Vacation Roadtrip 2014 Days 6

On the 6th day of our vacation we headed into Downtown Houston to check out the Aquarium. Growing up going to the Vancouver Aquarium and having many friends and family members that frequented the Seattle Aquarium my expectations were high. Several people warned us that it wasn't that great, but since it was part of our City Pass we went and checked it out.

Biggest tank at the Aquarium

Everyone was right it was a bit disappointing. We were able to walk slowly through the main aquarium in less than an hour. Most of the fish were your average aquarium fish. The highlights of the main part for my kids were the boa constrictor and the white bangled tiger. 

Elli and the Boa

Our City Pass didn't include entrance to the carnival rides outside the aquarium or the train that drove through a tunnel on the shark exhibit. So that was  another disappointment for the kids.

The Tiger

We did however get into the sting ray exhibit and I had just enough cash to buy the food to feed the rays. To feed them you have to hold a little minnow fish between your knuckles, put your had under the water and wait for them to come up and suck the fish out of your hand. It was equally cool and disgusting at the same time.

The Sting Ray Cove definitely redeemed the day!

After we finished at the Aquarium we drove over to the Museum District and checked out the Children's Museum. It was pretty good, for a children's museum.  Lots of stuff for kids to climb and play on. Lots of scientific stuff for the kids to learn from. It was Elli's favorite part of the trip, but the boys were less impressed with it.

Building Rockets

Our favorite part of this museum was the hands on area in the basement. They had little stations set up where you could make paper airplanes, rockets and parachutes. Then you could test out your creation in their launch cage or wind tunnels. My mechanically minded kids (and husband) could have spent all day there. They also had a Lego vehicle building station and a couple test tracks to race the vehicles on.

All in all, it was a fun day. Next post... NASA!!!!

Vacation Roadtrip 2014 Days 4 &5

Day 4 of our vacation was rather uneventful and I didn't take a single picture. We had Egg & I for breakfast and went to Walmart and bought Zaccheaus new swim shorts, since he packed his old ones from last summer. Then we went to visit Josh's mom at her apartment and made plans for taking her out with us the next day. 

Waiting for Breakfast

We had breakfast at Kelley's Country Cooking, a local chain restaurant. The portions were gigantic and no one could eat all their food. We left with 3 boxes of left overs. After breakfast we headed over to the Museum District of Houston and checked out the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. 

Mock up a refinery made out of neon lights

There was a whole area dedicated to the local mega industry of oil refining. The kids really enjoyed this because it helped them further understand what happens at Josh's work. 

Learning about the oil industry

 Next we checked out the fossils on display at the museum. This was by far the biggest display of dinosaur bones and fossils I had ever seen. They had several different dinosaurs, mammoths, giant turtles and other creatures. There was even a skeleton of a giant sloth, that I am not entirely sure was real.

They're having fun, really they are

The kids liked seeing the real skeletons of creatures from all the different movies they've seen. I kept hearing that one's from Ice Age, that's the T-Rex from Land Before time. Joshua carefully documented the whole area with pictures on his DS.

Tree samplings of petrified wood

The gallery of petrified wood slices was so cool. The slices of trees would make the most beautiful artwork to hang up at home. Too bad it would cost a fortune to get some. Several of the samples were from Washington State!

Seeing how much each metal weighs

In the basement of the museum was a science lab with a big interactive periodic table (I wish LeapFrog or some other company would make something like that) and lots of interactive exhibits for kids to learn about matter, the solar system, the weather and elements.

In the weather lab

 After the basement we went up to the second floor, where they had exhibits on sea shells/ sea life and a huge exhibit on rocks and gems. The older two have always been interested in Geology so this exhibit was really neat for them. Unfortunately this exhibit was so dark I didn't get a single good picture.

Elli wanted her picture taken by the Zebra, but she refused to pose. LOL

Across the hall from the rock and gem exhibit was the African Animal exhibit. We didn't spend a whole lot of time here as it was just stuffed African animals. The kids have all been to zoos with live versions that were more entertaining than the stuffed version. ;-)

Checking out the Egyptian artifacts

On the third floor there was an Egyptian exhibit full of many different artifacts from different time periods. There was several mummy's on display and when we came up on one Elli would say "Great another dead guy". She was a little creeped out by them.

 Also on the third floor was a exhibit of the Americas that included displays on the Inca, Mayan, Native American and Inuit cultures. After seeing all the mummy's Elli thought the Eskimo mannequin was another "dead guy" and got really freaked out for a second because that one was standing up.

If you ever come to Houston the HMNS is a must see. We learned later in the week that Thursdays from 2-5 was free, but we didn't mind since our tickets were part of our City Pass that Josh bought through his work. You can walk through it fast in about 3 hours or slow down and spend all day there. Either way it is fun. I had my pedometer on and we walked 5 miles that day!

More post coming soon!

Vacation Roadtrip 2014 Days 1,2 & 3

 I finally feel recovered enough from our drive that I can share about it. Man that was a long drive!

The route we took

 We left at 4am on Friday and began our trek to Josh's dad's house near Houston. As soon as we were into Eastern Washington Elli began asking if we were in Texas yet. She was not happy when we explained she had a day and a half to go.

Eastern Washington

We seemed to be traveling ahead of some storm system. Just as we were leaving each region we would get a weather warning on our phones for that area. We experienced nearly every type of weather possible. Rain, hail, lightning, thunder, sunshine, SNOW, fog and high winds were some we drove through.

I love wind turbines! These are in Eastern Oregon. Pay no attention to the crack in my windshield.  

Josh and I took turns driving and basically changed seats at each fill up. Although I think he did more night driving than I did. I don't do well at night. 

Wyoming

 When we crossed through the mountains (around 10pm PST) of Wyoming I was trying to sleep and for some reason I woke up really nauseous, so we ditched the plans of trying to make it to Denver and got a room for the night in Rawlins, WY. I am so thankful we did that. We got one room and all squeezed in. Everyone slept well, we got a large free breakfast and we were back on the road by 11am PST.

Elli playing the game she got in her Chick-Fil-A meal

 Anyone who really knows me knows I do not eat fast food, but on a road trip it's hard to stop and eat at a good restaurant. There are 2 fast food places I will make an exception for. At home it's Taco Time and I only get the salad. On this trip, it's been Chick-Fil-A! On day 1 we stopped for lunch there just outside Boise. Day 2 found us eating a late lunch there in Denver. Josh really loves their food and I find it doesn't make me sick like some other fast food places, so we'll be eating there a lot on this trip.

Josh crashed as soon as we got to his dad's

We pushed through on the second day/ night and got into Houston around 9am EST on the third day. Needless to say we were pretty tired and took our turns taking naps throughout the day.

The Tasty Kake Fairy Visited Josh while he slept!

While Josh was napping, Elli and I ran to the store and found some of Josh's favorite treats that we can't get in Washington. He used to get these all the time when he lived in Pennsylvania as a kid and I used to buy them for him online, but when I tried last time they didn't sell them online anymore. He was so excited to hear they had them in Texas. I think we may be taking a few boxes home with us when we leave. 

Kids in the pool

Josh's dad's house has a pool out back, so once we were rested a bit we let the kids play until it was time for dinner. The kids are loving it here! I'm having fun, but can't wait to get back to my home. I feel so out of place down here. I'm pretty sure the locals can sense that I am not from here. LOL

I'll share the rest of our adventures soon...Stay tuned....

Surprise!!!

This past Tuesday (May 29th) we all loaded up in the Durango and headed off for a drive. I had already packed for everyone and had it loaded up. The kids had no idea where we were going. They came to consensus that we must be going to Auntie Trish's and Uncle Ben's because we never go anywhere else. After we past the Auburn area, they decided we must be going to visit my sister Shandi.
Shandi lives right down the road from our destination, so I let them keep on thinking that until we surprised them with the real destination in the video below!

I love how Gabe is pretending to not be excited... LOL!

Here are some pictures of our fun time!

Joshua... He's getting all grown up & stuff... He needs to stop that!

Zaccheaus warming up in the kiddy pool

Elli getting sprayed at the Fort McKenzie part of the waterpark

She loved spraying everyone at the jet skis

Having fun at the kiddy slides

Shandi, Seaira, Sariah and Shanel(pictured above) came to play (a little fuzzy I know, but it was the best I got of her)

We watched the clocktower show each night we were there... The rhythm of nature song is now emblazoned into my memory and that's not a good thing. the show was filled with "lovely" lines like "trust the great wolfs howl" and "there's nothing to be scared of here, trust in Mother Nature"... Um, ya given the chance that great wolf would eat you and last time I checked nature cannot be trusted! ;-)

The story time afterwards was good though and the younger two enjoyed meeting the animal characters. On the first night Zaccheaus got all dressed up in his outfit just like the character Oliver, only to find out they just bring out one character each night and that night was Wiley's turn to be out for story time. The story reader lady noticed him all decked out in his Oliver garb, so she brought Oliver out for story time the second night we were there.

Zaccheaus and Oliver

Now Oliver being the mischievous raccoon that he is, sometimes is known to steal things... Like the story teller's book or a kids hat. Well, this evening Oliver was so excited that Zaccheaus dressed up just like him, he tried stealing Zaccheaus! He started walking off with him & Zaccheaus went right along with him... Of course they didn't go far and Oliver quickly returned my boy to me. 

Gabe joined us for story time on the second night and Oliver gave him nooggies to get him to smile for the camera. 

We all had a great time and the kids are all already ready to go back again!

Leavenworth

Josh and I just recently returned from our four day getaway to Leavenworth, WA. It's a quaint little Bavarian themed town. We had a lovely time, so fun that I completely spaced out on taking photos of everything. So...here they are...all 3 pictures I took. The goats were photographed on the very first walk through the town. The knight was shot on our way out of town. LOL

For a second we thought we were seeing some real mountain wildlife. Until we saw the fence keeping these guys right by the main walk through of the town. Down the hill from them was a golf course. Kind of felt bad for these goats. Until we saw the people pushing their dogs around in strollers. Then all sympathy for lil goaties was gone and we found ourselves feeling very disturbed that companies even make dog strollers. They were nicer than the one I have for my kids! Wish I took a picture of that!

We also visited near by Cashmere and Wenatchee. We did some shopping. Had a picnic and basically just played tourist.

I always thought of Leavenworth as a place that a lot of German people had settled at. Kinda like Lynden...But, no! In the 1960's some investors came up with the idea of making the town into a mini Bavaria to attract tourist. Worked on me! LOL! Still want to see the real thing, though.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!

It's good to be home

Josh and I just returned home last night from our little vacation. It was so nice to get away and relax, but it's even better to come back home to the kids.

For those that don't know...I won a contest through the local tv station and my prize was dinner at Anthony's Restaurant and a gift certificate to stay at Shilo Inns. We chose the Ocean Shores location for our getaway and I think you can see why in the above photo!

We had fun just walking the beach, collecting shells for the boys and checking out the wildlife. Lots of seagulls, pelicans and other sea birds. Seals could be seen bobbing out in the surf and the scenery was so beautiful. The weather was really great, too. Especially since it is October!

What a beautiful place! Beaches on the ocean are sooo different than the ones we're used to on the Puget Sound. We will definitely be returning with the kids as soon as we have a vehicle large enough to get us all there. :o)

On the way back we stopped off to have lunch with my sister in Olympia. She works right down the road from the capitol building so we decided to play tourist for a little bit and check it out. It was lots of fun, too! I think everyone should visit their government buildings and learn what really goes on in them. Be an informed citizen!

All in all it was great to get away for a bit. But, I missed my kids terribly. First time I was ever away from Elizabeth over night. She was so cute when I showed up at my mom and dad's to pick her up. She had a look that can only be described as utter shock when my mom opened the front door and Elizabeth saw me. It was so cute!

To see more photos go to my facebook album....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=116829&id=827237009&l=41e52a4d4b

Homeschooler/ Trivia Question:

What and where is this place....

I've been meaning to blog...

Really I have :o) We've been up to a whole lot of nuttin' around here. Josh is applying for or talking to someone about a job just about every day. Just when we're about to give up and send him off to work at McD's we hear of another job somewhere that just sounds fantastic, but no one has hired him yet. He had talked w/ the job down in TX, but they could only promise him work through the end of the year w/ no benefits and no relocation, so we turned that one down. Then the job in Moscow, ID called and had him come in for an interview and they really liked him, but they have to wait until they get the funding to hire him. In addition to these we've had lots of "not a this time" or "not interested" answers as well as no answers at all. But, we know God has a place for us out there somewhere and we're ready and eager to go where ever He wants us.

We've spent the last month enjoying the last bits of summer. When Josh went to ID, the kids and I went to his brother's house to spend time w/ my SIL and her girls and Josh met up w/ us there. We took in a couple $2 movies, went to Ikea and the Puyallup Fair. The movies were great, we saw Up w/ the whole family and then Trish and I went out to see Star Trek w/ the babies during nap time, it was wonderful :o) Ikea was great of course and we got Eli some new bedding, as her tiny crib blankie was not sufficing anymore. The Puyallup Fair was not so great. Word to the wise...Free admission day is not that great of a deal when you can't do anything because of the masses of people in your way! Here is a pic of the highlight of our experience

$3 for an ear of corn...not pictured is the $5 soda!
Coming up this next month Josh and I will be taking in our first ever vacation alone. We are pretty excited and as a bonus the hotel stay is FREE! I won the KVOS "find Deb at the fair" contest back in August during the Lynden Fair and I won gift certificates to Shilo Inns and dinner at Anthony's. Since Shilo Inns and Anthony's aren't in the same locations we went out to dinner last week and I really enjoyed it since I have recently weaned Elizabeth and was able to eat whatever I wanted w/o having to worry about her allergies. I was fantastic!