Houston-there was no problem

Ella had her first ever Spring Break last week. We live in the Spring Break destination of South Texas so I decided to avoid the beaches and head to Houston. Chris had to work so it was just the kids and me. Here is what we did:

We drove up to Houston on Wednesday. Amazingly we had to make zero stops on the three hour drive but did have to rush to a restroom as soon as we arrived. We then went to the Houston Zoo.

While at the zoo I reminisced on the past zoos of my life. The Utah Hogle zoo was remembered when we found this:

I have many memories of my mother taking me to that zoo. These memories involve this type of lion drinking fountain and the homemade popcorn my mom brought for us to snack on. I also remember pretending to be a Prairie Dog. Like this:



Next I thought of the St. Louis zoo. I loved that zoo. It was free. Also, it introduced me to my favorite animal:

The Okapi

I was happy to discover that the Houston zoo has Okapis. I was excited to show them to my children.


Finally, I remembered the Tucson zoo. Ah, the Tucson zoo. It is so simple and perfect. No excessive walking between the animals; they are all perfectly spaced so my kids don't get too bored or tired. In fact, you can spend an hour there and see everything. Perfect for a family of young children. This picture reminded me of the Tucson zoo because we loved to pose like the flamingos there:

I know Rhys isn't posing like a flamingo, but he did look at them so that counts.

Here is another picture of the Houston zoo:

Don't get scared, it's Ella and Eli.

After the zoo we played at the park, which I found out was funner than the zoo. Hmmmm.

Okay. On to the next adventure.

We spent the night at Days Inn and woke up ready to go to....

Space Center Houston!

Eli was super excited to go see a REAL Rocket Ship. And the wasn't disappointed. The first think we did (after loosing and finding Eli) was to take a tour of the actual NASA astronaut training facilities.

Here we are looking in at the simulation room. Everything in it is fake, but made to help train astronauts.

After the training facilities we were taken to Rocket Park were we saw the actual Mercury 4 rocket ship.

Back in the Space center we went to the Starship Gallery. Here we saw moon rocks and...

the Apollo 17 Command Module

And Astronauts! Well, statues of them anyway.

Next we decided to go to the children's play area. We promptly lost Eli (yes, again) and found him. After playing for a while it was time to drive home.

Spring Break sure was fun!

Happy to Eli

My Eli man is turning four!

We had his birthday party on Saturday. He was in heaven. For the two months leading up to his birthday he has planned his party. He kept choosing presents at the store he wanted and requesting different birthday cakes and party ideas.

In the end he requested a rocket ship birthday cake with chocolate frosting: (notice the sprinkles at the bottom of the rocket--they are fire from the blast off.)

Rhys discovered that he loves cake with chocolate frosting:

For Eli's party we went to Funtrackers with a family of friends. (We are so happy that this family has several children Eli enjoys playing with.) Funtrackers has an arcade the kids played in. But the real fun was the go carts!

This was my first time on go carts. It was Rhys' first time too. It is also the first time he hammed it up for a photo. I love it.
Ella was lucky enough to ride in her own go cart. She was scared at first, but ended up loving it.

Eli and Chris went FAST! Nobody passed them on the track.
They were so fast that Eli won the "Piston Cup." I made this for him ahead of time (he has been asking for one for about a year now.) Chris let me know that he has never seen Eli so happy as he was when he got his Piston Cup. It was a make-me-feel-like-a-good-mom moment.
Happy Birthday Eli!

The little one

My little Rhys. He loves me. He is very sad if I leave him and would love for me to hold him all the time. He loves balls and sword fighting Eli. He loves being outside. And he loves his stuffed elephant.

Rhys also gets into a lot of trouble...books thrown from bookshelves, food removed from pantry, knives removed from drawer (that has been taken care of now) and toothbrushes in the toilet.

Rhys can say a few words now. He says mama, dada, lala (Ella), Ba (ball), dah (door), makes the elephant sound, and a panting sound for dog.

He loves shoes. He tries to walk around in everyone's shoes. He is most successful with Eli's since those aren't quite so ginormous on him. Here he is in mine...



Rhys loves his trike. He can barely reach the pedals so he mostly scooches around Flinstone style.
Rhys loves riding the rocking horse in our backyard. He can get on and off on his own.


As the third child Rhys thinks he can do what he sees his older siblings do. I am surprised we haven't had to go to the ER yet. Here he is climbing at a playground...
And here he is on a big kid swing (Ella is pushing him). May I remind you he is only 16 months old.

He may try to grow up fast, but he is still my baby. I still carry him in the Mei Tai carrier I made.
I love my little Rhys.

My little man

Eli is my runner. He loves to run and jump and sword fight. He loves playing with his action figures, particularly Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Spiderman, Mr. Incredible, his Bublebee transformer, and Emperor Zurg (He calls him "Emper Berzurg" and Ella calls him "Angry Berzurg"). Eli likes to be read to, and loves going to the library. He goes to gymnastics and goes to a parent at-home preschool I have set up with three other moms.

We go to the park a lot. It didn't take long after Ella started doing the monkey bars for Eli to tackle them too. Only he's not tall enough to reach them from the ladder so he needs help up onto them before he can go across.


We play at the school playground almost everyday after school when we pick Ella up.

Eli loves craft projects. Here is one he did at preschool recently. Notice his name at the bottom. I love how he writes his E's.
I love my little Eli man.

My oldest child

Ella is my big helper. She loves her brothers and plays with them all the time. She will push Rhys on the swing and read to Eli. She loves kindergarten, especially recess. Ella takes gymnastics and plays soccer.

Her current love is doing the monkey bars:

Ella is my little author. She has written and illustrated multiple books. Here is a school assignment she did that I enjoyed:

"When I am 100...I will be big and strong and I will be a farmer and I will be in a big house and will need very very big clothes and I will be happy."

Ella is an artist. Here is a painting she did at school:

I have the pleasure of being Ella's soccer coach. We are the "Stars". It sure was windy and cold when this picture was taken...
I love my oldest child.

Museums

We love to go to museums. There are three really great ones here in South Texas.

The Science and History Museum has dinosaurs, sea shells, snakes, geodes, and a children's play area.

Here are my kiddos pretending to be bats:

The Texas State Aquarium is awesome. In the Summer they have a splash pad that we all enjoy. They have a dolphin show, a Sting Ray pet tank, a jelly fish exhibit and sharks. Eli loves the touch tank where he can hold Hermit Crabs and Sea Urchins.

Eli is showing off the Sea Urchin he picked up.

Here Eli is swimming and Ella is relaxing on the beach. (Don't get too confused, it's a mural on the wall of the museum.)

Our all time favorite is the Lexington museum. It is the actual USS Lexington. We love going through the ship and seeing what the Navy sailors used to do and how they lived. We love the history and we love the planes up on the fight deck.

While I'm at it

My last post was about how much I love my husband. Well, while I'm at it I want to show you another reason I love this man: He plays pirates with my kids.

(Chris made them wooden swords.)

My Valentine

Having been married for almost ten years now I find it thrilling that I am finding new ways to love my husband.

For starters he has a beard. Odd. I have always detested facial hair (and so has he.) He grew his annual December beard this past Winter and I found myself really liking it. It gave him a rustic mountain man appeal that was (sorry if this grosses you out) very sexy to me. When he shaved it off in January the kids complained, and I mentioned that I had kind of enjoyed it too, so he grew it back. Now I have a bearded husband and I love it. hmmm.

My second example may come as a surprise to you--especially if you know my husband at all. Chris is now a runner. Since we met he has hated running and I have loved running. I had long since accepted that this was one activity we would never share. Then I read a book (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall) and loved it so much that I made Chris read it. The day after he finished reading the book he bought us each a pair of Vibram five finger running shoes. He has been running regularly ever since. There is something (here I go again) extremely sexy about my husband running.

For my Valentine's present Chris consented to run in the Corpus Christi Cupid Chase 5k with me. I was giddy with excitement because (1)we had never run together, (2)I usually run these little races solo, and (3)we got matching race shirts that announced on the back that we are unavailable.

Here we are before the race. I'm trying to show the "unavailable" on the back of the shirt.

We ran the 5k at a 9 1/2 minute mile pace. Chris beat me by five seconds.