Texas Wedding Roadtrip-May 24, 2013

(click here for today's pictures)

Our kind of break!

• Seriously, there is just something about Dennies and hotel living-we love it.  We are all crammed in this little room, yet we slept wonderfully.  Even waking with Whitman for his middle of the night snack, I still slept great.  We started stirring after 7 (well, Graham was up at 6) and had to rush to make it to breakfast.
• Campbell's first breakfast pick this morning was fruit loops.  But everyone had waffles-in the shape of Texas.  What could be better than that?  Reagan said, and I agreed, that breakfast at the other hotel was better but this breakfast was more fun.  I need a waffle maker that makes waffles in the shape of something.  Really, I just need to use my real waffle maker more often than Mother's day.  
• We were still in the car a bit after 9 which was the same time as yesterday so that was good.  Of course, we will need to bump that time up by at least an hour in September.  We have traveled a lot but Robby and I are trying to really plan our upcoming "Arkansas to California Trip and Back" out really well.  I have a page of notes of things that I need to bring and remember (thinks like update the GPS, bring a clothes pin for the hotel curtains, masking tape and a sharpie to label my packing bins, bring me multiple pairs of shoes so I am not traipsing around in 18 inches of snow and sandals like last huge road trip)
• Anyway, speaking of the GPS (again), today Campbell said "Daddy, why do we keep going around and around and around."  And when we came into the hotel tonight, Anderson said that his head was spinning.  We did have to make a few really sharp turns and a few u turns today but it wasn't that bad!  I think my kids might be a bit overly dramatic!
• We drove back into Houston (we are staying in Webster-south of Houston) and our first stop was the be the Children's Museum.  Today Reagan said that she has counted 64 buses and the majority of them were letting kids out in front of the Children's Museum.  So we crossed out fingers that they would be gone by lunch and headed to stop B-the Museum of Natural Science.  
• There were lots of school groups there but not as bad as it could have been.  Places should have to close when a school group is there!  The place was huge and we barely covered half of it.  We could have stayed there all day long but moved to our next stop after lunch.
• Before lunch we did see tons and tons of dinosaur fossils.  Not only were there dinosaur fossils but early man fossils-I am thinking that I need to find a kids book on dinosaurs and the Bible.  Reagan was asking me about the early man fossils and I was at a loss of how to explain all of that to her.  So we just moved on to lunch!
• They had a McDonalds there so Robby picked up lunch while I found a table outside.  (We both actually forgot that we had our picnic stuff in the car just a few blocks away-but there wasn't really a good eating spot near the car so it was fine.  We still have plenty of picnic days left.)  It was warm in the sun but our table was mostly shady.  I was holding Whitman and Robby pointed out that his little head was so sweaty-poor guy.  The kids didn't get too sweaty because they had one of those globes that spin on the water and they get a bit wet (Anderson did get drenched-he said his hat bumped the globe and then fell off his head causing it to be dripping wet.  Hmm, or maybe it just put his hat in the water to cool off)
• We then walked through a beautiful rose garden to get to the Children's Museum.  This museum was crowded but not as crazy as it would have been this morning.  It was a cross between the WonderPlace and Museum of Discovery times 10.  It was pretty impressive (not as awesome as the Please Touch Museum in Philly) but it was still neat.  The kids could have stayed there for days.  They had a little town with credit cards and money they could use in different places which was really neat.  Lots of areas to learn about energy and motion with balls.  A 3 story climbing thing-which Campbell freaked out on.  Graham was near her and Reagan climbed to her as fast as she could.  Thankfully they were able to convince her that she wasn't stuck enough to get her close to me.  I then had to climb on to get her off.  The space was tight and I actually thought that I might also get stuck in the process-thankfully we all made it out and I am going to start a diet on Tuesday when we get home.  
• Outside they had a huge water play area that the kids loved.  Again, my Anderson had just dried from earlier and was soaking again.  Hopefully his tennis shoes will dry enough that he can wear them tomorrow.  They all loved the water area and nearby they had a maze that was made with mesh.  Keaton loved this-she stayed in it forever and would not come out to me.  I had to track her down inside.  
• When we had seem as much of the museum as we could take, we headed back to the car.  I told the kids that if no one complained then we could have a snack and drink when we made it back to the car.  They were pretty good on the trek back even though they were hot and tired.  
• Next stop was Ikea-I just love ikea.  Reagan said that I love it so much because I can shop with just Daddy and Campbell and Whitman and not with the rest of them.  She might be on to something.  Ikea has a play place that you can drop your potty trained kids off at.  And when the Dennies come-we fill the place up.  This is the second time we have dropped off 4 kids at an Ikea and both times they had to put the "full" sign up.  
• The kids have a blast in those things-they had a ball pit, pages to color and a movie.  There are lots of windows and it was really calm inside with 2 older women watching them.  Since I am dropping off so many and I know that they all watch out for each other I don't think twice about leaving them.  
• Whitman slept through Ikea and Keaton took it all in.  Robby and I did a lot of window shopping and a lot less actual shopping.  I spent about 15 bucks-4 foldable bags, 4 boxes of bandaids, 3 scissors and 2 packages of kid bowls.  Then we picked up the kids and bought supper-hots dogs-and sat on the benches to eat them.
• After the hot dogs, Robby bought Reagan, Anderson, Graham and Campbell ice cream cones.  We really just thought that Keaton could just share with the others-we were wrong and she let us know it. So Robby went to get her one and as soon as she saw him coming, she sat right down ready to eat.  And eat she did-until I finally had to throw it away because everyone else was finished and Robby was in the van waiting.  
• Robby went to the van early to load up Whitman and then pulled up close to pick us up.  But actually he just likes pulling up close so he can watch people try to fit crazy huge purchases inside of cars.  Today he watched a lady try to fit a 6 foot mirror in a two door car and then he read her lips as she said "I didn't think it would be this big."
• It took us forever to get back to the hotel-traffic was crawling.  We tried to get in the HOV lane and were so close to the entrance.  But then it snuck up on us and we would have had to cross 3 lanes of traffic (we have done this a few times on the trip which is hard enough to do in a van like ours but today there were too many cars so we just missed it)  The kids were fine on the slow ride back to the hotel because they were busy counting down the minutes until we could go swimming.
• Everyone suited up and we headed to the pool.  It is amazing how much less confident all of the kids are in the water after not swimming all winter.  Good think swimming lessons are coming up soon.  We have a pool membership this summer and my goal is to take them swimming at least twice a week.  Got to fit that into our summer plans along with learning to ride bikes.  
• Whitman even had his first swim-he loves the shower but wasn't too nuts about swimming at first.  But he did calm and like it for awhile.  We did have one incident while swimming.  Graham said he needed to go potty (2) so Robby took him.  Campbell heard this and then said that she did too.  We just ignored her because she was just copying Graham and because EVERY time that she potties she number 2s.  Well, she was serious and thankfully I was able to get her out of the pool before she caused a disaster. 
• Back in the room the kids played on the ipad, watched a movie and bothered Keaton.  Robby washed another load of laundry and then it was bedtime.  Anderson is my bed mate tonight-he will not be as easy to sleep next to as Reagan.  He has already pushed me twice and will probably end up falling off of the bed onto Reagan-that will cause a fiasco.  It only took about 10 minutes of lights out for everyone to go to sleep.  Now I am going to fold my laundry (housework even on vacation) and then to bed for me!