Day One in Houston!

So, we took a trip to Houston two weeks ago. Sheesh, I am so behind on blogging, and I am so out of order on this Houston trip. We decided to go down for the weekend to celebrate Todd's birthday with him. Lezlie made the trip with us, helped me immeasurably, paid for way too much, and helped make it such a fun weekend!!! We sure do love that Grommy!!!
We drove down on Friday morning at naptime. The drive was perfect! The boys slept for the first hour, were contentedly playing for the second hour. We stopped in Madisonville at Buckees. People are crazy about this place. It is a truck stop, but it is like the mother of all truckstops. HUGE!!! We bought some jerkey from the gigantic jerkey bar, but we went across the street for lunch at Old McDonalds. Then the boys slept for the next hour and were happy for the last hour. Laney was amazing the whole time even after her DVD player stopped working. She's so fabulous!
We got to the hotel and the kids had so so much fun playing around while we waited for Todd to meet us there. Laney was in heaven. There were so many places for her to pretend play with all "her kids." She is now including her brothers in the mix of "her kids," which I am loving. Today, she said, "Mommy I have two puppies......Miles and Sam."

Sam had the best time playing in the closet, which Laney was calling their house.
Laney paused all the playing to look out the window and look for Daddy.
YAY!!!! Daddy!!! We LOVE Daddy!!!




We were thinking about going to the zoo that afternoon, but Laney wanted to go to a park instead. We went to the greatest park ever. It was in Kingwood and was actually a collection of play areas connected by a path and surrounded by trails. I think that the trails connect lots of parks in Kingwood which is also cool. Maybe we can run them someday in the not too distant future.
We had to stop at the pink playground first for obvious reasons. Laney loved it.
Todd found an opportunity for Sam to showcase his dangling abilities!
Miles was happy to climb with Grommy.

Laney took one glimpse at this see saw at one of the other play areas and was off and running.

She wasted no time jumping right on and flying up and down while Todd bounced on the other side.

The boys got to partake in some swinging while Laney see'd and sawed.
There is always room for one more in there!
This is out of order, but both of the brothers are turned around watching Laney and Todd on the see-saw. They were in complete awe of them!
Laney always loves to help push the boys in the swing. It is actually one of her favorite park activities.
Of course she never turns down the chance to be the pushee rather than the pusher.

Gumball!!

After our the fun time that we had at the world's most amazing park, we went to dinner at a cute little Mexican food restaurant. There was a gumball machine with monster huge gumballs. Laney was so excited to put her quarter in and get a gumball out that was nearly the size of her head. (slight exaggeration, but seriously huge, right??)




She couldn't actually bite into it, and neither could I. Todd was able to crack it and Laney chewed on a few bites of it. The majority of it went into a pocket in the diaper bag where it stayed until I found it several days later. Awesome.

Happy Birthday Todd!

Todd got back from tearing stuff down at church right about when the boys woke up from their nap. So, we commenced the mini-birthday party right away!
Laney delivered his card to him that was "signed" by each kiddo by way of their handprints.
And Laney was finally able to give Todd the gift that she picked out for "him." As you can see, there was an ulterior motive in Laney's gift giving. Luckily, Todd's birthday fell on a day that she was allowed to have milk (allergies) so she was able to share Todd's gift with him.


Thanks to Grommy, we even got a family picture of the awesome celebration!

Discovery Green!

On Sunday afternoon, after we celebrated Todd's birthday with a little party in our hotel room, we made our way out to downtown to Discovery Green Park. I saw on the news that they had an exhibit displayed all around the park of these, "Cool Globes." They are each decorated to display some type of environmentally friendly theme. It was really fun and the park was absolutely awesome!!! It was right smack dab in the middle of downtown with a huge grassy area and surrounded by lots of trees with a path all around it. There were vendors all over the place and Laney was desperate for some ice cream...
We started off at this globe and showed Laney where Taiwan could be found. The other day, Jess picked Laney up for school on Claire's birthday. They were talking about the day that Claire was born and how Jess was waiting for her at the hospital. Jess told me that Laney said, "My mom got on a big airplane to come and get me!" I love that she is grasping some of her special story!

There was a dancing troop, or maybe they were martial artists, playing music and dancing in the middle of the green. They were lots of fun to watch.
And their music was fun to dance to!
And clap!



Heading back to the car, Sam was giving Todd some love from up high!

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Kemah Boardwalk!

I was going to do one long post on our visit to Houston last weekend for Todd's birthday, but it was becoming eternal so I am breaking it up. But now it is in the wrong order. So I am posting the last day first. More to come!

When we decided to go to Houston for the weekend, Todd started looking for fun things for us to do with the kids. Right away, he found this spot in South Houston (I think!) that was full of things that are very near and dear to our little 3 year old's heart. A choo choo train, a carousel, candy shops......it was perfect!
We headed out to the Kemah Boardwalk on Monday morning. The boys took a nap on the way and were ready to party once we got there.

Laney was super happy to run along the boardwalk with Todd chasing behind her. She really loves to play chase these days, and she really loves her daddy - so it was a pretty good combo.

There was all kinds of fun to be had just running up and down the boardwalk. We were blessed with beautiful weather yet again on the final day of our visit!


The ultimate source of excitement for Laney! When she saw this carousel, she went crazy with the thrill of it! We were on our way to the bathroom to go potty, and she immediately told me, "I don't have to go potty anymore. Let's go!!!"
Laney was so excited about climbing up the stairs to the top of the carousel!
Laney changed her mind at the last minute and went with the zebra instead of the seal.
I am not sure what this expression is about. Maybe Miles wanted a shot at the carousel.
After the carousel, we got to ride a train. The day was just getting better and better for Laney. These are all activities that she adores. Right before we got on the train, we were joined by Dolly!!! She lives very very close to this part of Houston, so she jumped in her car and joined us for the afternoon!! I am definitely looking forward to getting to spend more time with my sweet friend!
We chose a seat on the train right at the front, which proved to be a mistake. Laney hates loud noises and we were a little too close to the whistle for her liking.

We went to this restaurant on the boardwalk, I think it was called Sharkey's. They had this amazing three story high cylindrical aquarium right in the center of the restaurant. We got to sit right next to it and kind of away from any other patrons, which worked out nicely for my loud and mobile children!
They loved watching the fish swim by.
This giant green eel was Laney's "favorite!" I am not sure if it was because we were trying to stave off any anxiety she might have had towards it by going on and on about how beautiful it was.
She bought into it. It was her favorite for the rest of our stay.
Miles loves to talk on the phone. He prefers actual phones, but he will use just about anything. I look over at him and he is holding up some random object, like a flip flop, up to his ear. Silly boy.


Laney and the boys spent the whole second half of our lunch standing at the aquarium watching the fish swim by.
Miles was the least reserved of the bunch. He might have just dove right on in if he had been able. The whole experience made Sam a little nervous. If the fish swam right up close to him through the glass, he would start to cry.

This picture is hysterical to me because I think that it looks like Miles is giving this huge fish a giant Miles-style kiss. Only if it were really Miles-style, it would have ended in a painful bite. He loves to give kisses, but I am pretty sure he thinks that they are supposed to be topped off with a bite. When I yank him away and tell him no, he just laughs and smiles. Bad news!