Matt's in-laws recently moved to San Antonio. So when Matt and Kayla recently came to visit they asked if we wanted to meet up somewhere. Everything worked out perfectly to spent a quick weekend together in Houston in mid- April. Houston wasn't necessarily in the middle of us, but was about 4 hours for both of us, and a city we both wanted to visit.
It started a bit rough. Hyrum got out of work early, we had a decent drive, but it turns out the Airbnb we rented wasn't ready for us! It took hours to get everything figured out, but apparently the cleaning lady was in the hospital and nobody cleaned or prepared the house since the last guest. One of the co-owners came over and hurried to clean everything. Once that happened, the house looked much nicer and we were happy to stay. (They gave us a discount to keep us from going to a hotel instead, which was looking pretty tempting.) It was nice having a common space to play with the baby in the mornings, and for Kayla's parents to be able to 'watch' all the kids after bedtime while the rest of us went on adventures that usually involved food.
Our first night we went out for frozen yogurt, but missed a freeway exit which turned into blocked roads and construction. We made it through a less desireable area and finally found frozen yogurt. Our second night we went for donuts, and also a long grocery store stop to buy food for Sunday. (Apparently the other adults weren't wild about the sugary breakfast cereal options I brought... go figure)
But Baby Jimmy (aka James to everyone except my kids) was the highlight of the trip. My girls kept repeating, "He's so cute!" And he certainly does more now than the last time they saw him at Christmas: he rolls, grabs things, smiles, chews on your hand, etc.
The main attraction was the Space Center. Tiago has been reading books in preparation, and I think he enjoyed seeing the Saturn V in person. We weren't as impressed with the overall museum as we hoped to be. It's quite expensive, and super popular, but it felt a little dated. Like maybe 20 years ago it was really cutting edge? We took a ride through the campus of NASA and saw all the work buildings, then the development area for the Space Station, and then to see Saturn V. That was awesome-- it's ridiculously large. The kids kept saying they were hungry/thirsty, so when we finally made it to the cafeteria at lunch time they were thrilled. They were rewarded with Dippin Dots ice cream for being on their best behavior. (ie: no major meltdowns with the exception of Siena who lost it big time for about 15 minutes but then recovered.)
After lunch, we split up. Matt's group went to an adult science museum downtown and we took the kids to the Childrens Museum. (Our Perot Museum pass here in Dallas got us free entrance to the Space Center and Childrens Museum. That was awesome!) The kids had a blast, and it was nice to let them run wild without any expectations or constraints.
We ate pizza back at the house. Here we are using Mila as a pillow. The kids got to play more with their cousin before bedtime, and they crashed after a busy, exhausting day. (Then it was off for donuts.)
Sunday morning we hung around for a few more house playing. The baby was up long before his parents, so while they slept we had good company. (Kayla's parents were also staying in the house, so they were actually the more responsible adults taking care of the baby.) But then we drove off, went to a nearby ward, and made it the rest of the way home. The best feeling was having all the suitcases unpacked and stored, laundry sorted and starting the first load, as if the trip hadn't happened at all. We relaxed for a few hours before starting a new week.
We probably won't go back to Houston, but we'd like to visit nearby Galveston sometime to visit the beach.
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