Houston Trip: Day 6

During this day, the kids and I went over to Hermann Park during the day to play on the playground and check things out. We were really impressed and decided that Ross had to see it later that day. We went back to the hotel and got some dinner ready (YUMMY pulled pork sandwiches, and then  took Daddy over to the park to stroll and enjoy things.

We got these pictures on the camera before it died, and some more on Ross's phone, but I don't know how to upload those just yet.

 We had seen the splash pad there earlier that day, so the kids came prepared to enjoy it.

 Ross told Jack if he caught a duck, we would keep it. He got pretty close a couple of times...

There was a whole family of muskrats in the pond. The girls loved the little babies.
This was such a fun evening with the family. We will be doing this again before we leave so that we can see the bits we missed.

Houston Trip: Day 5

On Sunday, Ross woke me up with a re-heated Cinnabon. It was the only thing I requested for Mother's Day, and it was lovely. We all got dressed and headed over to Sophia's ward building for church. Emma went with Cameron and Sara went with Liliana. Even though those classes were a year below them, we felt that was the best way to help them not be too shy. Jack went to Nursery by himself just fine, which was a relief. Luke played around in the Cultural Hall with another little buddy while I actually got to sit and enjoy a Gospel Doctrine lesson that I didn't have to sweat through. Lately I have either been teaching or helping in the Primary, so this was an excellent break.

After church we went back to the hotel to change and do some laundry and then went over to Sophia's house where we had an excellent dinner with Sophia's family, Brian's parents, and the missionaries. It was a really great meal with wonderful conversation. Brian's dad is the Houston temple president, and one of the missionaries was going home in a few days. He had some personal questions to ask, and President Crane had some really excellent responses for him. President Crane had also been to Chile on his mission, so he and Ross had a lot to talk about.

When the missionaries and Brian's parents had left, Brian was kind enough to give me a much needed back adjustment. That long drive really messed some things up, and he offered to use his physical therapy skills to help me out. That was probably the best Mother's Day present I got, and it helped a lot.

It was another low key day, but was so good. I am so grateful for the time I am getting with Sophia and her cute family. I love her so much, and this has been a good reminder of just why it was so fun to live with her and why we have worked so hard to stay in touch over the years.

These are the only pictures I got, bus shows how much my kids like their kids.

Houston Trip: Day 4

 This was our first Saturday with Ross, so we tried to really make it special. We started out the day at Golden Coral for some breakfast, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, but oh well. We then headed out to play at NASA for a bit. This was really cool! We had some half off coupons to get in, and we enjoyed all the different displays they had there.

 This guy was not interested in a presentation about life in space, so while we sat and learned, he crawled over to this display to be cute and playful.

 This woman taught us a lot about the different aspects of living in space that most people don't think about. The girls were grossed out by the fact that they don't shower and that recycled water means they drink their own pee. I don't think we have any budding astronauts in our family. It was interesting to hear some of the amazing medical technologies and discoveries that are coming from the zero gravity labs on the International Space Station.

 Emma thought these mirrors were hilarious. The scales and mirrors showed what you would look like and weigh on different planets with their gravitational pulls.

 This was to show what 10 pounds feels like on different planets.

 Ross proved that he would have been very useful in the Rebel Alliance.

 There was an awesome display about Felix Baumgartner who did the space free fall a while back. It was really neat. The video they of the event was pretty spectacular!

There was a huge play ground with an Angry Birds theme that the kids could shoot little foam balls around. Emma loved that, and it was hard to get her out of there after that discovery.

After we had seen everything at NASA, we grabbed a bucket of fried chicken and corn from Church's, and then headed to Galveston to play on the beach. I love the beach! The day was perfect and the water was warm. Everything seems to be better when I am at the beach. It was a perfect way to spend the day.

 There was a family leaving that stopped by our little blanket and gave us this bag of beach toys saying that they only make it to the beach every few years and by the next time they came out, their kids would be too old for the toys. It was so sweet. Texas people are so nice!

We put Jack on the task of gathering driftwood for my dad.

 Sara called these penguin seagulls which made me laugh. Ross liked throwing pieces of chicken out to watch them attack each other and be all cannibalistic. He's a little bit twisted that way...

 This face of total despair is from Jack getting wet. At the beach. Tragic, I tell you!

When everyone was done with the beach except me, (I could still be there now and not be done with it) we headed back to the hotel to get showered up. We grabbed a pizza for dinner and a box of Cinnabon for breakfast the next day- which was Mother's Day. Nobody had trouble falling asleep that night.