Texas

Well, the husband doesn't come home till late tonight, and the lil monkey is in bed so I guess I am out of excuses for not blogging the latest. We had a really fun trip. I keep telling people that AND I mean it, and yet I do have some  regrets about it. I've kind of been stewing over it all day. It was the first trip I've ever taken like that with my daughter and husband and although in a lot of ways it was AWESOME because of it, a little part of me missed going to see my oldest sister Amber, as the "little" sister. It was a REALLY fun vacation, but with busy summer schedules, and a very UN travel savy daughter, I wish I'd gotten a little more heart to heart with my sister, (I think we had a total of 0 minutes of alone time) and I REALLY did miss being the best aunt ever to my nieces and nephews. There are 6 of them, and I love every single one! And yet the only play time I think I had with them this trip was the last day when Grace FINALLY got a decent nap! Not only that but I felt like I was constantly trying to be the barrier between my overly emotional, I just want to go home daughter, and her cousins who just wanted to play! I suppose this is what growing up and having your own family is like? I kind of struggled with it. We pulled out of their driveway to fly home and I just kept thinking, "something is missing, something isn't right. I can't leave yet!" I guess grown up life is just a little...bitter-sweet?

Focusing on the positive now. I DID get to listen to the big boys explain all of their rocks and shells and treasures to me, I DID get to talk lizards with Sammy, I did get more play time with the all too grown up Brigham than I've ever had, and Alena and I DID have a couple tea parties, even if they were rather brief. I also got to hold and cuddle Ms. Sennia who is Grace's closest cousin in age. She is the SWEETEST, happiest, SUNNIEST baby! Seriously, pictures to come! They actually had a lot of fun playing together the last day we were there and Grace still asks about "Sennya?!" all the time! I also got to introduce Craig to some of my Mom's family, and some of my Dad's family, (LOVED the time I got to spend with both!!) although we missed TOO MANY OF THEM! Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back. ;)

Ok, now the picture dump. Are you ready for this?!?!

Our First stop was the Stechers place, so by way of introduction...

This is my wonderful brother-in-law Matt and my sister Amber. 

From back to front to back is Brigham, Sammy, Alena, Eli and Luke.

And lastly but never leastly, Ms. Sennia and of course Ms. Grace. SO funny to watch together!

The first Monday we were there was Memorial day. We celebrated with a BBQ and lots of swimming. It was really fun! Grace very slowly got used to the water, but I think her favorite part was the Blue Bell Ice Cream bar she devoured...

I really did try and narrow them down but they're just too great!

Now for the actual swimming part,

She is probably wishing that ball was another ice cream bar, I'm telling you they were THAT good!

And speaking of ice cream we got to tour one of the Blue Bell factories while we were there. For those of you who don't know, it's the best ice cream ever...

 We got to tour the factory and see some of it being made, as well as get a little history of the company's origin. The saddest part was that it's only in 22 states. Craig's last wish 20 minutes before we left was to have one last bowl of Blue Bell before we left. He's definitely hooked.

Brazos Park

One of the days everyone was busy, so Craig and I decided to take off and go explore one of the state parks in the area. I am SO glad we did! It was REALLY hot and SO humid, but we saw some awesome wild life in it's natural habitat. You know, like this guy...

They are so still that we didn't notice this alligator until we were right up on it. I think we both jumped when we saw him. Also I think my imagination got away with me cause in my head I thought he was like 4 feet away from us but looking at the pictures I am realizing it was more like this...

But still...haha We were walking out onto the peer when we saw him and Craig and I both realized at the same time that if this guy DID decide to come sunbath on the peer we would have been stuck there for a very long time, as there was only one way in and out and he was right by the path. I think we would have been ok though cause Craig said our escape plan was, "you grab Grace out of the stroller and I will quickly close it up and start whapping him on the head with it." haha Ok enough silliness, we saw some cool wildlife!

There was this tower that you could climb up and look over the river and marshlands. It was REALLY beautiful up there.

Can you tell we were a little sunburnt?

We saw SO many turtles.

Ok, so now for the most exciting part in my book. The lady at the visitors center told us that a Mommy gator and her babies had been spotted recently pretty close to one of the paths and I was holding my breath that we would be able to find them. Well....we got lucky! SOOOO coool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meet Mommy Gator...

And babies!!!!!!

There were about 12 or 13 of them and they were all just kind of going every which way. One of them started climbing up the bank towards us and I thought he was going to come say hello but he fell back into the water, which was probably good anyways, because we were there for so long that the Mom slowly went under the water and then popped up much closer to us. She definitely had her eye on us the whole time. 

Gulf Coast

     I have to say that I was expecting the gulf to be much yuckier than it was. It wasn't Florida by any means, but it still had cool sand and shells and the water, though brown, was still really fun.

I forgot going into the trip however, about Grace's texture issues. She does NOT like unknown textures. Grass was a battle until she was 8 or 9 months old, first time in snow was a disaster. The first time she got dirt on her, first time in mudd, as well as her first time eating peaches. She LOVED them, but every time she had to pick one up she'd start whining and declare it, "LIMY!!!" (slimy). She even has this weird water thing, when she spills a little water from her sippy cup and then accidentally steps in it, she freaks out! Anyways, long story short I should have seen the sand thing coming. Also it didn't help that by this time she had had 4 days straight of NO naps! 

This is what Ms. Gracie did for most of her time at the beach...

"Don't let it touch me, Mom!"

On a funny note, the coast had piles of seaweed that had washed up on the shore, and Grace didn't mind it at all! She actually sat by herself for a little while, and played in some water with a cup. As long as she was sitting on seaweed and not sand she was good. Silly girl!

Playing with cousin Sennia

Ms. Sennia at the Gulf. She is one tan kiddo!

Gracie with her shades. 

Hangin with Daddy

Aunt Amber was trying to show her that it wasn't so bad being away from Mom for a minute, but it was pretty short lived.

Ms. Alena showing off some seaweed she caught in her net. I failed to get pictures of the boys somehow. Sammy had several fish and a dead jelly fish in a bucket somewhere that I missed. Kind of a stressful short trip over all, but I am glad we were able to experience what we did. Next stop for us...the Home Depot to buy a sand box for the texturally challenged!

The Houston Zoo

We picked the WRONG day to go to the zoo. There were SO many school kids there and it was nap time for Grace so I failed to get very many pictures, but it is a very big, very fun zoo if you ever get the chance to go on a day when it isn't the end of the school year. Here are the couple of pictures that I did get. They had an area with a bunch of fountains for kids to play in which I think is SUCH a good idea for a zoo!! After the kids were worn out and hot and tired it was just the thing I thought. Grace didn't have a swim suit so I just took her shirt off and let her play. I think this took a close second with the carousal, for being her favorite part.

Grace seemed to really enjoy the petting zoo. Once again if she hadn't been hot and tired I think she would have LOVED it. Petting docile animals that don't jump is a pretty exciting thing for Ms. Gracie. She and Sennia seemed to have a lot of fun though, regardless.

I'm blaming these terrible pictures on Craig, since he took them from his phone. However, having any pictures at all is also his doing so I guess I can't complain!

This was Grace's favorite part at the zoo for sure! She went on her first carousel ride, and she LOVED it! Not that you could tell by her facial expression, lol she was totally quiet the whole time, but as soon as it stopped she started up with her signature, "gain, gain Mama, gain?" I had to say no this time, and she of course started bawling, very disappointed. :( What made it worse was that we walked by it a few times after that and every single time she would hear the music and immediately get excited thinking we were FINALLY going to do it again. 

And the only animal we got a picture of at the zoo is...the Meerkat! Which is actually totally fitting because we watched part of the "Meerkat Manor" with Sammy and Luke while we were there. It was surprisingly interesting after you get past the rather human attitudes they give the characters.

Family

The last weekend there we drove 4 hours to the Dallas area so that we could see some of my extended family, and so that Craig could meet everyone. I feel like we didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked, but we had a lot of fun nonetheless! The First stop was Waxahachie where my Grandma VanWart lives with my Aunt Patti. It was SO wonderful to see them both. My Grandma is such a beautiful gracious lady, and I think I can safely say after watching Aunt Patti and Grandma interact, that I know where my family gets there silliness and constant laughter, not to mention our sarcasm? lol My Aunt Deannie came to see us (in the middle of moving that weekend, we REALLLY appreciated the time sacrifice there!) and we had a lot of fun having lunch with all of them and hanging out. I wish we had planned more time though, I did not get my VanWart fill! Aunt Patti and Craig went and picked up lunch at a tiny hole in the wall BBQ place and came back with the biggest stuffed, baked potato I have ever seen. lol

Exhibit A. They were HUGE! And super yummy, my husband ate the WHOLE thing. Pretty impressive, even for him. ;)

I forgot to get a picture of Craig with everybody, but here are Grace and I are with my Aunt Patti left, Grandma Great in the middle and Aunt Deannie on the right. Grace was feeling a little shy, but she had a lot of fun playing with toys and watching everyone while we were there. We love you guys and miss you already!! After this we went to my cousin Mona's house (WITHOUT getting pictures, I've kicked myself like 5 times!) and we had a lot of fun getting to chat with them, but again we did NOT schedule enough time to see everybody. We got to exchange the meeting of husbands which was fun, and also see Mona's three kiddos, the youngest of which she was prego with the last time we met up. I think next time we go, Craig and Lance will have to get in some golf time, they seemed like they would really get along well. lol We love all you guys and miss you! I really wish we got to hang out more often! 

Next we went to see my Dad's family

Royce City was really fun! Craig got to see the house I spent my first years in, and got to meet my Aunt Cheryl and both of my grandparents on my Dad's side. My Dad has some wonderful parents. I am so grateful that Grace was able to meet both of them. 

Playing at Grandma Anderson's house. I played with these toys when I was little, and some of them I think my Dad might have even played with!

This was a music box that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was one of my favorites I remember as a kid, and it turns out it was also one of hers. 

While we were there Craig got to do a little fishing in one of the tanks my grandparents have. He had quite a few bites and I think he said he reeled in 4. We only came down towards the end, I just really didn't think the Sue was going to be up for it, and I knew I wasn't going to be up for keeping track of her. We got to see the last one he caught though!

 He was pretty excited, can you tell? ;)

Another thing we did before we left was to go see my Papaw. He has Parkinson's Disease and a couple years ago it became necessary for him be taken care of at a Center instead of at home. The disease comes with a lot of complications and I have to say it was really tough to see him like that. I just kept thinking that it was like seeing a shadow of my Grandfather. He was such a great man, so full of life, always keeping his grandkids on their toes and laughing. Some days are better for him than others, but on the day we were there he didn't say a while lot, and what he could say was in a very low whisper. When my Aunt Cheryl walked up to him the first time, I must admit it took me a minute to even recognize him, he has lost so much weight, but when she leaned over and gave him a kiss he slowly looked up at her and then said, "who let you out?" If you know my Papaw that is SO character of something he would say. My aunt also mentioned to him that the last person to come to see him from our family was my sister Amber. She said, "Amber is the one with the 6 kids, who is married to Matt, remember?" He kind of moved his head alittle and said, "that Amber, she's going to be an old maid!" Confused, we kind of looked at each other and I think it was my Aunt Cheryl again that said, "no, remember she has 6 kids and is married to Matt?" He can't laugh or anything but he kind of looked up again and said, "It was a joke." It was nice to see that through it all he still has his sense of humor.

Before we left we had to get a few traditional pictures in front of my Grandma's fireplace. From Left to right Grandma, me obviously, and Aunt Cheryl.

I was thinking after this trip that I really have some stellar Grandparents. I am grateful to have two sets of grandparents who were never divorced and who have set such awesome examples for their posterity. My grandma Anderson (in this picture) is always fun to talk to and she is always so kind and gracious and positive. She is SO positive! Not to mention she has the best posture of anybody I know. :)

So this was our trip to Texas! I was going to blog about the flight coming home (it was quite the adventure) but it is now the next day from when I started this and my fingers are cramping up, so I'll save that one for another time...