Houston Day 3

On our third day in Houston, we headed to Galveston to go to the beach so N2 could see the ocean.  It was supposed to be the warmest day that we were in Houston but it was still a little cool and breezy to go swimming.  The kids didn't seem to mind until they had played for a while.  We started the day by going on the free ferry where we saw dolphins in the water.  N2 stayed out on the deck the whole time and Natalie even talked Brian into going to the bottom level where they get very wet as a big wave came up and soaked all the people at the front of the boat.  I didn't get a picture because that happened as soon as they got down to the first level.

Then it was beach time!  It was awesome to watch N2's first reaction to the water.  They both just ran around and around through the waves.  The ocean was definitely different for them than all the lakes the have gone swimming in.  Even though it was on the cooler side, my kids played in the water for a long time!  They really loved the ocean!

Amy's boys liked to run in the water and follow what Natalie and Noah were doing.

 They loved trying to jump over the waves and run away from the waves.  They also tried to body surf through the waves but were not very successful :)

Jaden and Cody got a little cold so Amy took them to play in the playground while N2 continued to splash around the ocean a little longer.  On the way back to Amy and Jason's home, most people took a nap (Natalie is awake in the back).

Thank you Amy, Jaden and Cody for going to the beach with us even though it was on the cool side!  We had a wonderful time showing N2 the ocean for the first time!

Houston Day 2

On the second day in Houston we stuck around the area where Amy lives.  Her multiples group was doing an outing at a strawberry picking place so we decided to go along.  We're used to hanging out with twins and we certainly can't pick strawberries in March in Chicago!  It was interesting to see how strawberry patches are set up in Houston.  The farm was packed in between houses and the plants were separated from the one next to it and much smaller than what we see up here.  Kids were very enthusiastic in their picking and we ended up with some that weren't quite ripe :)  We also had a lot of strawberries go in mouths instead of in the bags :)  It was a good time!

We went back to Amy's house and had lunch, play time and some reading time.  N2 read to Jaden and Cody which they seemed to really like!

While Jaden and Cody were taking a nap, we took N2 to Jaden and Cody's favorite park.  Once they were done napping, they joined us at the park.  N2 LOVED the zip line they had there as did Jaden and Cody.  Natalie could have played on that the whole time.  I think Noah did get bored of it and wanted other kids to play with him elsewhere but the other kids were happy to stay on the zip line.  They invented a game where the kid that was zip lining would try to bump into Noah and knock him off the tire.  That seemed to keep him occupied.

First day in Houston

For spring break we drove down to Houston to visit my cousins, Amy and Kim, and their families.  We have been wanting to visit them but haven't wanted to brave the heat and humidity of the summer.  We figured spring break would be a good time to go plus Brian and I had an extra day off (Easter Monday).  We stayed with Amy and her family first.  They have twin boys who are 3 but will be 4 in June.  Jaden and Cody loved Natalie. They always wanted to be holding Natalie's hand or playing with Natalie.  It was really cute.  Here they are playing together.

We decided to head to the zoo as my family loves visiting zoos.  Here's what we looked like walking in and various times throughout the zoo (Brian picked the right shirt for the day).  Natalie generally did a very good job keeping track of where Jaden and Cody went.  I think Cody liked holding Natalie's hand the best.  (Notice our attire-pants, shoes, short sleeve shirts and hoodies-that is what we wore most days in Houston-it didn't get warm until the weekend).

The Houston zoo has lots of cool animals although my kids did want to see the polar bears and penguins (can't imagine why the Houston zoo wouldn't have those!).  We did see quite a few elephants which is nice since we can't see elephants up here.

While we were looking at the cats we noticed some loud howling and went to investigate.  The gibbons were doing their twice daily territorial call.  It went on for quite some time.  Here's a brief snippet of what they sound like.  I have a longer video which is better but I didn't think you wanted to listen to almost a minute of it.

 The zoo had some nice things for kids to touch and play with.  One was a small African village with small huts and drums.  The kids really liked playing the drums.

 They have a nice Children's Zoo area.  Natalie, Jaden and Cody liked brushing the goats but Noah isn't huge on that so he and I went to see the Mongooses.  Noah wanted to see prairie dogs but they didn't have any so he had to settle for Mongooses and Meerkats.

Amy, Jaden and Cody headed back a little bit before we did since the boys generally have some rest time.  I think  they fell asleep in the car on the way back.  We really appreciated them staying out various times in the afternoon and forgoing nap time at home!  Brian, N2 and I went to see the rest of the animals at the zoo and then headed over to see the beach trash art exhibit.  It was neat to see what they made but it was sad to see how much trash they were able to uncover.

Texas Bluebonnets

When we were in Texas the bluebonnets were starting to bloom.  I've seen the beautiful pictures of kids in the bluebonnets so I figured I might as well try to get some.  We kind of ran out of time and this photo shoot was pretty spur of the moment.  My kids were sweaty, double doused with sunblock and not in the most ideal clothes but I tried to make the most of it.  The flowers were a little patchy and I'm not an experienced photographer of patchy bluebonnets so I don't think I got as many flowers in my pictures as I could have.  Oh well.  I do have to say that I got the best pictures of Noah that I have in a really long time!

Natalie was not as photogenic and cooperative as she normally as in pictures.

 Here are the two of them together.

At the end they really wanted to take some silly pictures.  Brian wants them to recreate the first picture in 30 years :)