A Quick Trip to Houston

This poor blog has been neglected lately. Summer is busy! Summer and the end of the semester are EXTRA busy. For more updates on our life you can visit us at https://onceuponaminivan.wordpress.com

Ok so where have we been? Well mostly we've been living life... you can find us at Chick-Fil-A, Costco, HEB, or the library on any given day. 

We spiced things up a bit last weekend and took a quick trip to Houston. 

Quick story/aside: We have these amazing friends here in Austin, that used to live in Houston. When they moved they kept their old house, but they are now selling it- they invited us to go to Houston for the weekend and "camp" in their empty house with them. Our kids love their kids, and we think they're great so we took them up on their generous offer! 

These photos are in the opposite order, so let's start with the end of the trip first. 

On our way home to Austin we stopped by the Houston temple. There isn't a temple in Austin, so when we are close to one we try and stop by and let the kids walk around. If you haven't been to the Houston temple, it is worth seeing. It looks totally different from all the other Texas temples. 

What you can't see is the temple in the background, suffice it to say that the white slur is the temple.

 The kids found a shaded fountain and didn't want to leave. You could just make out the spire from the shaded area.

 One or more children tried to go for a swim in the fountain, can't say I blame them, it was 10,000 degrees and SO muggy.

 Please ignore this off kilter photo, this temple is so beautiful!

 Our kids were SO tired all weekend. We arrived late friday night, let the kids play until 11 or so, then had them up and out the door by 7:45am. We played all day at NASA, came home and played some more, went out to dinner at 6:30pm (two of our kids start heading to bed at this time), were in bed by 9am, and then out the door again by 7:45am. No naps, no early bedtime, no sleeping in. Grace almost never sleeps on someone's shoulder or in a stroller, she managed two short naps this way that weekend.

 I wish I had a video of what was going on when this photo was taken. Zach is the worst traveler... the worst. He spends all night waking people up asking people to go home. This was taken as the rest of us got ready for church. There were 5 (yes 5) other children in the room SCREAMING while he slept. He never does this at home.

 We spent saturday at NASA. Michael and his best friend were able to play a quick mind game, they were both way too relaxed at that point.

 Zach collapsed in the stroller. Turns out he still needs naps. He did enjoy learning that astronauts poop and pee into a vacuum. I think he's planning to try that... let's hope I'm wrong.

 The kids loved playing with their friends. They spend a lot of time with their friends, but being in a new environment was so fun!

 I'm fairly certain the automatic hand sanitizer was one of Zachary's favorite parts of NASA.

Grace passed out at NASA. There was a part of the time where she was SCREAMING so loud we were kicked out of the show. I have to say I want to punch that smug NASA guy... your day will come my hipster friend!

 The REAL mission control! Yes the one where they talked to Apollo 13 and everything.

 Viewing mission control, this wasnt the original mission control, but the one that will be used for the Orion missions (new mars program).

 Standing by the rockets.

 Saturn V rocket! We thought this was great since Grace was the Saturn V for halloween. This is one of those things that looks huge in pictures and on TV and was even bigger in real life.

Mercury rocket... well maybe that one was behind me, but it was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be.

 Do you see how sweaty this cute girl is? Houston is HOT and muggy! Not my favorite.

 The Saturn V!

 On the tram! My friend scheduled our tram ride first thing in the morning, she's brilliant. Our tour was cut short because of weather and most of the other tours throughout the day were cancelled! Brilliant!