Once upon a time we went to Texas...

Spring break brought a welcome girls trip to the great state of Texas to visit Aunt Kimmy, Uncle Glenn and our sweet cousin Tate. I have a new respect for any mother who travels alone with there children because it would have been pure chaos if I didn't have Debi and McKenzie there to help me. Our flight was a big adventure...mostly due to our flight attendant Ursula. (Truly that was her name and you should have seen Mya's eyes when she announced it over the intercom, they were like saucers.) Ursula lived up to her name and was also lovingly dubbed the flight Nazi because she took her rules very seriously. We were seated at the very back of the plane with all the other children with Ursula in her little jump seat right between us. The girls and I were instructed to sit on the right side of the plane since that was the side with 3 oxygen masks. OK, so I get that this is important and all that jazz but throw a sleep deprived mom (I worked the night before and we had to be at the airport at 8am) a bone and let her travel companions help with her children. Oh no, Ursula wouldn't allow either of the girls to sit with Debi and Kenzie who were 2 feet away from me.

Mya snuck over for a little while while Ursula was busy with the beverage service but as soon as she spied her out of her designated place she was back and watched until we got her back where she was supposed to be. Ah, but we finally made it to the warmth and sunshine and we welcomed it with open arms.


We were lucky enough to be able to stay in Kim and Glenn's brand new house which they had only moved into a few days before we got there. It is absolutely beautiful, there was plenty of room for all of us and it is in a wonderful neighborhood. I was amazed a how they planned out all of their communities. Each one has multiple parks, pools, walking paths, well kept landscaping, really so well thought out.


We spent our first evening and a couple others at the duck pond near their home. It was a favorite of Mya's. I love this picture of McKenzie, she was chasing the ducks with the kids but would squeal and grimace when the ducks got anywhere near her. Tate on the other hand had no fear and would probably have tackled one if the opportunity had presented itself.

Also inhabiting this pretty little pond were a bunch of turtles and a large water/land dwelling rodent with beaver like front teeth.

Hangin' with Uncle Glenn

My favorite part of was all the baby ducklings. I just love the cute little fuzzy babies and it there were so many little 'families' of ducks it was a delight.

Kim was a wonderful hostess and showed us so many wonderful things to do in Houston. There were plenty that we didn't get to so I feel like I have a justified reason to make a return trip. We spend one day visiting the Houston Zoo. It was absolutely beautiful, very large, and all of the enclosures were very nice. Tate and Mya had a blast running after each other and looking at all the animals.

What zoo visit is complete without a bongo jam session?

A little wary of how close this 'old man' monkey is to the glass.

And just what you expect to meet next to the chimpanzees... a pot belly pig on a leash.

Her name was Petunia.

Apparently Sadie got a little bored and had to find some way to entertain herself while the bigger kids rode the carousel. Which by the way Mya is still terrified of, she'll ride pretty much anything in Disneyland but put her on a carousel and it is pure terror.

I thought this statue was really neat.

'Jellies' were a recurrent part of our trip; the zoo, the aquarium, washed up on the beach, Mya even woke up one morning yelling about the Jellies that stung her leg.

With Aunt Kenzie outside the Houston Aquarium.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the trip... we were trying to get Mya to touch the stingray and she looks up at Glenn and says 'I uh not pet dat!' She did however get a little more brave and pet the starfish.

These were Sadie's favorite part of the Aquarium, yes the aquarium has white tigers. They were beautiful and Sadie was just fascinated and stood there watching, and chattering at it as it paced back and forth.

After a our day at the Aquarium we headed out to Galveston to spend the weekend at the beach. Glenn was an awesome travel agent and found us a hotel room that was right across the street from the beach.

The old Downtown Galveston was very artsy and a lot of fun. I wish that the shops would have been open but they were closed pretty early. We did find a great little restaurant that had a fantastic pizza. We ate there both nights and both nights Kim and I shared the same pizza it was so delicious.

It was so much fun to watch these two sweet cousins play with each other. They had a couple run in's but really they were rare. One time they were playing up in the toy room and Mya pushed Tate for some reason and he looked at her and said with a quivering voice ' I say no thank you to pushing!'

Uncle Glenn and Tate-O

Kim lovingly dubbed this pic Tate's Sasquatch picture.

I adore this little man and loved every squeeze I forced him to give me.

Mya was a little beach bum, she never wanted to leave, the waves were not her favorite but the sand was her own little heaven.

Just wanting to be like aunt Kenzie

She pulled out her glasses and plopped down next to her to catch some rays.

Miss Sadie was less impressed with the wind and sand and didn't spend as much time with us.

This was Sadie's yoga position of the trip, 'downward facing dog'

After our get-away inside our get-away was over we headed back to Aunt Kimmy's house and spent the next few days swimming at their pool, enjoying morning walks, watching movies, and shopping! Kim introduced me to a delightful store called Sam Moon...wondrous bargains to be found and anything you could ever want bedazzled I'm sure you could find it. My favorite was the purse that was a combination of real tree camouflage, with a rhinestone cross on the front.

This Hippo became miss Sadie's dearest friend during the trip. She would speed crawl across the room to tackle it and then just lay on it.

Aunt Kim and Nanna taught Mya some fun new tricks that Mommy has had to learn how to do she loved them so much.

Sunday afternoon was spent enjoying sunshine, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and an amazing park!

Seriously why do we not have amazing parks like this in Utah? You would think the child population in Utah county alone would justify it.

This park was so much fun! It had so many interactive areas and it was built to accomidate children with disabilities so it was huge! The kiddo's ran until they couldn't run any more.

Thank you Aunt Kim, Uncle Glenn and Tate for letting us come visit you! It was a much needed retreat and we loved spending so much time with you. We love you and miss you! Mya keeps informing us that we need to go on a plane to Aunt Kim's house, it will be so fun!