Visiting Cousins in Louisiana

After we spent a couple of weeks touring around Texas we started to head back east.  It felt a little strange realizing that we had passed the halfway point of our trip.  And we did a lot of re evaluating.  Perhaps more than usual.  I feel like we are always re evaluating; trying to decide if this is the trip we intended and hoped.  And if not, do we need to make changes.  But all that introspection will be for another post, perhaps, someday.

As I was saying...After Texas we headed to the middle of nowhere in Louisiana.  Brian's cousin's family is stationed in Ft. Polk right now.  All our kids are the same ages, get along really well, and we always have a great time when we visit Paula.

Since they are currently living in a RV we all stayed in a small, very rural bed and breakfast.  Allen Acres was a little piece of heaven unexpectedly found in Pitkin, LA.  Since we had been staying primarily in hotels in big cities it was a welcomed relief to spend a few days doing little more than rocking on a porch and watching the kids chase lizards.  I finally felt myself breathe and my heart slow down.  I finally felt comfortable.

Painting turtle shells

Feeding the chickens and gathering eggs for the morning's breakfast.  With Charles, the owner of the b&b, who has the most beautiful southern accent.

Isabella and Isabella ("Bella" & "Izzy" when they are together) are 6 months apart.

I miss that porch and those wonderful cousins.

City Mouse & Country Mouse with muddy feet.

Lidia and Simon are a month apart.

I love Paula!  And still don't know how she got Oliver to eat vegetables.

Loving Paula's farm animals

Oliver and William are a month apart.  Poor William...

Texas Forever

Last post of Texas!  We drove from College Station to Ft. Worth and spent a few days with Brian's cousin Katie and her sweet family.  Dallas/Ft Worth was much more exciting and worth visiting beyond the airport (where we've spent a lot of time in all our cross country travels).

Old stores and cool signage in the middle of nowhere.

One of our favorite things we did in Ft Worth was going to the Stockyards where they still herd a few longhorns down main street everyday.  Just for show, but we enjoyed the show.  The longhorns are really amazing.

 And we ate some more awesome barbecue.

One evening we drove to Dallas to visit some NYC friends who moved there recently.

And took a fun little train ride around a beautiful park in Ft. Worth.

And that wraps up our Texas travels.  Next up... Louisiana!

Follow Along

I am, obviously, quite behind on my posts here.  And I'm determined to catch up.  I think I can!  I think I can!  I think I can!  Until then, for any of you wanting to see more photos as we go along I have been posting photos regularly onto instagram.  You can see my feed on the web here.  Most of those photos are also being posted onto my facebook page.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

We spent a few weeks in Texas.  (And I have one more Texas post after this one.)  After San Antonio we headed to Austin.  We enjoyed Austin, but wished the weather would have cooperated and not rained most of the time.  We were only there 2.5 days and it rained for 2 of those.  We spent most of the beautiful day on Congress Street which was full of food carts, funky shops, and lots of old hot rods cruising around.

After Austin we went back to Houston and spent several days there for recuperation.  The hotel there was nice, had breakfast included, and a kitchen in the room.  The kids and I went to the Children's Museum of Houston one day, but other than that we just played at playgrounds, and basically did nothing.  Which is what we needed at the time.

Isabella wants me to write, "Our hotel room had a ghost in it!"

We then headed to College Station to play some more with my brother Sean and his cute family.

Picking Texas wildflowers on the way.

Sean gave us a tour of the Bush School at Texas A&M where he will be getting his graduate degree in the Fall.

Awesome Texas barbecue in College Station.

We also picked up a new kid along the way...  Oliver got an extreme haircut.  I'm still not sure which one I like best (the bowl cut or the buzz), but I do love how his cowlick shows with the buzz cut.

Huntsville, Alabama

After our cave tour in Mammoth Cave National Park we headed directly south.  That journey south was one of those times when we really floundered on this trip; we had difficulty figuring out what to do next.  We had planned to camp another night at the national park, but the forecast showed a certainty of rain, and we avoid camping in the rain (with kids) at all costs.  So we packed up that evening, not really sure where we would sleep, or even which direction we should go.  After some tears (on my part) we landed at a McDonald's with free wifi, got a bite to eat and figured it out while it rained cats and dogs outside.  Our kids are serious troopers to sweetly put up with all our craziness.

Late at night, at McDonalds, I got the kids into their pajamas and we drove and drove in the dark, pouring rain.  After about 4 hours of driving we stopped and dragged ourselves into a hotel.   We woke up in Huntsville, AL, home of the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.  My boys (all 3 of them) love spaceships.  So, even though it was a bit out of the way it was a fantastic stop.

Our science museum membership got us into the Space and Rocket Center for free, so we went two days in a row and loved it the whole time.

Simon loves spaceships.  He's one of those boys with a passion for them.  He never sat still to look at a book until I grab some spaceship books from the library.  His favorite thing to say (after 'no' and 'me') is "Spaceship....moon..."  When we woke up that morning I told him he needed to get ready so we could go see some spaceships.  I've never seen that boy so motivated; he was ready, waiting patiently by the door for several minutes before we left.  I am in love with this little boy and his excitement for spaceships; it makes my heart happy.

He's looking into huge turbo thrusters (see photo above).

test pilot

taking a tour of space camp...so fun.

Climbing mountains on Mars

With Simon's limited vocabulary of "spaceship...moon..." I failed to fully understand his excitement.  Once we saw this spaceship (which I learned is more accurately called an orbiter) Simon kept declaring, "IN!"  "MOON!"  When I explained that we can't go in it and we, unfortunately, can't fly to the moon he was distraught.  Simon dropped to his knees, bowed his head, and sat silent and solemn for several minutes (no exaggeration).  I tried to comfort him, but his eyes stayed fixed on the ground, his little body was so heavy.  This little boy's big dreams had been crushed.  My mama heart ached for him (and still does).  

I wish I could say he snapped out of his funk and was a happy little boy the rest of the day...but he wasn't.  Yes, he still enjoyed what was going on, but his enthusiasm was gone, his bounce and spunk were repressed.  He was quiet and mellow (very unlike him) for the rest of the day.  It broke my heart.

Despite this sad ending to this post we did have a great time.  We got to see the annual Moon Buggy Race where people from all over the world bring their handmade moon buggies and race them through an obstacle course.  And I'm totally excited to send my kids to space camp there when they are a little older.  :)

The Stars at Night...

After New Orleans we finally made it to Texas!  First stop was Houston; the city with the most intricate, confusing, unnecessarily high highway system I have ever seen.

Our first encounter with Houston.

Catching up with an old roommate and her wonderful family.

We stayed only briefly in Houston before heading to San Antonio to see the Alamo.  My younger brother, Sean, and his family live in College Station (about 3 hours from San Antonio), so they came to meet us so we could all play together.  AND my mom, from California  was visiting my brother in College Station at the time, so we got to see her too.  It was a wonderful treat!  Grandma and cousins!

After two days in San Antonio we all went to visit a family friend who lives in Comfort, TX, about an hour outside San Antonio.  There we got to hang out with my family some more, do an Easter egg hunt, catch up with a childhood friend (unexpectedly), and fire some real guns for the first time in my life.  (Real as in: not a squirt or nerf gun.)

Fiona was my neighbor when we were kids (5-12 years old).  When I posted a photo of myself shooting a gun, in "Comfort, TX" onto facebook she wrote and said she lived in a neighboring town.  She drove 20 minutes Easter morning to see me.  It was so much fun to catch up.

Here's an unedited (meaning: a tad too long) video of me firing a shotgun for the first time (and my reaction).

More Texas to come...