Wow! What a post! Vacation #2 Houston Texas!

We were lucky enough to go visit Kyle and Frannie in Houston this past month (Jan 7-Jan 11)! We found flights on Southwest for half off and we couldn't resist. The only bad thing was that we'd have to miss the first week of school. If you have to miss school, we figured that the first week would be the easiest. Well, Casey ended up having to do some homework while we were there, and my teacher was not very happy with me missing the first two days, but we figured it all out and had a great time. Thanks so so much Kyle and Frannie for letting us come crash your beautiful house, taking time off from work, pretending to be tourists with us, and everything! You guys are the best!! For more on our vacation visit Frannie's blog here. She's done a great job documenting everything for me! hehe

The plane ride: Mom E. and Jessica almost missed it- like they closed the gate and the guy said I'm not sure if you'll make it. Crazy, they just couldn't wait to use the plane bathroom instead. The plane was only like 1/4 full so we each had our own row. It was great! Momma E. even took Jocelyn for us so me and Case could sleep. Thanks! On the connecting flight we found Jocelyn's first tooth!! YAY! She had been teething for 9 months and it was good to finally see some progress. :) She was eating ice because it was the only thing that would keep her quiet and when putting some in her mouth I felt something sharp... voila- A TOOTH!

By the way, we flew out at 6:15am! We had in our minds that the sooner we got to Houston the more time we would have to play- well we soon realized that it ended up giving us just more sleeping time at Kyle and Frannie's house. It was fun though to just hang out and be lazy for the day.

The next day we went to Galveston to check out the damage from Hurricane Ike. Overall they've done a pretty good job cleaning up everything but there were still piles of wreckage, tons of blue tarps on roofs, bent light poles and signs, and lots of destroyed buildings. They were bringing in sand to try to replace what was lost.

This building was right out by the water.

We had a great time in the 75 degree weather on the beach in January!

Me, Jocey, Caseo, Kyle, and Jessa

Jocelyn was not so sure about the cold sand on her feet.

Jocelyn and her daddy! I love this!

That night we went to a great Texas steakhouse called County Line! It was so delicious! I'm a huge fan of steakhouses. Mmmm! Us girls got the best seating ever in Kyle and Frannie's new car. :) And I love the new car- you guys have superb taste in cars.

The next day we did some touring of Houston. We checked out the Galleria Mall- huge and I had to do some shopping around when I was with Frannie. We went to the Water Wall. It was built in 1985, runs through 11 million gallons of water a minute, and is 64' high!! Amazing huh?


And the last stop was in the middle of this absolutely beautiful neighborhood, we found this- the Beer Can House! This whole entire house is covered in some part of a beer can. It is pretty dang cool!


The next day (Saturday) we decided to check out NASA. Why not right? We got to see some crazy stuff about going to the moon, some real rockets, where the astronauts train for going into space, and the actual control center!!

The whole gang: Kyle, Collette (Casey's cousin), Jess, Jocelyn sleeping, Mom E., Frannie, Casey, and Me

Touching a piece of the moon

Huge Rocket Booster things

How big I'd be on some planet (I can't remember, and it's just how much I'd weigh, but I loved these mirrors)

Where the astronauts train. See the suit? The tarps are because the roof got damaged during the hurricane.

The control center.

We spent the rest of the night at Casey's Uncle Brian's house with his wife Michelle and family. The girls and Collin had a blast playing with Jocelyn. It was so cute!

They even played dress up with Joce

Sunday were so lucky to hear Kyle, Frannie, and Collette all give talks in church. They did fabulous! It was fun to hear them. THANKS AGAIN KYLE AND FRANNIE!! You guys are the best! We love you!

Saying goodbye

I've missed my blogging... Vacation #1

I'm in school again. That may explain my lack of posting some exciting events. I hope to do better, but probably won't.

On New Year's Day we went on a little Egbert family trip to Moab. We left Jocelyn with my parents again because we knew that it would be way to cold to take her around everywhere and she just wouldn't be happy. She loves being at my family's house and they love her so we knew she would be much happier there. The first day we went to Goblin Valley. I'd never been there before, but it was pretty cool. I was impressed! Plus there was a little bit of snow around, which made it look so pretty! We had fun climbing all over the different "little gobbies", playing catch, and taking pictures. I didn't bring my camera from the car and was too lazy to get it so I'll have to post pics when I get them from Sammy. The next day we went to Arches. We didn't do the long hike because Dad E. was sick. It was a big bummer that he was sick because he was the one who planned the trip and was so excited about it. We did drive all around Arches, go to lots of lookouts, and of course, took some fun pictures!

Sam, Jessica, Erica, and Casey

We ended that night with pizza, lots of treats, watching some football bowl??, a long soak in the hot tub, and a huge pillow fight/wrestling match!! Talk about the ultimate sleepover party huh?! We had a blast!



The next day on our way home we stopped at Dead Horse Point. Holy moly! It was amazing! You could see forever and it is beautiful! We may have even stayed more than 2 minutes if it hadn't been 5 degrees outside. I want to go again.

Dad E., Sam, Ryan, Erica, Jessica, and Momma E.

(picture courtesy of Sammy, my amazing photo genius, brother-in-law)

A break from the catch up posts- only a few left. Our date last night.

Ryan watched baby for us.
We played racquetball.
It was my first time.
I'm not good.
I LOVED it!!
We'll play again- hopefully weekly.
Casey is an amazing teacher.
We got yoasis.
It was delicious.
I fell hard on the ice flat onto my back!
Some tears came out.
We came home.
We played sequence.
I won the first round.
But Casey won the second.
I love that man.
I am sore today.

New Years Partay!

We had a great time bringing in the new year with our family! First we celebrated with the Finch side (Casey's mom's family). The Finches are always fun to be with. They are some of the happiest people in the world, I'm sure of it!

Grandma and Baby June (That's what she calls Jocelyn because one of Casey's nicknames is Junior)

After that we went to my Uncle John and Aunt Kathy's house for some laughs, paper bag game (we actually missed this year, but it is so funny), yummy treats (I contributed the traditional mini cheesecakes, and caramel candy pretzel turtles), our many flavors of sparkling cider, and lots of loud poppers to welcome 2009!! We also celebrate early and watch a recording of the previous years ball drop in NYC. It works good when there are lots of young kids.

Some of the cousins posing for a picture with their poppers

Sorry Case, you know I'm horrible at taking picture of the three of us. Someone is always cut out. Sorry it was you this time.

We went on a carriage ride

The Monday after Christmas we went on a carriage ride around Salem Pond. It was magical- christmas lights on a pond, a horse drawn carriage, and being with our family- what more could we want?!

Baby got these in her stocking

She loves playing in the tub so much now that she cries when we take her out.

Egbert Evening

We went over to mom and dad Egbert's Christmas evening to play games and open more presents. Grandma was in heaven holding her little grandbabies. They were both so tired from a long day but hung in there for just long enough to snap a picture.

Dad E. always comes up with something amazing that he makes for all the kids. This year he made us whistles out of antlers and he made little Jo these beauties!

Aren't they the cutest little moccasins ever?!

A few days after Christmas Mom and Dad E. told us they had our Christmas present and surprised us with ALL OF THIS! We now have our food storage (at least for a few months of food, and a year of water). I seriously was thrilled! Casey not as thrilled but still happy. I've been thinking about food storage a lot and was feeling worried about it, but now I feel prepared and that's a good feeling.

THANKS!

Cowley Christmas

We woke up at the crack of dawn, not even dawn, it was 5:30AM! We spent the night at mom and dad Cowley's house and that is what time we've gotten up since I can remember. I would wake up all night as a kid. I couldn't sleep. I still absolutely love Christmas time but I'd be okay sleeping in a little bit.

First picture of the morning. haha. Casey was so out of it.

I always have the hardest time figuring out what to get for Casey. He's so picky about quality and researches everything so that it is the best. Plus he doesn't ever talk about anything that he wants and would be so annoyed if I bought him clothes. I guess he doesn't like them as much as me or something. Anyway, I was super lucky to drag Casey's brother Ryan along with me shopping for Casey this year. He helped me to get Casey everything he could need for fishing. Casey loved it and I'm excited to use it as soon as the weather gets warmer.


I know I already posted about my bed, but what I didn't mention is that Christmas morning I got a little tiny box from Case all wrapped up. I was so excited about my present and ripped the wrapping paper off as quickly as possible only to find a note that said, "later today". I threw it on the floor. Oh man, he is hilarious huh?! It's pretty funny now, but I had to wait until 11pm before I got my big gift and I was getting so anxious. haha

Mom and Dad C. gave us a bunch of gift cards to go out to eat! Going out to eat is one of my favorite things and we rarely do it! Yay! Now we can go and not be worrying about the cost the whole time. They also gave us a gift card to a bed and breakfast and said they'd watch Jocelyn. I think I'm going to save that for my birthday. I can't wait! Thank you so much!!

I was so excited for Jocelyn's first Christmas and loved getting gifts for her. Mostly it was an excuse to buy her things since she will play with about anything we give her, and doesn't care one bit about new clothes, but still. We didn't wake up Jocelyn at 5:30 and I was going to just let her sleep as long as she wanted, but around 7 Grandpa decided she should come join the party and brought her down. She has him wrapped around her finger. We did most of the unwrapping for her. She would get distracted looking at the bows and playing with the paper. She was a cutie- half awake, and no clue of what was going on.

We got her this ball popper and she loves it!

Grammy and Grandpa picked the perfect toys for Jocelyn! They gave her some musical toys and she put her arms out and started to bop up and down. This was the first time she danced. It was super cute!

The whole family (plus my grandma who was visiting from Maine, and minus me) eating our yummy breakfast! We always have a huge breakfast complete with our favorite- sploosh! (Sploosh is orange and grapefruit segments, strawberries, all together and it is amazing. We love it!) This is a big tradition and it is the best!

Thanks mom and dad for a fun Christmas! We loved spending it with the family!