Houston Zoo

We headed out Monday to the Houston Zoo. I am not sure I could have gotten there without my navigator and I am not sure I could get back!

I love zoos! Plus using my Nashville zoo membership, we got in free! And today the weather was perfect!

Outside they had a police officer on a horse. Ladybug had to go and pet her.




Sorry, I couldn't resist. I asked them to pose and this is the face I got.

Much better here. Too cute.

Hermann park is where the zoo is located and they have a huge area around it with the water fountain and a full golf course.


The sea lions. The kids loved them.

They sat and watched for the longest time.


They have a special dinosaur exhibit set up where the dinosaurs move and make noise.




Carousel ride. Batman ran to the big lion and...

Ladybug ran to the baby lion.

The petting farm area.


The children's area was actually very big. They had jungle gyms mixed in throughout the kids exhibits.

This is a picture from the children's area. As you can see, the zoo is right downtown. I think this was a hospital because I saw the helicopter take off from there once.

The prairie dogs.



Another view of how close the other buildings are.


The otters. I love otters. They are right up with in my top favorites with orangutans. And they were active today. What was even cooler was their enclosure was right beside the slides so when the kids were sliding the glass was on there right and the otters were playing right beside them.



Too funny.

The kids are inside a tube that you can crawl through with water all around them.

These were too cute and boy were they fast, running all over the place.

And we actually caught the sea lion show right before we left.



And so cool, a baby elephant.

I don't think we actually made it to the entire zoo but we covered most of it. Definitely somewhere we will visit again.

Texas bound!

The Lone Star State.

As we crossed the border into Texas we stopped at the welcome station.

The kids love daddy's helicopter and flew it the whole time!

Friday, Chris took the day off and we drove the area getting to know the neighborhoods. The kids really didn't have fun doing this. But we spent a few hours in the morning and a few hours in the afternoon and still didn't find all the neighborhoods! Cypress is pretty big.

We did try some new restaurants. The Kolache Factory serves what we call pigs in a blanket. That is all. Except they put different things inside the roll like sausage or cheese etc. They had all different kinds.

While driving around one of the neighborhoods had a park. We let the kids out to run.





BBQ for lunch. Neat place, they cut everything in front of you and plate it up.

Back for an afternoon swim (in between looking at neighborhoods).

The apartment complex has a great pool.


Then Saturday we met up with our realtor and looked at houses. A three hour block of time turned into seven hours. The kids didn't have as much fun as I thought they would but they were troopers. We found a house the would work and meet our needs. We are still waiting to see if it actually happens or not though.

Then Sunday we met up with some friends for lunch. They warmed up their hot tub which is attached to the pool and the kids went swimming. They had the best time and we enjoyed the company. Then we all took a walk around the ponds surrounding their house.

Then the rest of the week we took it easy. I made dinner at the apartment so that we could spend time at home after Chris got off. We got into a routine of taking a walk after dinner and walking the pathways at the apartment complex. The kids loved it and I think it will become a new tradition for us to start doing.

Wednesday we went back to the house we found and made an offer. The owners are not willing to negotiate so if they change their mind and accept our offer, my hope is to be there by Thanksgiving. If they don't then Chris is going to start looking for another house.


Daddy and the kids. Everyone had a great week and we were all sorry to see it end and have to separate again.

Driving and Visiting!

For a non conventional vacation during "Fall Break", we had best most relaxed time! The weather could not have been more perfect the entire time. The sun was out every day, not a drop of rain and nothing at all was rushed.

We headed out Wednesday right after school and drove to Hattiesburg, MS. Now the first day of driving was not the best. The kids whined the whole time. Not sure why but they did. I got a hotel, Batman was already asleep when we stopped, and Ladybug and I were shortly behind him.

Thursday we got up and met Mamaw and Papaw at McDonald's for breakfast. The kids had the best time. Batman had gotten two skateboards the day before and they rolled them on the seats for probably 30 minutes. Ladybug wanted to read a little for them as well.


Then we drove by daddy's and my's first house in Petal, MS. I don't think the kids were very impressed. Nice brick 2 bedroom 1200 sq. ft. house. I loved the $400 house payment we had!

Then back on the road. Kids were much better driving today. We drove about 8-9 hours. We got stuck in a motorcycle accident for about 30 minutes and then hit Houston during rush hour (or two hours) but we made it in plenty of time to hit McAlister's for dinner! Haven't had a spud max and sweet tea in several years.

On the way back, the kids were wonderful! There was not one bit of fussing, no complaining, the weather was perfect and the roads were clear.

We had an easy 8 hour drive to Jackson, MS on Friday and arrived in time to play outside with cousins and visit with Mamaw and Papaw. The kids ran for over three hours and didn't stop. They were so excited to see and play together.

They had to get the soccer goal out.




S said the soccer ball needed more air so Papaw got out the air compressor and the kids all had to watch. Too funny.


Mamaw and Papaw and their grand kids.

They colored for awhile.

They played K-nex.

The boys played cars or rather beat the cars up.

The girls had fun playing with this huge horse.

Mamaw had dinner for us that they kids loved and we had a great visit.

Then Saturday we headed out on our last leg of the journey. We made great time and got home about 4:30 that afternoon.

Nothing was rushed, everything fell into place and we were home in plenty of time to get rested and ready to start back to school.

A Great Way to Start Fall Break!

With a water balloon fight! The September reward for the first graders was for however many pelts (reward coupons they get for doing something good, right or nice) they get that number of water balloons to throw at the first grade teachers.

So on Wednesday, all the first grade classrooms lined up around the square blacktop on the playground armed with a wal-mart bag full of their appropriate number of water balloons.


Ladybug and her friend.

All the first grade teachers. A couple were decked out in rain gear. Mrs. Brown just wore her clothes (rather a change of clothes) and took the water like a champ.


And it begins. They began with anyone who had one balloon and they could stand up and throw them. Then if you had two balloons etc.

Jessica's teacher.

Mrs. Brown and this other teacher really got in to it. Any balloons that didn't get broken they fought to get them and throw it at each other. They really had fun with it.

She got Mrs. Brown in the back.

I was asked to video record the event so I gave Mrs. Lynn my camera to take pictures for me. She got one of me as I was covering my mouth saying Oh My Gosh! The teachers were really getting into it.

The kids had a really fun time with it and I think the teachers enjoyed it as well.

Batman even got into it. Mrs. Brown gave him a water balloon and then some of the girls so nicely gave him one. But he didn't want to throw them! He had at least four water balloons in a bag when we left and finally popped them when we got home.