The Clampetts visit Houston

It's hard to believe it's been nearly one month since I logged on and posted. Since my laptop crashed in April I have simply not been online for any length of time in order to write. I'm still taking tons of pictures (imagine that) but have yet to upload them in weeks. I'm slacking! Ha!

We just returned from a week-long trip to Houston where, as my Dad so accurately put it, we looked like the Clampetts from the Beverly Hillbillies as our loaded down, tarp-covered F-150 pickup rolled into the driveway.. Mark had business so we packed up the kids and headed south for an extended stay at the Hotel Papa Rod. The kids traveled much better than we'd anticipated so we were quite pleased to get there without a major meltdown. On the trip down Anna decided to reach out and grab the cheeseburger from my hands at lunch. She proceeded to take a big bite out of it and seemed to enjoy the taste. {Great, the Golden Arches have now sucked both my kids in.) She's getting the hang of table food and pretty open to trying new things; especially if Mama is eating it - then she really wants to have it.

During the week Ian enjoyed lots of time swimming in Papa Rod's pool, spinning Papa's recliner around in circles with Papa in it (much to my Dad's chagrin), and riding his bike on the flat driveway and around the cul-de-sac. Meanwhile, Anna enjoyed doing laps around the pool (the pool itself scared her), pushing her stroller or anything else on wheels around the cul-de-sac, exploring Papa's house, and playing "chase" and "peek-a-boo" in the hallway to the guest rooms. And Uncle Mike (aka Mohawk Mike) and Auntie Anh came over often to visit.

The kids love playing with their Aunt and Uncle and Anna was quite taken with Mohawk Mike 9as she has been since she was a baby). She loved playing peek-a-boo with him! Mike was sweet enough to take tons of time to try and 'revive' my laptop while we were there, too. And Anh probably took one thousand pictures during the week - of which I'm SO grateful and SO excited to see them.

While Mark worked, Papa Rod took me and the kids to the downtown Aquarium (or "Quarium" as Ian calls it) one day and it was a huge hit! Anna hooted like a little barn owl the entire time as she pointed to each fish and animal she saw. Ian was fascinated by all the animals but a few really stood out. He still can not stop talking about the Poisonous Blue Dart frog, the python, or the black and white striped tiger. After a tour of the aquarium the four of us had a fantastic lunch in the aquarium's restaurant. It boasts a 150,000 gallon salt water tank in the center of it. So cool! Some of the fish seriously looked like something created for a Pixar film. I'd never seen some of these before and they were so unique! The kids were thoroughly entertained and the food was excellent.

The trip was quite memorable and we look forward to our return in November. We'll be flying so hopefully I can tone down the packing a bit so we don't take up half the belly of the plane. Is it possible to travel light with two toddlers in tow? We'll see.