A Big Day!

Eric really wanted to go see a Houston Astros game while we lived down here, so we got tickets for this past Sunday. They were playing the Cardinals, which is not only a great team, but is the home of Albert Pujols. Now, I don't care too much about sports, but I enjoy watching some things in person. I like baseball games, and have heard about the Cardinals and good ole Albert for years now.

We decided to make a day of it. We had a nice breakfast at home and then headed out around 9. We decided that since we were driving right by it, we should go check out the San Jacinto Monument. I knew Eric would like it since this monument celebrates a great victory in Texas history. This was where the major battle was that gave Texans our independence...kind of a big deal!

Plus this monument is 15 feet taller than the Washington Monument. It was really tall. Not a bad thing to go see when it's hot outside.

So tall...it's hard to see in any of my pictures, but the top has a cool star on it. It was designed where you can see 5 points no matter which direction you look at it from...
Sam Houston himself...
Now, as it turns out, I took a LOT of pictures of guns and knives. I guess when you have my Dad, and husband, you know what they would want to see...Dad, I will send you a large email soon. I took some close-ups of guns with beautifully carved handles JUST for you.
Go Texas!

When I tried to pose with the girls for pictures, they knocked me down. So we just all sat together for a few shots...

The Battleship Texas is located across the street too. I don't know all the history on this ship, but googled it quickly. It was pretty cool. Once again, I took pictures of all the large guns for Eric. :) He loved it!
My cuties decided to walk ahead of us, holding hands!!
Then we made it to downtown Houston for the afternoon game. First, we stopped at Wendy's for some lunch so the girls were full and happy!

Here is the stadium...
Now, we have a LONG zoom on our camera, since Eric bought it for his investigations work. The zoom came in handy for photographing license plates from far off. :) This zoom just meant I could take some fun pictures of the ball players from our seats. Here is Jason Castro practicing before the game...

Go Albert!! I mean, Astros! :) He he!
The dude stretching is a native Waco guy...Lance Berkman.
Albert again...
Eric was so excited that you could even see his goatee! Ha!
The awesome air-conditioned stadium...

The girls were sooooo excited that they got a free puppy for going to the game...it was even wearing an Astros scarf.
Lexi checking it out...
Lilly bug...she has a HUGE scratch down her left cheek from Lexi's fingers. However, I edited it out in a few pictures because it was so sad looking.
Watching some baseball...
Lexi got scared and cried every time the fans got loud...I love the way she snuggled with me and her new "baseball puppy", as they call it.

She looks too grown-up in this one...
Lilly...
By the bottom of the 8th, they were both sound asleep in our laps!
It was a fun day!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well we are winding down our summer adventure. I am really ready to be back home. I love our town! Eric is stressed with his crazy research projects. I have been a tiny bit stressed trying to entertain and teach these goobers while stuck inside from all the rain. We are getting more creative as time goes by.

Back home, our sub-letters informed us that the garbage disposal is broken...again! This means we are going to have to replace it when we get home. We had them try the reset button and several other things. I think it finally bit the dust. Boo!

The girls and I got to spend a day with Grandma Mary, who they loving started calling Grandma, instead of Oma. It makes them smile when they call her Grandma, and it's so cute! They adore her!! We played with toys, looked at sewing stuff, got some great ideas, and even played outside. What started out as a game of soccer, turned into a fun time in the sprinkler. Thankfully we played when we did, cause on the way home, we drove through some major storms. I HATE driving through a major downtown area in heavy rain. I couldn't see 5 feet in front of me for about 20 minutes...in downtown Houston! It stunk!

Anyways, we hope to spend more time with Grandma Mary. It is so much fun watching the girls get to know all their relatives. I love all of our family!!

Sunday is the highly anticipated Houston Astros vs. St. Louis Cardinals game, so there will be pictures from that, of course! Have a great day everyone!

Our 4th of July Celebrations!!

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our country and our independence! We did a couple of fun things every day. Friday was pretty nuts! I ended up at a vet clinic with a sick Sneezy around 3:30 pm. When I called the clinic, they said they could only see us if we went straight there. I suddenly had to get 2 napping toddlers, still in pj's, into the car with a sick dog. Oh, and did I mention my car was not parked close to the apartment, and it was raining? :)

The girls were SO well behaved the whole time and I was exhausted by 5:00, so we went out for some yummy burgers and fries at Novrozsky's!! If you are from the Beaumont area, you know how good our dinner was!!

We stayed out of the heat and relaxed some on Saturday. The girls enjoyed waving their flags around. They had to be taken away though, when they started trying to stick them in each other's ears. :)

My Lexi ham with her flag...

On Saturday afternoon, we briefly stopped at a church carnival and let the girls have their first pony ride. They LOVED this horse. The horse had actually been dumped in a field because he was technically a miniature horse but was actually 2 inches too tall to be registered. The man who took him in had only been working with him for 2 weeks, and let me tell you, this was the sweetest horse EVER!!

I love this look on Lilly's face...

Lexi was so excited that she cried when we told her she had to wait in line...
Then we just spent a lot more time playing with our flags that evening. The girls loved to wave them around and say, "Happy Birthday, America!"
Lexi...

On Sunday evening, we went to downtown Beaumont for their Independence Day Celebration. They had tons of stuff going on at Riverfront Park. We didn't want to be hot for the whole 4 hours, so we went a little late. We were hoping to see the skydivers but had no idea where we were going. Well, much to our surprise, we parked, got out of the car, walked about 50 yards, and noticed the plane overhead. We were there just in time, next to the drop zone!!! The girls had fun counting the skydivers. It was really cool watching them come all the way down and land perfectly without injury. :) The last diver had an American flag on his leg that fluttered beautifully behind him.

After watching that cool show, we walked over towards the river. The girls stopped a few times to dance to the music coming from all over. Here is Lilly checking it all out...

We took a break for a few minutes...
Next we headed over to a historic theater to watch the local Symphony play patriotic tunes. They stuck with American composers and it was a lot of fun! Lexi was curious about the whole theater scene.While the orchestra was warming up, the girls practiced waving their flags...AGAIN! :)
Some classic, giggly-girl time...a big smooch for the camera! Lilly got tickled and wouldn't stop laughing, so Lexi just kissed her.
Next, it was on to the fireworks! We had a GREAT view and the girls were so excited. Lilly jumped a little with the loudest bangs, but overall, they weren't scared. The yawning began during the show, so we were happy to head home afterwards.

A sweet man took a family picture for us...
A sweet smile from Lilly during the show...

We hope you all had a great time celebrating the 4th and our independence!

The BEACH!!!

I want to go back to Galveston already and it's only been 5 days since we left. :) We just had a wonderful time. Eric couldn't believe we had to pay for parking, but it was good parking and we didn't get stuck in the sand this time. Here's where we went...

I was so happy to see Galveston looking so wonderful. The water and beach was sssssooooooooooo clean.
After getting my beach babes ready, they hung out while Eric and I got some sunscreen on. They were being all kinds of adorable and posed for the camera. They snuggled so sweetly and just sat together. Lilly is in front or on the left of the picture.


A nice pat on the head for Lexi...
I like the expressions here...
Lexi Bear...
All ready! Let's go!
See how clear the water was? Amazing!
Lilly...
Mommy being a ham...
Packed beaches everywhere...
A pretty sailboat...
Lilly standing up...
Lilly...
Lexi liked to play with the seaweed...
She especially liked to throw it...
Lilly was so happy...

They kept going deeper into the water...
Eric tried to catch some minnows that kept washing in with the waves...

See why I want to go back already? Fun stuff!

Beach Shopping

Before leaving to head home, we took the girls to Murdoch's for some souvenir shopping. They had some birthday money and we wanted to let them pick out a shell or something fun. Murdoch's is a really cool place. They have any type of souvenir that you could want from an island destination. The store is located on 2 piers that go out over the water and has a long breezy walkway in the middle where you can relax or buy a drink.

So after picking out some fun things, we found some nice comfy chairs and had ourselves a little water. There is just something about these two in their patriotic outfits, sitting in white adirondack chairs. I love these pictures! They were pretty exhausted after playing in the gulf for an hour.

Lexi being a good "big" sister! Lilly actually got a nice big hug after I took this one.
They were really mellow for a while...
Then Lexi realized the breezeway was directly over the water. She was completely mesmerized with watching the ocean waves through the floor boards. People kept walking by wondering what she was doing standing like this...she probably got a half dozen people to stop and look through the boards. :)
Tomorrow will be all about the fun on the beach!!

Food Network Recommended...

I figured I would split up our Galveston trip into several posts. Since this blog is mostly supposed to be a scrapbook of our lives, I hate to miss any details of such a fun trip. However, I am going to work backwards. Ha!

In Harker Heights, we have the most basic form of cable, which means we have about 6 channels worth watching. In Beaumont this summer, we have lots of channels, including Food Network. I missed Food Network SO much!!! I wished I could watch it while I was on bed rest.

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching one of my favorites, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives". I saw Guy go to a restaurant in Kemah, Texas. He said it wasn't far outside of Houston. I told Eric it would be so cool to go there one day, but I didn't even know where Kemah was located.

So after leaving Galveston, we took a different route home. We were keeping an eye out for a good spot to have dinner...can you see where I'm going with this? :)

Eric was doing all the navigating and driving, so I had no idea we were heading and was surprised to look up and see, "Kemah, TX, City Limits". I got all excited and we started talking about the restaurant there. We couldn't remember anything more than the name had a man's name in it and they served good looking steaks and BBQ. All of a sudden, on the side of the state highway, there it was...T-Bone Tom's!

I yelled, "Oh my gosh!!! There it is!! That's it!" Eric just pulled right into the parking lot and we went in. I was a tiny bit star struck...which is silly, since realistically, we were just in a regular Texas diner. There were a few pictures of Guy and his visit on the wall next to our table. Lilly was hilarious and entertaining. Lexi was tired and getting grumpy, but overall, they were both just loads of fun. I think I ordered better than Eric though. The BBQ was amazing! He got steak and shrimp and liked it, but not as much as he liked my plate of food.

Daddy got grumpy, tired baby! Can you blame her after a fun day playing in the ocean!?! I was tired too.

Mommy and the silly goofy baby of the night!
So if you are ever in Kemah, Texas, which is north of Galveston, close to Baytown, go try this place.
And if you manage to get a better picture of this wall of fame, let me know! :)
The perfect end to the perfect day!

Lately

This week has been full of ups and downs. First of all, my sweet Aunt Barbara died this week unexpectedly. I will driving out to West Houston tomorrow morning for her funeral, and I am taking the girls by myself. That would normally make me really nervous, but my Dad will be there which is a huge help.

Then Saturday was our big family trip to Galveston. Since it isn't a long drive, we made it a day trip and I am so glad. I am not sure I could handle cleaning anymore sand out of shoes, floorboards, or diapers. I LOVE the ocean, but absolutely can't stand having sad in everything.

Our trip was a big success though. The girls were sooooooooo happy and everything went really smoothly. Eric and I even got to take a driving tour through the city looking at some very cool tree stump sculptures while the goobers napped in the backseat. I'll explain more about that later.

And lastly, I appear to be coming down with something. I hope it's minor, but what a time to feel lousy! So for tonight, I will leave you all with one of my favorite pictures from the trip and then plan to write more about it soon.