Vacation Day 2, Part 1: Louisiana!

We actually had GREAT sleep the whole trip. Lilli slept like a dream, which was awesome since we never stayed in the same place twice and some rooms were large and others tiny so her Pack n Play was in all kinds of places!

On our first vacation day we thought the Texas shaped waffles were pretty much awesome. Every day after that waffles were about the only edible thing on the free breakfast "buffets" and I'll be just fine if I don't have another waffle for a while.This was near the Louisiana border. Texas is just enormous. I can't imagine there are too many other states that have exit #s that creep up to nearly 900!
Welcome to Louisiana!!!
Lilli missed it, but that's ok!
As we headed further into LA the landscape changed into the typical marshy/swampy landscape you'd imagine.
Brent was in love with this - a trailer up on stilts. I don't think that necessarily makes it any safer.....
Pretty marshlands....
Our first stop in LA was at the Sabine Wildlife Refuge where there were a few walking trails. This was a "bird watching" trail that went for several miles, we just walked a bit of it.
Often the best way to keep Lilli focused on running in the right direction is to run just ahead of her so she'll keep chasing after you!
Poop. Poop is on her mind a lot, and considering this trail was intended to spot all the cool types of birds found in this refuge there was a lot of bird poop on the trail. a LOT. And it just disturbs her and she wanted to stop and point at each and every single dropping.
Like every single one.
Ironically she was quite dirty herself after this hike.

We didn't see much on that trail besides several interesting birds and quite a few little crab claws with no crabs attached anymore. Our next stop in the refuge was at Alligator Alley - where we were able to see a REAL alligator out in the wild!!!

Vacation Day 1, Part 2: Galveston Beach

I forgot to post the map of our travels yesterday! We started in Houston and worked our way counterclockwise on this path. It ended up being right at 1,568 miles. I love using Google Maps to plan our trips and get estimated travel times, it makes it a lot easier than when I used to do this all by hand.


View Larger Map


The beaches in Galveston were really nice. There really weren't any hotels along the coast, so it was just miles and miles of beach you could actually park on, and since we got there later in the day it wasn't crowded at all.
She had gotten a little blister on her foot earlier in the day and when she was wearing shoes it hurt to walk, so she'd gotten where she just didn't want to walk at all. She was really happy to be at the beach, but it took a while to convince her she could walk around and the sand wouldn't bother her ankle.
She loved the little shells on the beach....
And then when we FINALLY got her to walk around she was just in heaven, running in and out of the waves and chasing birds.
Anytime a seagull or pigeon was around she'd chase them all over the place.


Of course our little side trip to the beach ended up being a messy little endeavor. Once she started digging around in the sand of course she had to sample it, so sand started spreading from her hands to face and then all over.
And then she was pretty much just crawling around and rolling all in the sand, having a blast.
She was walking up to strangers and having her little conversations with them....of course we wish she'd be a little more particular with who she talks to.....
We probably played for an hour or hour and a half at the beach before we decided to head on our way. Of course Lilli had to have an outfit change!! From there we were heading up the Texas line but had to take the Galveston ferry. It's free, but a TOTAL pain. It took us an hour before we were able to board it. They were constantly coming and going, but they don't hold that many cars and there were SO many people waiting. We had snacks and stayed entertained, but we were SO glad when we finally got to board. This is one side of cars.
Here's one of the ferries we met as we crossed the water. The boats weren't that big, so not that many cars got on each time.
The boat ride was fun, there were even porpoises swimming alongside.
Once we finally got on the other side we really don't know where all the other cars went because this little highway running up the coast was pretty much deserted. Hurricane Ike had wiped out most everything through here, so it was just coastline and was so pretty with the sun setting. We saw our first Texas oil rig.
The coast was just empty and so crystal clear with the sun setting.
Then we turned and started heading up and more into marshlands.
It was so nice to have GPS on this trip and know where we should stop for the night. In this little Texas town we knew we'd have a few options and there would be nothing else for about 30 miles. We ate at a little steakhouse and I had an awesome brisket and Brent had (what he says) was the best ribeye sandwich EVER. I would tell you where you could have this sandwich but I don't even remember the name of this town. (Ok, Brent's reading over my shoulder and said this was in Winnie, Texas.) They were also having some big Rice Festival and it was nuts!!
We ended up getting a nice little room at LaQuinta for the evening. Lilli did great the whole trip with sleeping, since we were so off our normal routine she'd usually stay up until between 9:15-9:45 and we'd all go to bed. She went right to sleep every night and we never heard a fuss from her, which was SO nice! Personally I loved all the extra sleep since we're normally in bed around 11 and I'm up at just before 5 am. Even though we were on the go a lot I came back a lot more rested than I left!

Vacation Day 1: Flying and NASA

For this trip we had a pretty decent flight time, I think it was 9:30 or so am. Thankfully we didn't have to get up too early, but for some reason the airport was PACKED. We left a little later than we planned to, and then the closest parking lot was full and we just missed the bus on Lot B and then when we got in the airport (finally) it was NUTS. Some of the area schools were out on fall break last week, so there were tons of families flying. And all the luggage we carry slows us DOWN.Add onto that the stroller (Lilli was in it) and then two backpacks and another shoulder bag. That's Lilli's car seat in the bag and it is SO awkward to carry along with everything else (one large suitcase, two huge duffel bags and a Pack n Play). UGH. It's a workout getting it all into the airport and we tip people WELL. By the time we got checked in (since we have an under-2 you have to go through the slower line for her special boarding pass) we were down to about 45 minutes before our flight. Sounds ok, right, but stupid Southwest boards SO early. Our gate was right across from the great kid's playground and Lilli literally got to play for 5 minutes before we needed to all start taking turns going to the bathroom. I took her to change her diaper about 35 minutes before our plane was to leave and saw people boarding the plane when I came out! She and I literally RAN down the terminal to catch up with Brent and only missed our turn by about 12 people. CRAZY!!! Once they got us all on there they told us we had to wait for a plane that was late and had several passengers for our plane. That was SO frustrating. We were on there, crammed in, forever before they arrived. And literally every seat on this plane was full, so we already had a guy sitting with us. It will actually be pretty nice when Lilli has to have her own seat so we have a little more space to ourselves.
But she actually did great on the flight and the guy sitting with us complemented her on how well behaved she was as he took a nap the whole time! Her favorite thing right now is sticker books, so she spent the 2 hour flight putting stickers on the window (they all came off), eating pretzels and looking at magazines. We landed in Houston on a gorgeous day, the first trip we've had with her where it wasn't pouring when we landed.
We got our rental car and we weren't even out of the lot before she was asleep, poor thing! Literally, this picture is taken in the rental car lot. We ended up with a little Ford Escape which was so nice. It had room for all our luggage and we could fold down the other seat in the back and use it as a changing station when we needed to.
We stopped for lunch at WhataBurger. They are EVERYWHERE in Texas.
Then we headed over to the NASA Space Center in Houston. On our way in a guy was in the wrong lane and very nearly almost side swiped us. That was almost wreck #1 for the trip. We finally got in there and this is pretty much the whole thing. This was honestly the only disappointment in the whole trip. I wouldn't waste my money on this "museum" again, and we did think about asking for our money back. Basically instead of being a place where you can learn more about space it's a large indoor playground where people let their kids run absolutely wild. Most of the place is a big playground and also a large Lego Playground. They have a small museum tucked in the back that we literally had to ask how to get to. Awful.
They have some creepy recreations of astronauts training.
There's one dark space with some models of various space things that was pretty neat, but NOWHERE near worth the price of admission.
So, if in Houston don't bother. From there we headed south to Galveston.
And Lilli's first trip to the beach!!

More pictures to come later, can't believe it's back to work and school for us all tomorrow.

Home Sweet Home!

We are home!I guess from so much flying this year the little rock star thinks she needs to wear her shades on the plane, like she's somebody..... She actually did great on both flights on this trip, a marked change from our trip to Chicago just a couple of weeks ago. And our flight down to Houston last Saturday was one of those miserable every seat full Southwest flights, too. Today was only 3/4 full, so no one sat with us and we were able to spread out a little. I completely understand why at 2 years old you have to pay for them their own seat.....

We had a great trip! We saw Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma bringing mine and Brent's states traveled up to 47 and Lilli up to 8 states. We visited museums, wildlife refuges, saw a real alligator in the wild, did a factory tour, zoo, safari park, and saw the World's Richest Acre just to name a few. But probably one of our favorites was just going to the beach. We went to the beach twice, once on our first day and then again on our last day. Lilli loved it!
Of course she had to wear her patriotic swimsuit down in the patriotic state of Texas. We're at Galveston here.
She loved everything about it - digging in the sand, chasing birds, running in and out of the water, watching the waves crash, just everything about it.
She would run as fast as she could after all the seagulls and pigeons at the beach.
All in all a great vacation!! I would say it's good to be home but it's also good to be somewhere else and not have huge stacks of sandy laundry to do!

Living the Dream!

Guess which famous house we toured yesterday? My parents had better get this one!Here's another clue. I guess it might help if it was a Friday night and we had popcorn and sherbet drinks!
We're having a great time on vacation! We're heading to the Fort Worth Zoo later today and on to the Stockyards to see a live cattle drive.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Today was my birthday!! I had a great day all around. At work my coworkers went all out and had a big "Western" themed birthday for the 3 of us celebrating today.We seriously do go all out with our themes! (But of course a lot of that has to do with all the samples we have around the office!) Cupcakes, Cowboy Punch and cookies!

Here's the "Gift Team" that I work with the most. If you don't like the gifts and paper products in our stores you can blame these people.
Then tonight Brent brought home my favorite take-out (Blue Coast Burrito). Lilli had her first taste of fruit tea (she saw it and thought it was juice, and then pretty much drained Brent's glass because there was no way I was sharing with her on MY birthday.) And Brent even got me a cake!
Someone was all up in my presents! My main present was a new camera to replace the one I just wore out, but Brent also got me a new pillow and some headphones made specifically for small ears. My ears are so small I have a hard time getting ear buds to really fit so these are perfect. A certain someone picked out a monkey, seal and elephant toy for me. Hmmmm........
And then the rest of the night was spent packing for our vacation. The first full week I've had off since returning to work after Lilli was born. YAY!!!!
Of course it's a little hard to pack when someone is in the suitcase pulling it all back out.....

And of course here's a little entertainment for you of Cody and Kacey singing happy birthday to their Aunt Rachel. I guess this makes up for Bruce never sending me a card even though we share the same birthday!!!