At the end of ski season, we decided to take a road trip to Texas to visit Austin family and get warm for a while. Little did we know how much of the state we would end up seeing in those two weeks!
Our trip started out in a very strange muddy snow/rain storm that left our car, bikes and kayaks covered in dirt! We decided to take our time getting there and explore a bit. Next part of the drive was through New Mexico in a ripping wind storm....my bike was ripped off the back bike rack and will ride no more......it was at this point that I think my Mom started questioning her decision to join us. I reassured her that at least she wasn't back home in a freezing cold spring snow storm, she rallied.
Our first out of the way stop was at Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico. Again, my claustrophobic Mom is questioning...deciding....choosing....does she want the grand kids to think she is a wimp or does she put her big girl pants on and go over 700 feet underground? Again, she rallied. The kids loved it and Colter took Modee around on her own personal tour. We were super impressed with all the details and information that he had stored up from other cave/cavern adventures. We went through the entire Big Room and would love to go back and spend more time on some of the advanced tours. After all was said and done, Modee got her Junior Ranger badge with the boys and we all had a great time.
One of our goals was to get some time on the water. There are several ponds and parks close to Bonnie and Lester's house and this one had ducks and geese. The boys had a great time chasing them around and were able to get pretty close. We also rode the bike trails in the area (I borrowed one:) and enjoyed the bluebonnets. I can't believe I don't have a picture of the trampoline because it was the most popular activity. One day the boys jumped for over five hours! Although some thought us to be crazy mountain folk, we did enjoy swimming in the pool as well. After a bout with food poisoning? heat stroke? quickest stomach bug ever? we were all back on our feet and ready for more. Dylan had a special picnic at Uncle Lester's deer lease with Bonnie, Les and Mimi. He got to play in the river, hike around, ride around in the jeep and eat hot dogs and spicy, spicy chips that he really liked.
Then the adventure took a twist. It was Christi's birthday and we (eh hem...Bonnie) decided we should surprise her. We thought it would be fun to head to Houston and see Christopher and Christi, so we were off. Turns out Christi is a bit scared of coming home alone at night and when we accidentally locked the wrong bolt lock on her door, we almost gave here a heart attack and the police were almost called. Kinda funny now (well to be honest, kinda funny then too) and we had a great visit. We made up for scaring her half to death by taking her out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, yummy! Colter took down an entire adult bucket of crab legs!What else to do in Houston besides cause irreparable psychological damage to you Dr. cousin you ask? Well, NASA, of course! This turned out to be an amazing day and a lasting highlight of the trip. The 4 story Angry bird play scape was just the beginning. We toured, we learned, we oohed and ahhhhed all day long. It is incredible to think of all the things these scientists have accomplished. One of our favorite facts of the day was that NASA put a man on the moon using a computer that filled a 30x50 room and had 1 megabyte of memory!!! That is less than one digital picture on my iPhone.
We saw where the astronauts train for the international space station, scientists are inventing and the original mission control room.
The original Saturn V rocket is enormous and sits in an even bigger building.
Dream big! One of the scientists said that in Colter and Dylan's lifetime we will witness deep space travel with human run vessels and humans on Mars.
Shoot things through the air
Another highlight was when Colter was asked to go on stage to help demonstrate how astronauts live in the ISS. He learned how they sleep, eat and poop....pretty useful stuff really. He was very brave in front of the crowd and completely enjoyed himself.
Mimi came over almost every day and watched the boys jump on the trampoline and play around the yard. I love visiting with her and allowing the boys some special time with my extra special grandmother. Colter decided he wanted to make something for Mimi so that she would remember him, so he sat with her for over 3 hours and finger knitted her a beautiful purple scarf. He has a big heart! He was very patient and enjoyed his time with Mimi.
So when it was time to think about going home, we thought nooooo, not yet. Instead, let's go to Dallas to visit Carrie, Kathy, Steve and the boys. Steve was nice enough to invite us to the SMU spring scrimmage and my boys were introduced to big time Texas football. Dylan, Mr. Team Sports as he is known around here, loved it and said it was his favorite thing while we were in Dallas. He still wants a tackling dummy in our yard. I love these pictures of Uncle Lester playing catch with Dylan and Luke. Luke is 2 and did a fantastic job of imitating everything Dylan did, it was hilarious! If Dylan ran, Luke ran, if Dylan laid down in the grass, Luke laid down right next to him in the exact same position.
Next up was Six Flags. I thought this would be the best idea ever, turns out tackling dummies win that category. We still managed to have fun on the roller coasters, water rides, go carts, airplanes, merry-go-round and raft ride. Carrie and I spent the rest of the day remembering the raft ride, we were wet. Colter loved the roller coaster that was like a bobsled, it detached off the tracks to go through the curves. Dylan's favorite was the airplanes, when he went with Aunt Bonnie not Colter, and the log ride thought all the Looney Toons characters.
Our little chickens had grown a lot bigger and were happy to see the boys, or at least happy enough to jump in their laps.
