Lake Jackson

My husband is so awesome, yes I use that word so what?  But he is, at least this past weekend he was :)  I had told him that I miss having our little adventures during the weekend and that we had not gone anywhere fun and exciting (Except the Battleship a couple of weeks ago).  Saturday morning as soon as I woke up he asked me if I felt like going somewhere, of course I did.  We left the house as soon as everybody was ready and drove down to Lake Jackson.  We had never been there and didn't know what to expect.  He did some research and found 3 different locations to take the kids and the best part... .it was free.

First we stopped at the http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/seacenter/ where the kids were able to look and touch some sea creatures.  The anemones were way cool and so soft.  The kids learned that we do not touch the big opening on the top because that's like their mouth and you can only touch the sides, can't take them out of the water at all or they die.  They all took turns touching them, we also saw a blue crab and I was brave enough to touch him, he was kind of jumpy and tried to grab my fingers.

Kahlan was entertained by the cool looking turtles.

They had a table with a few sea creatures that you could trace over with crayons, I think Tristan did them all.

The aquarium is not that big but they have some big fish in there.

We were able to admire the baby sharks in there and if you notice the reflection of Dan and Aaron is in there too.

Here Aaron going around for the second time.

They had a little walk board to go and see the animals that live out there, we saw some cool birds and turtles.

Dan made sure Kahlan was close to us, those big openings on the side were kind of scary and knowing Kahlan she would have jumped off.

After that we drove over to the local history museum..http://lakejacksonmuseum.org/ which was really interesting.  We learned about the local tribes that lived there and about slaves that worked at the plantation that was destroyed during the big hurricane in the 1900s.

They had some displays of old artifacts like these marbles the were found at the big house, they are pretty old.

Here is something I thought was really cool because you only get to see them in movies.  The kids were impressed too and I felt like saying "Operator "

They have a plane on display.  It is a two story building so it was hanging from way up there. 

Some old dresses.

The kids were able to get in a simulator and practice their flying skills. I don't think they have a future as a pilot.  Tristan was doing great until I said something about it and he decided to crash.

They have a little movie theater. 

All these places where between 5 minutes of each other but the kids were starving and Kahlan started to say "comer comer" which means eat in Spanish and we had to stop for a meal. 

We decided to support a local restaurant and try them out.  The kids liked the old feel of the place and food was good.  I loved the french fries. 

The restaurant had some old video games which made the whole experience even better.

What do you know there is a picture of me :)

We got some ice cream for the kids too, they LOVED it since it was so hot.

And finally we drove to our last destination, a little Natural History Museum http://www.bcfas.org/museum/

This is a picture of a T Rex but the reflection on the window makes it hard to see.  I didn't take pictures of the inside but it was mostly thousands and thousands of sea shells. They were from all over the world and a lot of local ones.  They had so many you could even open all these drawers they had under the displays.  The kids really enjoy that.  They had some dinosaur bones, the skull of an elephant, moths and butterflies, a tarantula, a black bear and many many other things.  They had a neat display of rocks and some Asian art made out of Jade and other cool rocks.  At the end the kids were able to go play in a little section that had all kinds of educational toys.  Aaron got right to work.  Right next to the Museum they have an art gallery so I took Shayna and Victor with me so we could appreciate some art on display.  Again very small but interesting.  Across the hall they have a theater and earlier they had some kids doing a workshop.  Too bad we missed that. 

At the end of the trip the kids were super tired and all took a nap, including miss Kahlan who NEVER EVER sleeps in her car seat and that was very much needed.

What did I tell you, isn't my husband awesome?  It was a great day for me!!!

Battle Ship Texas.... again.

 We love to take our family and now friends to this place.  Meet the Javier family a fun and loving family from our ward that we recently connected with and found out have a lot of things in common.  Their oldest is 12 just like ours, their second is great friends with Victor, their third (a little girl) hangs out with Tristan and they play so nice, their last one is 5 and he plays with Aaron all the time too.  Kahlan absolutely LOVES them and has become part of their family.  We spent 9 days straight, roughly 2 weeks hanging out together and the kids have been inseparable ever since.  I appreciate their friendship and acceptance of us so much and am so grateful to finally have somebody to hang out with and still allow my kids to have fun because all 9 kids get along so well.  Plus I get to speak in Spanish all the time, I just love them.

 Daddy showing Kahlan the machinery.

 Kahlan doing the sign for "more"

 My girl and me.

 Victor happy :)

 See I was there :)

 The kids found their true calling.

 Shayna and her two "sisters"

 After the trip we came back to our house and the kids wanted to play some more, so they did for a couple hours.  The boys played Legos and the girls played the game of Life. All in all it was a good day. We thought they were sick of us but the next day we got together again, and the next day and the next...

4th of July

 

 It had been two years since we saw any fireworks so we stayed local and went to Kingwood.  We went there about 3 years ago for the first time and it was fun for the kids since they got a lot of free stuff and did some crafts.  These year was not that fun but we still enjoyed ourselves.  We were so hot and that is probably the hardest thing to deal with so many little kids.

 
 They had a cool tent were the kids were able to cool down a little with some mist.

 Kahlan ran around and danced to the music.

 She melted the whole time and we kept her hydrated as much as we could.

 When it got darker the kids played with their glow in the dark sticks.

And of course we had some snacks...  The one thing we can without next year is the fat lady that was dancing with her hula hoop while wearing the shortest shorts ever and lifting her leg up in the air. That was a sigh nobody wanted to see and I think eventually somebody said something because they moved away and we didn't see them anymore.

Connor's visit.

 Our nephew Connor came to visit us from Washington  state.  The kids were super excited that he was coming.

 They loved having him here with us and Kahlan was pretty attached to him the whole time.

We had been planing on taking him to San Antonio and enjoy a day or two at Six Flags but since my surgery was moved a couple of weeks later that was a no go.  Which made us feel so bad, He came two days after the big even so I was really out of it for most of the time.  Dan took him out to the movies Saturday evening and I think (not sure cuz I still don't remember a lot) Steven and Amber came to visit on Sunday and we all had a good time talking.  On Monday I offered him to take us to the Mall so we could hang out a little bit and plus it gave me the chance to get him a couple of shirts to take with him as a little present.  The rest of the time he spent watching movies and playing Rock Band with my kids. We are glad he came but wished it would have been more fun for him.

Father's Day

 Since my surgery was coming up before Father's day, the kids and I got busy preparing everything to give him his presents before Sunday.  We got a little crafty this year and went to Hobby Lobby to buy the materials, we scored big time with their sale they were having.  Our little project turned out to be less than $3.00 :) They all painted parts of it.  We got a flower pot and the base (Tristan broke the other base that was supposed to be part of it but we made it work) and we also got a crystal bowl. 

 We already had the paint and the holder to attach to it.

 Here is Tristan before he broke his part... so sad.

 Here is the finish product, we used modpodge to add the Redskins picture on it and added his favorite candy to it and there you have it a gumball machine... that is not really a machine nor does it have gumballs, but still pretty cool.

 

 I came up with this cute wall decoration for him out of all of their hand prints.  It was super fun and Dan really appreciated it. I think he will treasure this for ever.

 The kids made their own cards for their dad, some ideas that we found on line and printed out to just glue on card stock.  Shayna made the cute shirt and Aaron glued rice on to paper to make a sun for him.

I didn't take a picture of his last present but it is pretty cool too.  He has been wanting a piano bench and I found the perfect one with a leather top and it opens up to put away his books.  All in all it was really nice this year even if we celebrated a little early.