a different kind of beach.
Ronna - this is quite the coincidence, because I have already been on VRBO and yours is one of the rentals I have bookmarked! I especially like that it can be rented by the night instead of weekly like most of the rentals. Although, if I get my way (and I often do ;-)) we'll be staying for a week anyway. I was concerned about crossing 30A to get to the beach though. In fact that was one of the questions I was going to ask. The rentals on the north side of 30A seem to be a little less exspensive but I'm wondering how big of a hassle it is to cross 30A. Also, how far of a walk is it? We do have a budget we want to stick to and there will be some trade offs that need to be made. For example, do we stay on the beach side and not eat out as much and get a few less souvenirs or do we stay on the north side, eat out more and go hog wild with the souvenirs? Delimas, delimas, delimas.