We had a wonderful visit with my Mom. The big boys stayed with her every night for a sleepover and loved it. That was what they had been so looking forward to about visiting her. They were so well behaved and didn't bug anyone (Bubbe lives with Auntie C and Uncle D). Snuggle Puppy, Big Daddy and I stayed at a local hotel each night which was nice and quiet. Snuggle Puppy has discovered the joy of pushing the button on the elevator. He was so cute.
We did many fun things during our trip to the Houston area. In one day we squeezed in the Children's Museum of Houston and the Downtown Aquarium (where E and her sons Big B and Little B joined us). Both places were amazing. The aquarium has a train that drives through a shark tunnel. So cool.
The next day we went to the Johnson Space Center and it was amazing. For me this is a Bucket List item so for me this was the best part of the trip. We took a tram tour and saw one of the mission control rooms which was empty because they were not using it, they don't allow tours to see the mission control being used. They did have a video feed of another control room that was being used but there were only a few people in it because it was a weekend. Babalu and Rookie asked very good questions and the docent was very patient. We also learned about the Orion Project, NASA's mission to send people to Mars. MARS!!!!! OMG MARS!!!!! So excited to be able to follow this project. They will begin testing the vehicle this fall and in about 10 or so years actually reach Mars. It will be a 6 month trip to get there, about a year actually spend at Mars and 6 months back. That is a long mission. We also saw one of the Saturn V rockets. You can't imagine how amazing it is. It is huge and awe inspiring. Even Snuggle Puppy was fascinated with it... many minutes hearing "Look Mommy, rocket!". There were also other pretty neat things to see at the Space Center- films, galleries, demonstrations. It was great. I spent way too much on souvenirs but I was determined to buy the boys NASA tshirts and little toys (they choose small space shuttles... 2 Enterprise and 1 Atlantis) as well as 2 small birthday presents. Plus a freaking cool magnet. If we are ever in East Texas again we will go back to the Space Center (or maybe go out there just to go back, it was awesome).
We also visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science. I was pretty neat. They had a giant gallery full of fossils and models of dinosaur skeletons. It was pretty neat. All the boys loved that part. They also had exhibits of Ancient Egypt and Native Americans, African animals, Texas animal and jewels. There was a hands-on area in the basement that they boys enjoyed.
If you're wondering how we afforded to go to all of these things I'll tell you- we bought 5 of the Houston City Passes. We bought 3 adult passes (we bought one for my Mom so she could join us) and 2 kids (because Snuggle Puppy wasn't old enough for his own pass so we had to pay out of pocket for him at a couple of places). These saved us so much money.
Our drive home was fantastic. We managed to miss most of the traffic in Houston by using the HOV lane. We were able to spend about 4 hours visiting with my Uncle R in San Antonio which was great, he has never met the boys and had only met Michael once and that was more than 10 years ago. We also met our friend at a McDonald's. He was driving to Pensacola Florida for Navy stuff and we couldn't resist meeting up . We didn't have much time but it was still nice. Plus it gave the kids a change to stretch their legs. Overall the kids were so good on the way home and on the entire trip.
It feels so good to be home, 2 weeks is a long time. I have to go grocery shopping after breakfast (which I will make when I finish this post) because we don't have much food in the house. Tomorrow our normal routine starts again. Or maybe one more day off, it really was a long trip.
I had such an awesome time with the Boys!!! How soon can you come back?
ReplyDeleteOh Gawd, don't even want to think about it!
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