Houston Trip

Our trip to Houston last week was SO MUCH FUN!!  As soon as Gay and Don left last July, we decided it was time to book a trip for us to get back to Houston for a visit.  Olivia and McIver were SO excited to skip school for a few days and get back to their old stomping grounds.  McIver certainly remembers our time in Houston more than our time in Greenville, so he enjoyed talking about his memories.  At one point, as we were driving past his old school and to our old house, he took a deep breath and sighed, then said,"I just have so many good memories here."  It brought tears to my eyes.

The kids spent all day at school, then we met Will at home to load up and head to the airport.  It was a loooong, day!  Olivia and McIver were pooped by the time we got on the bus to pick up our rental car.

Once we got to Houston, we stopped to grab a quick bite to eat on the way to Wendy and Jim's house where we spent Wednesday and Thursday night.  All four children played for a little while, then we got them settled down so that we could catch up and enjoy Thai take-out.  It was soooooo good - and spicy.  We definitely miss the restaurant options in Houston!

We took our time getting up on Thursday morning, drove around some of our old stomping grounds (our old house, both children's schools) and then went to the Children's Museum of Houston. I was not really looking forward to it, but it turned out to have lots of updates since our last visit.  The day was beautiful so the kids really enjoyed being outside in the Waterworks.

We met Wendy and Jim for lunch at Amazon Grill, one of our favorites when we lived in Houston.  After lunch, we had just enough down time to relax (read: nap), and then head over to see Shannon and Reagan.  Blakely and I had a chance to catch up, and the children had a ball running around and playing.  The ice cream truck was an extra special treat!

After the much-too-short visit with the Netherys, we got ready for our night out with some more Houston friends.  Gay and Don brought Abby and Sam to stay with the other four kids (and two sitters) at Jim and Wendy's house.  The six of us loaded up to meet some other friends at the new House of Blues in downtown Houston.  From there, we walked up to the Lucky Strike bowling alley.  It was easily the fanciest bowling alley any of us had ever been to.  We were all having such a great time that we stayed there for dinner - it was not your usual bowling alley food. 

Olivia ended up going home with the Stricklins to spend the night with Abby.  Her sweet little face lit up when she found out that was an option!  I was smart enough to head straight to bed while Will and Jim stayed up solving a Rubicks Cube (with a little help from YouTube).