Our Awesome Summer Vacation 2009

It has taken me forever to get all of these pictures loaded....but here they are....our awesome summer vacation to Houston! Even though there are a ton of pics on here, most of them are on my myspace (274 of them)! So I picked some of my fav's to share with y'all.

We went to Houston because our friends, Kristen and Daniel, have a house in Houston and they invited us down to vacation with them for a week. Too good to pass up!

We ended up leaving late Saturday afternoon so we stopped at this super cute diner for dinner. The kids absolutely loved it here. The cook was great with the kids and we sat at the counter so they could watch him cook.

The next morning we got up and decided to take a tour of all of the oddities of Houston. I looked them all up before we went down there and luckily our friends are into the same stuff we are, so we all went together. Here is where I looked it all up....Roadside America.

Our first stop was the Art Car Museum. That was interesting. It's totally free and kind of small but it had some "different" items there. It wasn't just cars, they had other art as well.

This gargoyle car was out front and when we got back to our friends house, Anthony found this car in a Ripley's Believe It or Not book. Pretty cool.

This car really creeped me out. Really really creeped me out.

Next we went to the Beer Can House. It is totally covered in cans! And the driveway has like 11,000 marbles in the concrete.

The street it was on was incredibly narrow, but you could tell they were trying to build up the area.

This is me and Jen.

Next...an artists studio where he had giant president heads on display. The kids really liked this one. I have to admit, it was pretty cool to see! He even had statues of The Beatles...they were soooo tall!! I definitely want to come back here to see what new things he might have next.

Of course they had to pick his nose and poke out his eye!

On to the giant armadillo!! Good thing Daniel knew where to go because I drove right past it. It was outside a restaurant.

We actually went to the Waugh Bridge bat colony next but I only have one horrible pic of it. All of the bats were in a little crevice and it smelled so bad. At least we tried! We should have gone when the sun went down so we could see all of the bats come out!

The kids favorite was the Water Wall. I honestly wanted to skip it because it didn't sound too exciting, but I am so glad we went anyways. We got there as it was getting dark.

I couldn't get a pic without water on the camera!

Last on our stop was a 50 ft. saxophone made out of cars. It is so hard to see but the bottom is an upside down Volkswagen. The new owner happened to be there (the restaurant has been closed down for several years) and he was telling us how they were going to be renovating the house place and planned to open in November. Good timing I guess.

Back at home...here is Kristen.

The next stop on our trip was Galveston! We met up with Daniel's cousin and her kids and we went for 2 days for the kids to enjoy the beach. (Although we only went to the beach on day 1).

Here is Jen. She was there half of the week with us, but then she had to head back to Lewisville for work.

This is Kristen's fiance Daniel.

Here is Daniel's brother Eric.

I tried to get a good pic, but it just didn't work out. This is the best I got!

My own self pic on the beach...to my defense, it was very hot and I was very sweaty. lol

Our first day in Glaveston also happened to be Aaron's birthday so to celebrate, we all went out to Joe's Crab Shack. We had a group of 18!! There were 7 adults and 11 kids...yes I said 11 kids!!

I ordered a bbq steam pot and could not believe how much food you get! Anthony tried some crab for the first time and loved it so I shared mine with him.

My Shark Bite!! Boy that drink was good!

Love this pic of Emma....the color of her shirt really brings out the blue in her eyes.

Kristen, Ethan and Daniel....birthday shots of Patron. I gave mine to Aaron, I can't handle liquor!

The Macarena came on and the kids decided to dance for Aaron. The waiters made Aaron get up and skip around with a broom stick as if it was his pony! Oh that was funny...I don't have pics though, only video, and I want to stay married so I'm not sharing them!

The next morning we met up with Kristen and Daniel and had breakfast at a little cafe.

Off to souvenir shop!! The kids all got a t-shirt and I got 2 pairs of sunglasses.

Ferry ride to Crystal Beach. There were a bunch of dolphins that kept performing along the way.

One of the few beaches here that you can drive on. Daniel got his truck stuck. Luckily another truck came along and pulled him out.

Here I am waiting.....

Then Daniel's cousin got stuck. Eventually someone came along and was able to pull her out.

I thought it was funny that not only the houses, but the schools were off the ground.

Ferry back to Galveston.

It was so windy on this side!!

All worn out....on the way back to Houston.

I handed out glow sticks to all of the kids....then they ran around the house with every single light turned out! lol

The next day we took the kids to Daniel's community pool and let them go swimming.

Another busy day that wore them out! They crashed out on our bed!

The girls slept in Katie's room.

Our last day in Houston we had planned on going to NASA but ended up here instead! We were headed to Kemah and stopped at the USS Texas battleship. We got to go inside and explore the ship....all 3 levels down. I'm clausterphobic but I did okay for like, 15 minutes, then went up to the deck and waited for everyone else to come up.

Oh yeah, did I mention that it was the hottest day EVER?!?!?! Don't come to Texas during the summer. Seriously, if you ever do, you will know what I'm talking about.

Cooling off with the air that was being blown out.

Aaron and Sara way up there!

Right across from the battleship is the San Jacinto Monument. Can you see those 3 tiny windows at the top? Yeah, we took an elevator ride up there. Had an awesome view.

Can you see the battleship?

Headed to the Kemah Boardwalk for the kids to ride some rides.

Had dinner at Joe's again. This is one of the 3 original Joe's that the owner kept before he sold the others to a corporation. Their menu is a little bit different than other Joe's and they don't have steam pots. I think I liked the Galveston Joe's better.

Checking out the jellyfish. They kept popping up out of the water.

On the boardwalk.

$18.99 each and they get to ride all of the rides they want! Not too shabby!

And these last 2 pics were taken on the car ride back up to Fort Worth!

We really had a great time and we've already made plans to go back down to Houston and do the things we didn't do this trip (like NASA). Thanks Kristen and Daniel for having us!! I love our friends, they are more like family than just friends.