Texas Christmas, Houston

After Christmas wound down, we packed up and headed to Houston for a few days to see a new cousin, Will, and Addie too, of course! We missed the turn for the creamery, but still managed to get some Bluebell for the ride. Gotta check that food box, for sure!

Will was just turning a month old, and we all got lots of newborn-holding time! So sleepy!

Cousin Addie was a new 2, and the kids had fun playing with her. It was pretty chilly and damp outside, so there was a lot of indoor play time this trip.

One of the first kid activities was Addie chasing Owen around the house, shouting "Boy!!!" This went on for quite a while, loop after loop.

We did venture out to the playground one morning, though we had to refresh ourselves a bit on toddler care and supervision. Only one bloody lip, not too bad, right?

Another refresher - toddler speech is fun! "Nicka House" referred to putting this Mickey Mouse doll on her head for some reason. Pretty stinkin' cute!

First official 4 cousins shot! 

Being in the big city allowed us to get Owen's family laser tag birthday request taken care of. It was pretty fun, but our family team lost to a couple of laser tag pros in the form of 8 and 10-year old brothers. Owen played lots more games and had a blast! Hadley was not a fan, as the vest was too big and the gun required two well-placed hands to fire. They are very focused on the pre-game instructions here.

We also met up with some college buddies at the 11 Below brewery, as we tend to do when in Houston. Too bad our kids were tired and ready to go early! 

Oh, and we did see Uncky Dan and Aunt Jenn a little bit, too. We even tried a dinner out with more kids than adults! Big city, lots of dining options to utilize; these were poke bowls and sushi burritos, neither of which our little town offers. Yum!

And even Loni and Lampe came to town, so we had a second family Christmas gift exchange. Good thing we had made some room in our luggage by mailing home a big box!

As always, it's nice to come 'home' and spend time with family and friends, especially around the holidays! Happy New Year, everyone!

Texas Christmas, Ranch

Continuing to check off our Texas food boxes, we stopped for delicious BBQ on our way to the ranch. Owen is a rib man, apparently, but I'm sad that neither kid likes BBQ sides! Something to keep working on, I suppose.

The main purpose of this visit was family time, and we definitely got some good time together! We hadn't seen our Texas family since last Thanksgiving. 12 people most of the time, and even 14 for Christmas dinner when my "adoptive grandparents", the DeZavalas arrived! Plus another 4 from NJ's family for an evening visit. Full house, for sure.

The kids were both enamored by their beautiful, older cousins, Hannah and Katie. They were hardly left alone while they were at the ranch and were gracious in playing, reading, and cuddling with their little cousins.

Of course there were lots of walks all over the ranch, even in cooler, cloudy, and damp conditions. Owen led the way in trail clearing efforts. We've trained him well!

A fun new addition to the trails this trip were some trail signs naming the paths after all the grandkids. Owen and Hadley loved that theirs were very close to the house and easy to find! Owen was also glad to be in "shorts weather", at least according to him.

There's nothing like being on a Texas ranch! We just had to live up to all the stereotypes: oil, cattle, 4-wheeling, and shooting stuff. 

Owen got to fulfill another dream by shooting a rifle (pellet gun)! He was on cloud nine! Uncle Michael said he was a natural, and Owen hit his first 3 out of 4 shots right on target. We also discovered that he was cross-dominant in that he's right-handed, but left-eyed, so he might need to practice learning to shoot with his left hand.

Of course, we were there for Christmas, which was wonderful, too, starting with a Christmas Eve children's pageant and cantata and full-family lunch out after church.

Christmas morning started out at a reasonable 7:30am. The kids hadn't even peeked in their stockings yet, but Santa found us out at the ranch! Woohoo!

Gift opening with 12 people was a sort of controlled chaos that was over pretty quickly. Apologies in advance if we miss a gift in your Thank You cards. Ha!

Santa came through with Owen's ATV, albeit a little smaller than he had in mind, and he RC-ed it all over the sand, grass, and sticks for the remainder of our stay. Another hit gift was the marshmallow bow and arrow, but who needs marshmallows? Pretend play is just as fun! Which reminds me that more than one relative was surprised by Owen's vigorous Hot Wheel car engine noises.

Hadley got a Moana doll and some art supplies. She enjoyed being the older kid for once, and helping with Aunt NJ's grandkids, Adeline and Easton. It was so nice to spend the holidays with our extended family this year!!

Texas Christmas, Austin

Once school was out for the holiday break, we packed up and headed to Texas to convene with family for 12 days. I must say that traveling with the kids has turned a corner! Each carried a backpack with their own entertainment for the trip, as well as a rolling carry-on that contained their clothes. Best of all, we got to fly out of our tiny, local airport, which was so convenient that we could relax quite a bit.

We had a 3-hour layover in Denver, but it was mid-day on a Tuesday, so the terminal was pretty quiet. The kids enjoyed the moving sidewalks and did laps while we waited. It felt good to stretch and move after sitting on the plane!

We flew into Austin and opted to spend a couple of nights there reminiscing and visiting friends. Our hotel was the beautiful UT conference center, conveniently located on campus, and our room had a view (that's the tower peaking up in the back and from a different perspective at night)!

We walked down memory lane as we crossed the Texas campus the next morning on our way to a Kerbey Lane breakfast. The sunny walkway below was once a street, but is now a wide, pedestrian mall inside campus borders.

We had to stop by the engineering quad, since that's where we spent so much of our time, even if it's just blah bricks and concrete.

Most of it looks the same, except for the beautiful new EE building they put in place of the former world's largest bathroom. All of this vast, open, indoor space with natural lighting and a spiral staircase threw us for a loop.

We couldn't pass up the stadium without a picture.

We found some familiar names at the alumni center...

And we enjoyed the sunshine at Clark Field behind the dorms! The kids even did a lap or two around on the track.

All of the academic tour stops were surely boring to the kids, but they certainly loved the turtle pond. Who doesn't? Just watch some turtles for a while, and all your cares seem to disappear, even on your way to a final exam.

That night we met up with the Tylers again, and the kids had no problem entertaining each other while we waited for a table at Chuy's for dinner.

Our final Austin morning was spent soaking up the 70-degree temps and sunshine at Pease Park. Our favorite part was playing in Shoal Creek, hopping across stepping stones and tossing some in for big splashes. The weather was perfect, the water ran clear, city sounds melted away, and only a few toes got wet.