The Texas trip

My trip to Texas was terrific. I had a great time visiting my family, and enjoying a lot of on-on-one time with little K.
What did we do? We rode airplanes; we saw a cute little, old, town full of shopping and souvenirs; we toured an awesome battleship; and we attempted to go to Galveston. I have yet to put my feet in warm ocean/gulf water in my lifetime.

K. loved all the activity at the airport!

I was a bit apprehensive about traveling with a 13 month old. This one does not like to be confined and is very active and 'busy'. I imagined 4 hours on an airplane, and I cringed each time the thought crossed my mind. I even brought along some ibuprofen, just in case I really needed that kind of backup plan. But what a trooper I have! What an answer to prayer I experienced while traveling with baby K and my brother and sister in law! K. was happy the entire flight out to Houston. She slept for the first hour and then enjoyed her books and other passengers the rest of the time. The return flight was even better! She slept the entire 4 hours. Thanks to all who prayed for our travels. It was better than I could have envisioned!

The heat was a little difficult for us to adjust to, but we drank a lot of water, and the backyard pool helped us out a couple of times.
The tourist things we did:
Search for longhorns - and found!

Visit and tour the Battleship Texas. What an amazing, massive, hulking ship. At one point 1800 men were aboard. (But not while we were.)

Look Dad! I'm a gunner!

And instead of driving to Galveston - because the traffic on the freeway was horrendous - as in stop-and-not-go-horrendous, we went to Johnson Space Center, where we saw the rockets used in the Apollo missions. Very fascinating to see the huge size of those boosters, and the relatively small space the astronauts were in.

Here is the graduate, with my brother, my sister in-law, and my nephew.

And finally, the dogs. K. immensely enjoyed the dogs they had - a black Lab and a great Dane. It took a couple of days for each to warm up to the other, but by the end, K was saying their names. It's a good thing she really likes dogs. The one in the picture, the great Dane, is still a puppy, and wasn't sure what to make of a little one around the house.

Overall, I am glad I got over my trepidation and went on the trip. I enjoyed getting to know my extended family better; and it helped me appreciate my husband more. In return, it helped him appreciate me too. He stayed back at home with the other 4 kids, for 6 days, cooking, cleaning and keeping them going.
But oh, it's good to be home!