The Spring Trip to Houston

Okay, so this time I have an actual reason for not posting for awhile. I was not here.

I was in HOUSTON!

The landscape: Not the same as it was before.

Due to the drought for all of last year, I never realized that there could be anything but dry grass from here to Texas. However that is simply not true. With all the wonderful rain we've been receiving the drive from Southern Oklahoma to Houston is simply gorgeous. Thousands of wildflowers along the banks of the road in all sorts of colors. Long, tall grasses. Huge, leafy trees. And on the drive down this wispy fog all throughout the Arbuckle Mountains in the early morning hours. So incredibly pretty. So many times I wanted pictures.

Hit that ball, what a game...

In order to travel with Will to his job at the Astros Stadium, I had to pick up the pace on 45 to make it to Houston by 3:30. (I was close: 3:40. But we still made it to the Stadium, thanks to Will who navigated me through all the chaotic traffic and suddenly clogged highways.)

Therefore I made it to my very first (professional) baseball game! The Houston Astros vs. the Atlanta Braves. Which I thought was pretty funny, since as a kid I loved the Braves. Or at least, as much as I ever loved a sports team as a kid. All that pretty much means is that I loved them one particular year they went to the World Series and my dad and I had this huge game about who would win. And he wanted the other team and I picked the Braves (they lost.)  So that's it.  Anyway, I was still amused I got to see the Braves. (Although, yes, in real life their fans seem to be pretty annoying.)

Root. Root. Root. This is the Astros slogan for the year. They take this very seriously, as you can see all over this pic.

The Astros lost, but I did get to hear the home run cannon go off, and I did enjoy the extreme classic/nostalgia feeling that seems to come over you while wandering through a ballpark and the first few innings of the game. Plus, the evening was perfect. Seriously, I kept looking up, seeing cityscape, and realizing I had forgotten I was outside. Absolutely beautiful, perfect for a game.

All I could hear was bits & pieces of "What a Game" from Ragtime.

The Boys

I had a lot of great chances to play with the kiddos, especially Robbie.  Who is four and can build things like this out of K'Nex:

Robbie's Robot. No instructions here, folks. Just his thoughts and K'nex prowess. Man, I wish had a picture when he had wings on it.

 

At one point Robbie actually convinced me to try and build an airplane for him out of K'nex from the instruction manual.

Oh, guys. Me with K'nex. Can you already see the utter failure?

But I was pretty pleased with how I had finally managed to get over halfway done and looking pretty good when he slid down beside me and stated "Um.... this part is upside down."
Which prompted me to ask the dumbest question I could have possibly asked at that moment.
"Are you sure, Robbie?"
"Yes. This is upside down." And before I could blubber out something about "being sure before we changed it" he had taken it from my hands, made quick eight snaps and handed it back to me before running off on his way. He had fixed it.  (For you curious, the plane eventually did get finished with Robbie's help.) 

Death to Dust Man

I really, really love The Mega's album featuring music from Mega Man 2. But I've never touched a Mega Man game and I was wondering what they were like and Will said we could play through them together.
Um.
That sounded great until I realized how hard some of the levels were to jump into for the first three games, and I pretty much just handed off the controller to him (once with one hit point left and no lives at the boss gate.)  I did however play more of Mega Man 4, right up until Dust Man who stressed me out so much I couldn't even watch him beat the level.
And then time ran out and no more Mega Man.
But I did get to meet Rush!

The Zooooooo!
And we went to the Zoo!

Robbie & Will spying on the...gorillas? Was it gorillas?

The Houston Zoo has a lot of cool animals, many different ones from OKC which was a nice change.  My favorite part was actually at the very end where we came across red pandas running around in their exhibit, being incredibly cute. While OKC does have one, she's usually sleeping or hidden. To see them so active was lovely. (No pictures there because they were in a dark tunnel behind glass.)

Also, there were otters, sprawled on top of each other, sleeping on their backs. Also very cute.

The giraffes were feeling up close & personal. Love the tongue sticking out.

Again, great weather, great company, great Zoo. 

Bouncing (on heads) here and there and everywhere....
Tarvis!
One evening (I can no longer remember what happened what day) I was able to run over to Travis' to catch up with him which was nice. And then I watched Will & Travis play Super Mario Wii which was hysterical. Seriously, bouncing off each others heads, falling into pits, crashing around in bubble form... there's a reason I love to watch people play video games.

The Return of the Confetti Eggs
If for any bizarre reason I wasn't sure before, I've now decided I absolutely love confetti eggs.

Shamelessly stealing these pics from Will.

Kim sweetly thought of and bought some confetti eggs for us to play with, but unfortunately the timing never quite worked out! So the day I left we managed to sneak them in after church.

Isaac seemed less concerned. Pic also stolen.

I tried to smash one on Robbie's head - instantly was afraid I was going to hurt him more than expected - and began breaking them open instead which worked just as well. But don't worry, he took great pleasure in busting them over mine, so there was definitely egg-head-smashing going on. :)

Stolen! Stolen!

I love the confetti! I don't know why. (Though maybe it harkins back to the days of the Fantasticks when I had great joy in playing with it after every performance to Philip's dismay.) I think it's all the colors. It makes everything look so cheery & bright. It's great stuff.  Next year I need to buy several packs and stock up!

One more since confetti pictures rock. Don't worry, we cleaned up the mess.

Thanks again, Kim! :)

Seven and a half hours to home.
It was a total blessing that I didn't hit any major traffic on the drive home since I left later than I originally intended. I guess Saturday night suddenly everything caught up with me and I was worn out by Sunday morning. So after the confetti eggs, I tried to lay down (and failed at sleeping.) But a fantastic lunch from Kim was enough and I was quite awake the rest of the drive home. After sailing five minutes through construction that caused me two hours of grief last spring, I was thrilled.

All in all....
It was an absolutely lovely trip. Friends, kiddos, a Zoo, games...how can you go wrong? It was perfect.