Downtown Houston

Monday we went downtown to the Natural Science Museum.  We had lots of fun there. We learned about fracking, which would have been handy when Noah had a paper on it in the 6th grade, saw lots of fun gemstones, an Egyptian collection with lots of mummies that freaked Lily out, dinosaur fossils and visited the planetarium.

 We walked past this area on our way to the museum and we were a bit confused for a second thinking that we had made a wrong turn and were now in D.C.

 Then we saw this giant statue of Sam Houston (they have these everywhere.  We saw an even bigger one on the drive to Dallas) and remembered that we were still in Texas.

 Alex got to ride a T-Rex.  He thought that was super cool.  He was a little nervous at first, but he warmed up to it.  All in all, a fun day!

Tuesday we went back downtown again, but this time we went to the Downtown Aquarium.

We started out the day with petting and feeding the sting rays.  We thought that was pretty fun.  Alex was a bit shy about it at first, but he warmed up to it.  Lily refused to feed her fish to the rays.

Next we visited the shark exhibit.  We had to ride a train to get there.  We saw lots of interesting sharks in the tanks there.  We didn't feed those.

 Then after the sharks we went inside (much cooler) and visited different areas of water.  We were in the Bayou, Amazon, Shipwreck Pacific, Sunken City and then in India.

 My favorite place of the whole day.  Seeing the white tigers were amazing.  They have 4 of them and we were able to see 3.  They were so beautiful.  I really could have stayed in there all day.  I'm just mesmerized by them.

After we left the aquarium we stopped by the George H.W. Bush monument.  It was right across the street. We didn't make it to either of the presidential libraries that we wanted to.  I guess that will be the next trip!

Galveston

Friday we decided to check out the Gulf of Mexico down in Galveston, TX.  It was so fun.  We loved being at the beach again.  The water was so warm which is so different then what we are used to.  Fish would jump up right next to us in the water. We were able to drive on the sand and park our car right where we were setting up our beach site.  I could get used to that.

It was a great day! We love the beach!

After we got back from the beach the adults went out to dinner at a place called Gringos.  We were to busy eating to remember to take any pictures, but we all left stuffed and with carry-out boxes.  It was a super fun dinner.

Saturday Damon left to go back to Salt Lake. We had a mellow day and ended up going swimming that night.

NASA

Field trip to NASA.  One word:  AWESOME!

 A model of the space shuttle greets you right outside of the museum. 

"Houston, we have a problem". We got to tour the actual mission control where they actually ran all the Apollo missions from.  It was so cool.

 We also saw the floor were they have life size mock-ups of the international space station so the astronauts can practice.  They also have new models of the next vehicles to space.

The Saturn 5 rocket is huge!!  I thought the space shuttles were big. 

Houston and Pookie's!

We got to Houston around 5pm on the 11th of June.  We were so happy to see Pookie and Aaron and Alex and Sophie!  The kids were so happy to know they weren't going anywhere far for a week.  We were busy the whole time we were in Houston.  We explored the city and saw and ate lots of yummy things!

First stop-Blue Belle Ice Cream Factory-this ice cream gives Tillamook a run for its money.  To bad we can't get it out here. That might actually be a good thing.

 Look at all those yummy Flavors.  Wish I could have tried them all!  We did our best though.

 On the way home from Blue Bell we stopped at a place for lunch.  It serves Kolaches, which are a Chech Pastry.  They were way yummy.  I love how in love with the shape of Texas this state is.  Had to take a picture of the sign.

 Another temple stop:  Houston