Texas Roadtrip 2016

We were so happy to be able to drive down to Houston to visit Gma and Gpa Richards.  The boys did great!  Sure there were a few times when Andy was fussy so one of us had to move to the back to sit by him and keep him entertained/feed him, but all and all he did great.  Jake was great also, and enjoyed playing his new favorite game and saying: "I'm hungry" every 10 minutes.  The boys loved sleeping in hotels and I was impressed how well they slept (despite the loud heaving we heard out in the hall around 2 am-it seriously WOKE US UP! (tho not the kids-guess we weren't in utah anymore haha).
It was crazy to be back to my childhood home/town-a lot has changed and a lot of it didn't even look the same which was kind of unnerving.

Jake was very excited to go!

Our first night we only took a short day of traveling and stayed with Gma and Gpa Slade-the kids did great and we enjoyed getting whooped in Zion's check ;)

In Houston we stayed pretty active and always had at least one outing with the boys a day.  We visited the Natural Science Museum downtown, the one in Sugar Land by my parents' house, the Houston Children's Museum, the Houston Zoo, a local park, and a bunch of different restaurants that we really miss!

 Andy wasn't scared of the ducks just sad when we told him "no" when he tried to eat all the bread.

the boys loved the "grandkids" room that they got to stay in that has a bunch of toys from my childhood-really took me back :)

 Natural Science Museum:

Andy of course saying: "Riley?" at every animal he saw (riley's our dog)

playing in a bee hive 

Andy loved the butterfly dome they have there- Jake wasn't so sure, which doesn't surprise me since i brought home gerber daisies the other day and he was actually scared of them-thought they were big eyes or something.  I cannot make this stuff up ;)

Looking out at a backyard that no longer contains my childhood dog Copper who died at, what 15-17 yo? had a good long life, but still weird to not see him looking back in at us from the door

the Children's Museum: 

We met up with our cousins Andrea and  Allison & their kiddos-it was fun to see everybody!

(the diner was SO cool/real looking-Jake took a minute to realize that he could play with the stove etc cause it looked so real haha)

vet:

grocery store:

Jake's cousin Bailey checking him out

in the back of the ambulance:

cousins in a rickshaw thing?

After we went to a really good Mediterranean/middle eastern place downtown that was so dang good! It was funny cause people tended to talk to our kids/notice them/find them novel wherever we went, and it took me a minute to figure out why that seemed weird, but then it dawned on me-in utah lil kids out and about at restaurants is no big deal/common place haha.   

Zoo: I forgot to keep taking pictures but it was perfect-overcast but not too rainy but not too hot and not a lot of people which was nice.

Sugar Land Natural Science Museum:

they had a real cool exhibit about a life of a butterfly that made you go through a maze and made you feel like you were the size of the butterfly.  You had to pick the right leaves to eat and escape birds/poisonous plants and other perils and eventually become a butterfly and fly (complete with mini zip line at the end to help you take flight)

Heading back to Utah bright and early:

Bye Gma and Gpa thanks for an awesome trip!!