Vacation Update

We had a great trip to Houston! We got to see and visit with family and play tourist, here are a few highlights....

Saturday, August 15...
We had a good flight from Chicago to Houston.... Emma had her own seat and was buckled up using the CARES system. She didn't really like it, but it was a safer for her to be buckled during take off and landing because she is a wiggle worm! Our friends at Southwest out did themselves and we arrived 30 minutes early! Hannah and Drew were at Mom and Dad's when we got there and Emma had fun playing with her big cousins. Rhonda, Chris, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Kim all came over too and we had a yummy dinner and great visit.

Sunday.... The Zoo and Herman Park
Mom, Dad, and we all went to the Houston Zoo and had a lot of fun. The primate exhibit has been redone since I was there last and it was really nice! The new exhibit is all outside, but there are tons of shady trees so that you aren't being cooked by the sun all day. Even though the primates are still in cages, you can get pretty close to them. Emma seemed to enjoy the exhibit, she was waving and saying "hi" and "bye bye" to all the animals as we walked through. We stopped for lunch by the duck pond. Mom remembered being able to feed the ducks on previous visits, so she got a bag of popcorn, and off we went to feed to ducks. After a few minutes and the ducks not seeming interested, we looked around and noticed that no one else was feeding the ducks and that's when we saw the sign about not feeding the animals. OOPS! Emma had gotten to try popcorn for the first time by the pond and she knew that Dad had the bag, so as we continued to walk around the zoo, she would look for Dad and go "Pop, Pop." I'm not sure if she was trying to say "Poppy" or "Popcorn," but her message was pretty clear... She wanted more popcorn!
After leaving the zoo, we headed over to Herman park for a train ride. We knew that Emma was starting to like trains, but this was her first time to ride one. During the ride itself, we weren't sure what she thought, but poor Emma cried when we had to get off the train.

Monday.... Palm Beach at Moody Gardens
Rhonda, Chris, Hannah, and Drew met us (and Mom) at Moody Gardens and we all went to Palm Beach area. It's $11 to get in, but it's worth every penny. The kids had fun running around the splash pad in the toddler area. Emma wasn't sure what to do at first, but once she saw Hannah and Drew running around she got it figured out. She was fascinated by the difference between the wet concrete and the sunny/dry concrete. It was really cute watching her trying to figure out what was going on. We also went over to one of the "big" pools. Emma didn't like having to wear her life vest, but had fun once she was in the water. It was fun for us too, the way the pool is designed, we were able to just hang out in the cool water. This is the way to go to the beach!

Tuesday... The Downtown Aquarium
The Aquarium wasn't exactly what I expected from looking at the website, but it was still fun. Mom had found BOGO coupons in the paper, so Mom, Dave, Emma, and I met Rhonda, Hannah and Drew out there. By having the coupons, we were able to get the whole "experience." We had fun walking through the aquarium exhibit and Emma even got to touch a small shark and a sting ray. She thought that was really cool and giggled when she touched them. We also took the Shark experience train ride and that was awesome! We took advantage of our experience passes and rode the Ferris wheel (Mom and Emma sat that one out) and Mom took Hannah and Drew on the carousel. I thought about taking Emma, but she hated the idea at the zoo earlier this summer, so we didn't try. After lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, we piled everyone but Rhonda into Mom's Highlander (3 adults and 3 kids including a car seat and booster seat were a tight fit) and headed back to Mom's while Rhonda went to the doctor.
The vet had to come check on some of the Alpacas, so Dad got home just after we did. The part of town Mom and Dad live in has needed rain all summer and they got a lot during the vet visit!! This resulted in the vet's truck getting stuck by the barn and Dad had to tow it out with the tractor, but the battery in the tractor had to get a jump from the lawn mower first... What a day for it to rain!!!

I need to get moving and get a few things done around the house. I will post an update on the rest of our trip soon.