Houston

Is it ridiculous that Brian and I just realized that "Houston, we have a problem" is because NASA is in Houston? Yes, come on, be honest.....it IS ridiculous. Well, we've finally visited and loved every second of it. People who say Dallas and Houston are totally different couldn't be more correct. It's like visiting a different state with the same Texas pride.

We headed down for the 4th of July on the 4th of July. In by 11, swimming by 1 and happy the whole time (except Hailey who screamed bloody murder all day resulting in an ER visit .....only because we were out of town and the ER was the only option if she did have an ear infection. Nothing was wrong with her apparently, so we got her some gripe water, let her pass tons of gas, and put her to bed.) I was so incredibly excited to watch fireworks that night, but Houston rain...ahem...I mean monsoon got in the way and we saw one bright green one on our way home from the ER. Happy fourth. Luckily all of our cousin play time made up for any inconvenience and we enjoyed ourselves 100 percent.

I feel VERY proud to have snapped a few pictures of Mary while I was down there! 

 If Miss Hailey was outside and distracted, then she was happy (mostly).

 Puddle jumpers....so much better than a life jacket. My kids learned to float. 

Everyone at the pool. 

Saturday was complete heaven. We headed down to Galveston to enjoy the beach. I previously told Claire that whales, fish, and sharks live in Oceans and she was very concerned about the sharks. I think she forgot about them the second her toes touched the sand. I'm glad. I didn't want her to spend the entire time climbing on my head because of her fear of sharks. Why would she be on my head, you ask? Because she did that when she was deathly afraid of alligators. It was very traumatic for her and apparently my head was the safest place from the ground. When she's older we'll go over how she should have chosen something taller than 61 inches to climb on. 

Anyway, we built sand castles, jumped over waves, swallowed gross salty water, played in stinky seaweed, and fell in love with one of God's greatest creations. Claire even put her swimsuit on this morning and told me that she was ready for the ocean. I think she may have been a little disappointed when I handed her the hose and told her to fill up her pool. Other than that, we just played and played with cousins (and Jeff and Mary for us boring adults), watched a ridiculously funny episode of Psych, ate too much ice cream, and relaxed. I'm not ready to be home yet. Let's go back to HOUSTON!!!!

Beware: picture splatter. Those grandparents have to have their pictures. :)

Gosh, I love the beach!

 These girls were inseparable. 

Hailey chillaxin' with her mohawk. 

aww.... 

favorite picture 

 This is kind of a funny series of pictures. He first tried the fruit snack and apparently thought it was too hot, so he blew on it, and then slowly ate it. 

Eating what he eats best.