ROAD TRIP!!

We started our last adventure of the summer with a road trip to Houston, TX.  We have always loved the museums in Houston, so we definitely wanted to see & do all the things Houston's museum district had to offer.  :)

We took advantage of the yummy restaurants & yogurt shops in Houston.  Yummy!

We visited Rice University--never too late to give them ideas on where they might go to college.  :)  Rice had a beautiful campus, and the kids enjoyed running around the campus after the drive to Houston.  While we were there we had to help out a former student of Rice with his car, a Prius, um . . . which had run out of gas.  Josh & I found a lot of humor in that.  :)

Karston loves to squeeze his sister--don't worry Kayden taking the picture won't take long.  :)

Our first museum stop was the Museum of Natural Science.  We enjoyed all the interesting information throughout the museum from dinosaur bones to mummies to chemistry!

Josh & the kids went to see the Shark 3-D Imax movie, and what did mom do?! . . . I went to the special Texas history exhibit, but they wouldn't let me take pictures in the exhibit.  The best part of the Texas exhibit was the 'come and take it' cannon.  It was about a foot and half long, and maybe as round as a bowl of cereal--pretty small.  The exhibit also had a lot of documents written by Stephen F. Austin, selling land in TX for $.50 an acre.  I purchased a copy of the declaration of independence TX style.  It was very interesting. 

Nothing like seeing a heat shield off the shuttle being heated really, really hot, but when we touched the back side it was cold.  Go NASA!

Our next stop was the Downtown Aquarium . . . we got to touch sting rays and look at lots and lots of fish.

goofy faces . . . like father, like daughter!  :)

Third stop, the Space Center Houston . . . (of course)!  :)

I didn't get to see the Saturn V rocket during my week stay at NASA, so I was very excited to see it.

I love NASA, but when we asked Kayden to smile in the above picture-the 100 degree weather had gotten to her.

Touching moon rock . . . 

admiring Robonaut . . .

What was the best part of the Space Center Houston for Kayden?!--the McDonalds right outside the gates.  :)

We went to Kemah too!  Kayden & I rode the big ferris wheel.  Cameron, Karston, & Dad rode the swings.

We made it to the Galleria too.  :)  Cameron LOVES to ice skate, so Karston & Cam gave it a whirl.  They had fun, except for the huge blisters they got, but Cameron said it was worth it.  While the two older kids ice skated, Kayden tried on some boots.  :)

A Komodo Dragon--Karston's very FAVORITE animal.  He did a report on this big reptile for school, so he was very excited to see it at the Houston Zoo!  He knows everything about this animal.  We love our Karston.

The Houston Zoo was awesome!  I hadn't been there in a long time, and they had really made some neat changes.  All the animals seemed well cared for (which sometimes when you go to a zoo you just feel sorry for them), & there were lots of information via plaques and TVs where you could learn more about the animals, how they are cared for, and even watch them take a bath or eat.  If it wasn't 100 degrees outside, we could have stayed all day---definitely a must for a trip to Houston.  :)

Karston said the above family tree was us--two daughters & one son.  :)

(sorry)  but right now our kids love to laugh when they hear anything with the word 'poop', so of course this sign, the last bullet, was very humorous to our family  he-he  :)

Kayden had a stuffed animal--a ring tailed lemur, so it took us a little while, but we found one hiding out behind the log above.  :)

And of course, we had to jet over to Port Acres to see Josh's Dad & Mamaw Joyce which meant a ride to the donut shop.

The kids decided to stay behind, so Josh & I made the trek back to Corpus all by ourselves---we went the long way, and throughout the day the long way got longer and longer.  :(  Here we are on the ferry going toward Galveston.  We enjoyed each other's company, and now we are trying to think of things to do.  Our home is definitely boring without our kids around.

A statement which pretty much says it all, I LOVE MY FAMILY!  We have so much fun being together, exploring, talking, laughing, you name it . . . this is what I dreamed my family to be.  :)