Houston Trip: Day 14

The main event for this day was the Children's Museum. Sophia was kind enough to share a free pass with us, so we were able to get in with only paying for parking. Not a bad deal! It was a lot of fun. these pictures are all out of order, but you get the idea. Fun was had by all, and we only lost a child twice while we were there, so not bad if you ask me.

 Puppet Shows

 Platforms and nets. The kids loved racing up and down these towers. This is, however, where we lost the children at one point. Sara and Lilianna both took turns panicking us. Nice of them, no?

 Face painting. This is the first thing we did. They painted themselves and did a great job.

 I like Jack's beard...

 Emma spent the majority of her time here in this little pretend Vet Shop. There was a whole city there with a store, art school, bank, police station, restaurant, and lots of other things I am forgetting. They have done a really good job at this museum. I was almost as amazed as the kids.

 We played with these machines for a while when we were waiting for Sophia to get there. Each crank made something nifty happen. Very entertaining.

 I am glad I got a picture of that lovely painting because when we left I forgot to go back and get it. She did a lovely job. While Emma was hanging out at the vet shop, Sara was in here coloring and painting her little heart out. This one is going to be very artistic.

 Luke helped organize the fake produce. He is nice like that.

 

Sadly, Luke did not stay so happy. He got pretty grumpy. The poor thing was battling teeth and allergies the whole time we were in Houston, and by around noon he had reached his limit. We left the Cranes to enjoy the water toys while we headed back to the hotel to get some lunch and some much needed napping for this munchkin. When he woke up, he was much happier and the smiley boy we all know and love had returned, so we headed back to the museum until closing time and we tried to hit all the things we had missed when we left early.

 This included the fun science section. The kids liked all the fun experiments, but Emma was soaking up the most. I can see that she has a big interest in this kind of thing. She has a very curious and logical mind.

 We spent a LONG time over in the outside water area, which was fine by me. It was nice and shady and cool. Have I mentioned how much I did not like the TX humid heat?

 

 

 

 They ended their stay by touching up their face paint, and we headed back to the hotel to meet Daddy and tell him all about our fun day.

After regaling him of our adventures, he said he had a hankering for some more amazing Mexican food. We loved El Tiempo so much the first time that we decided to go there again, only we found a different location since the other one happened to be right next door to a strip club. The food was amazing, and we liked dining outdoors and listening to the gay couple next to our table fight about whose turn it was to pay for dinner. It sounds bad, but it all made us laugh, and they were very sweet and complimentary about our children. They thought the face paint was adorable.

It was a fun day, but I was so very tired by the time we finally got to bed.

Houston Trip: Day 13

This day started out over at Sophia's house. She had a dentist appointment, so I went over to let my kids have a grand old time at her house. They loved it. When she got back, we headed to the store, and then I went back to the hotel to rest for a while.

I had a migraine this day, so we just hunkered down in the hotel room while Ross was at work. When he came home, I was starting to feel a bit more human, so we made some dinner and then headed out to see one of the sights that we thought would be low key enough to not set off another headache. We saw the Wall of Water and walked around the Galleria Mall.

 The Wall of Water is basically a giant man-made waterfall in front of a park. It was really neat looking, and with the heat that I wasn't handling well (hello, migraine) I loved the misty coolness.

 Luke slept through the whole thing. He had a rough day as well. Poor little teething dude.

 I love these pictures of the kids. It shows their personalities so well. Emma being silly, Sara being sweet, and Jack looking for mischief to cause while still trying to be as close to me as possible.

 After this we headed over to the Galleria Mall which is HUGE. I am not a mall lover, so this wasn't my favorite thing ever, but we did see some cool stuff. There was an ice skating rink, and a really cool photo gallery with some amazingly stunning images.

The kids got a kick out of the décor at the Rainforest Café.

 That tree lady talked to Emma about being Earth friendly.

 To wrap up the night, Ross got a Cinnabon and had it cut into fourths so that the kids could all have a piece. He put them in separate boxes which the kids LOVED. Good thinking, Mr. Dad!

Houston Trip: Day 12

 This was a Sunday. We went to church with Sophia and Brian, and then they had us over for dinner again later that night. It was wonderful. Sausage, turkey burgers, and grilled pineapple. They spoiled us. After that we all headed to a musical fireside at their church building. It was really lovely. All the numbers were great and they had a lot of variety. One sister played a rendition of Amazing Grace on her French horn, and I cried all through it. I thanked her afterward and told her how special the sound of that instrument is to me because of Madison, and she hugged me and thanked me for sharing that with her. She had been nervous to perform and almost didn't come that night. She was grateful to hear that there was a reason she needed to follow through.

 The kids all got sugared up on cookies and played on the stage.

 Mr. Luke found something to play with. I guess he wanted to share some music as well.

 I am so grateful that I got to spend so much time with Sophia and her kids on this trip. I love her os much!

Houston Trip: Day 11

On Saturday I insisted on going to the beach again. There were other things we could have done, but I just really wanted to hit the sand again. We took Sophia and Brian's advice and headed to Surfside. These beaches are sandier and more family friendly than in Galveston. It was a good tip, and we had a great time.

 We saw this giant statue while driving back to the hotel, but I was too slow to catch it with the camera.

On the way to the beach I was driving and was going a touch (22 mph) too fast and was pulled over.  was really bummed about ruining my no ticket streak, but there as no need to be because he let me off with a warning! Bless you, TX sheriff! Ross was so mad! He hates that I can gloat about not ever getting a ticket and was kind of excited to see that record fall. He was, however, grateful that we had no fee to pay. When we got back to the hotel we all bathed and had a nice spaghetti dinner and watched a movie that none of the kids made it through awake. We really wore them all out with the sun and the waves and run-ins with the law.