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