My family just left yesterday after a great 9 days of Houston and San Antonio excitement. It was so great to have them all here--I'm so glad they made the effort to come and that we had enough room for everybody!
Mom, Dad, Brielle, and Kyron arrived on Thursday, July 3rd and we spent the evening playing and swimming and the such.
We spent the 4th of July enjoying Freedom Over Texas: a big concert and festival featuring Jo Dee Messina, Miranda Lambert, and Sara Evans. By far Sara Evans was our favorite! Dad was the hero of the day as he braved the intense lines to buy us all treats and liquid refreshment! We tried to enjoy the heat and traffic was surprisingly easy to navigate on our way out--even with the 100,000 in attendance!
Kasey and Chelsi arrived Saturday morning and we spent the afternoon shopping at the Traders Village--the largest flea market in the nation--and avoiding (or playing in, depending on your heat level) the torrential downpours that frequented the area! After a drive-by of the temple, we picked Jillisa up and headed to my favorite fast food place, What-a-burger, for dinner.
Sunday was a relaxing day a home, and with so many hands to hold and play with Katelyn, Mike and I actually got to listen in church! We played some games and enjoyed a joint birthday party to celebrate Mom's birthday (she's turning 29), Mike's birthday (he's the big 27, on the 28th of July), and Katelyn's birthday (shes going to be 1 on the 27th!) No pie for Mike, but a great Texas shaped cake and homemade ice-cream! Yum!
Monday we spent in downtown Houston. We toured the underground tunnel network that connects all the major parts of the city (we wondered why there weren't any people up on the hot, hot, humid streets!) and were awe-struck at the Galleria (the 2nd largest mall in the nation; they sport an ice rink, work offices, apartment buildings, and the most expensive and ritzy stores I can think of!). Monday night was our big BBQ night--lots of yummy types of meat and BBQ, and Dad's favorite--straight from the coast Jumbo Shrimp! Gross! ;)
Tuesday Mom and Dad and the kids headed to San Antonio for a day of touring the Alamo, the Riverwalk, Sea World, and an IMAX movie, while Katelyn and I stayed home and packed--prepping for Mike to get home for us to get on the road to San Antonio. The ride to San Antonio is totally boring, but easy and manageable and it was fun to drive it and think of Mikes family who is moving there this week! We enjoyed a dinner at Rudy's--a premiere and yummy BBQ place in Texas, and retired to our cramped and little hotel rooms for a cramped and not real great night of sleep!
Wednesday we enjoyed San Antonio Sea World. All of us Cravens agree that it's not quite as good as Sea World, San Diego--but we had a great time nonetheless! It's amazing what they can get those animals to do--and even when that people can do! Just incredible! Katelyn loved watching all the animals and did really well in the heat and the crowds!
After driving home late Wednesday night, Mike got up early to go to work (poor honey!) and we all slept in and enjoyed a leisurely morning and a fun afternoon shopping trip...we found a $4.99 shoe store (Meg, when you come again, we have to go! It was something you would have TOTALLY loved!!), found great deals at Steve and Barrys and Dad bought a stylin' pair of boots at Cavendars Boot City. Kasey and Chelsi's plane got delayed so they got to stay another night and we enjoyed a dinner of Mike's yummy enchiladas! (I don't have any pictures from this day!! We should have taken one of the shoes...I think between the 4 of us girls we had 15 pairs of shoes!!)
Friday we headed to Mike's work for a tour and then to Galveston for a day at Moody Gardens. After Sea World, this was really nothing special and we ended up coming home earlier then we expected. Good memories though--who can ever forget the amazing underwater sea ride! ;)
Everybody flew home on Saturday--sad news!--and we spent the day running errands and trying to hold back the tears! Today is a better day and I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Utah! Hope you all enjoyed this long journal entry of our vacation! We learned some great things to do while we have visitors, and some not great things to do while we have visitors--so please come and visit and we'll share our expertise!
Love you all!
I've just reached my photo-upload limit! Guess we'll call this the end of the post~!
3 comments:
I love the video of everyone trying to get her to walk to them. Especially your dad bribing her with, "Grandpa's got money!" So cute!!
Love the pictures, so cute!Ben and I and baby will have to make a trip out there sometime. Probably when it cools down though.
woow Mindy, you guys had so much fun!!!
Post a Comment