playing Houston tourist.......

This morning, Chris had VBS play practice til about 1:00. The girls & I were sitting around doing nothing much more than watching tv & playing on the computer, so I decided we needed to do something more constructive.

I made a plan (somewhat anyway) and we headed to the Houston Arboretum with a text to Chris to meet us there when he was finished with practice. It was a pretty neat place; I want to go back & spend more time. Inside the Nature Center, Gracie & Katie enjoyed finding animals in the artificial tree and listening to information about the animals. Ellie enjoyed walking around and pushing buttons, etc.

I had packed a picnic, but one of the workers said they don't really have places for picnics, so we planned to eat somewhere else. Meanwhile, Chris called & said he would head that way which wouldn't take long at all from the church. The girls & I headed out to walk one of the trails. We had forgotten mosquito repellant, and they were swarming! I was also a little nervous of getting lost out there with 3 girls (one being 2 years old and a sloooow walker) or getting on a trail that was longer than we were prepared to walk. So...we just walked 1 trail and Chris was there when we finished it and the girls were hungry! I liked it but we just got a little taste of it today. I will plan to go back. I took a list of some classes; I know the girls would enjoy them!

We headed to a nearby park to have our picnic, but after driving the wrong way on a 1 way street (that wasn't clearly marked) and not knowing exactly where the picnic areas were (obviously) we decided to head to another place I'd been wanting to explore: Discovery Green, a park in the middle of Downtown Houston. We found it and found a place to park and finally got to have our picnic. We were ready. We were pleased to find that in the shade, it was really quite nice weather. Even later in the sun, there were some nice breezes that helped break up the heat.

Our view from our picnic bench. Gave us an idea for later in the day........

This sidewalk where we ate reminded us of a street in Aiken, 'South Boundary,' that is lined with Live Oaks.

When I was looking online at information about Discovery Green, I saw that they had one of those water areas, so I had the girls pack their swim suits just in case we found it and they wanted to play in it. Of course.......once we found it, they wanted to play in it! :)

Poor Ellie. With so many kids running around and how big of an area it was, we decided not to let her participate since one of us would need to be with her and we didn't want to get that wet. She watched & fussed.

Chris decided to take her for a walk with the hope that she would nap. Of course, she didn't. ;)

I've been hearing about Discovery Green and wanting to visit it. It was......okay. The girls had a great time playing in the water, and it was neat to see it and be downtown. However, like I told Chris, the girls can play in water in our own suburb where we don't have to pay for parking. :) I'm still glad we went though!

We went back to the Arboretum to pick up Chris' car then decided to be spontaneous and go to the Astros game! Why not, right?! We dropped off his car somewhere else so we could ride together and headed to the stadium. We got cheap seats ($7 seats!) and the kids are FREE! Of course, we had to pay for parking and pay for food....but at least the seats were cheap! They were high up in the stadium, but it really was a nice view. It was just the climb that was a bit bothersome! LOL

So fun to sing, "Deep in the Heart of Texas" during the 7th inning stretch.

Eating hot dogs before the game started.

then some ice cream & popcorn

Ellie was restless.....then she was OUT! :)

I thought it was funny to see people watching from a rooftop next door, outside the stadium.

Gracie, not being quite the sports enthusiast, enjoyed her time playing on her daddy's iPhone! :)

It was a fun day!

We plan to go back to see the Astros play the Cubs in a few weeks when my parents are here. My dad is a huge Cubs fan. I think Katie is already planning to be unloyal and root for the Cubs with her Pappy! Forgive her....she's young! :) (and that was the name of her softball team, so she has a shirt & visor already! LOL)

5 cousins visiting!

We enjoyed a nice visit from my brother & his family the past few days. They live in Nashville, so we don't get to see them as often as we'd like, so we were excited that they were driving to see us. Josh was doing some work in AL, so Beth & the girls drove down to meet him there and then drove over to Houston, arriving on Tuesday evening in time for a late dinner.

Tuesday, 6/29

They got here around 7, and we ate Spring Creek BBQ that I had picked up and brought home. Of course, within 30 seconds of them getting here, giggles & screams filled the house. He has 2 girls, ages 8 & 4, so you combine that with our 2, 6, & 9 year olds, you get a very girly time!

Katie & Morgan enjoyed playing school. Here, it's 'dress up time.'

Gracie & Ann Ellise in the 'secret room' under the stairs playing the DS.

4 little girls ready for bed....well, almost anyway!

Wednesday, 6/30

Our plan for Wednesday was orginally to spend the day at our neighborhood's water park. However, Hurricane Alex had plans that involved rain and the threat of rain, so we headed to the Children's Museum of Houston. It was crowded, but the kids had fun!

Morgan & Katie at the 'news desk.'

Ellie driving the 'police car.'

at the Children's Museum

That night, we met Chris for dinner at Lupe Tortilla, one of our favorites, and enjoyed fajitas before church. They are so good!

Thursday, 4/1

I went into work this morning while Josh & Beth watched the girls. Beth put them to work cleaning up a bit which was good since we were having additional company that night. Since the rain was still ruining any chance of spending time at the pools, we headed to the mall. Beth had brought Gracie's birthday present but soon decided it was going to be too big, so she returned it and let Gracie do a little shopping to choose some new things. She was thrilled to do this! Justice proved to be the place to find the goods!

We ate lunch at the mall and walked around a bit more, trying to waste time since it was pouring outside! We finally just had to go out in the rain because it didn't look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

We dropped Josh and the big girls off at the bowling alley while Beth, Ellie, & I went to HEB to get groceries for that evening. Some of our friends here were friends with them in Nashville, so we had them over for dinner, along with a friend whose family was out of town.

The girls had lots of fun performing their play, "Toy Story 4," and talked Blake into joining them as Andy. He wasn't thrilled, but he participated and did great! :)

Ellie was well entertained by Bradley. He is so sweet to her.

Beth & I met some friends later that night to see Eclipse. It was good!

Friday, 7/2

Unfortunately, Ellie had started acting like she didn't feel well during the day Thursday. I was hoping it was a fluke, but she was warm after being put to bed that night. She woke up warm, so Chris called to get an appointment and took her in. She had an ear infection due to a virus. She felt really bad, so he ended up staying home with her this day.

We had plans to go to the beach, but of course Hurricane Alex nixed that plan! We decided to head to NASA instead. We were a bit underwhelmed in it, to be honest. It was gray, rainy, and just kinda icky all day, so I think that probably added to the underwhelmingness of it all. I'm still glad we got to go and may try it again someday. I wish Chris & Ellie had been with us, but it really was probably better b/c we ended up getting so wet with the open tram tour we took!

We got to see an old Mission Control room.

We were so cold after being out in the rain and then walking into the air conditioned building.

The girls had fun being together, despite the rainy, gray day.

We drove back towards Katy in Friday afternoon traffic plus tons of rain and stopped at one of our favorite Katy Mexican places, La Finca. It's not as good as some of the others we like, but it is really good! We got take out for Chris since we didn't want to get Ellie out.

When we got home, the girls played and cleaned up in an effort to find everything Morgan & Ann Elise had brought inside so they wouldn't leave anything. They ended the night watching a movie and playing til we finally told them they had to go to bed!

I tried to get a good picture of all 5 of them. Notice that each picture has at least 1 girl doing something a little 'off!' LOL

I let Gracie take the camera into the playroom to take some pictures. She got some cute ones.

The girls said their good byes last night since they were leaving early this morning. Chris & I got up to say good bye around 5:30. Their goal is to make it home before dark. I'm anxious to see if it will happen. Based upon texts I've received from Josh, they're making good time so far!