Houston

We had a great time staying with our friends Andy and Heather in the Houston area. Caroline did fine on the ride over until we got stuck in traffic dowtown for a while. Our trip was chock full of quality friend time (for Caroline especially, she wouldn't let Andy go) and cool experiences. On our first full day we went to the zoo and I saw a KOALA!!! Caroline loved the aquarium part. Then we ate at the best restaurant we ever have. Not for the vegetarians among us. FoGo De Chao is a Brazilian steakhouse where you flip a little coaster to the green side if you want to be bombarded by servers carrying delicious meats (steak, chicken, pork, lamb) on long skewers. They slice it off onto your plate and off they go. You just flip it back to red when you've gotten your fill...for the time being. That sirloin has been in my dreams for the past four nights. Then we went to Dave & Buster's. It's like a grown-up Chuckie Cheese. We earned lots of ticket points but we're saving them up until we go back. Maybe we'll get a flat panel off those points...The next day we just hung out, which was much needed and got some Marble Slab and ate Pepperoni's (delicious!) for supper. We went swimming and Caroline loved that, too. The next day we hung out again and met some of our friend's friends. That was fun. They stayed with Caroline while we went to a dinner/movie place. By the way, I could write a 3,ooo word post on how stupid The Happening is. But I won't. It was fun to laugh at, though. Monday we went to NASA then on to Galveston to the Moody Gardens. They have an awesome aquarium with super deep tanks that you can see from every floor and one of those tunnel things that you walk through. We saw wild dolphins hoppin' around in the ocean, too! We also went in the Rainforest Pyramid and saw some neat animals and birds. Then we headed on to the Kemah Boardwalk. They had rides and a train and lots of shops and eating joints. Caroline LOVED flying in the little plane. She kept waving and saying "Hey!" She also loved riding in the little balloon with her daddy. We ate in the aquarium among the fishies then had more Marble Slab. We returned home beat and ready for bed. Like I mentioned earlier, Caroline loved Andy and Heather and once called Andy "annie." She was super sweet and well behaved the whole time. Andy and Heather made us feel right at better-than-home. Thanks!

Now for the pictures. My camera went dead after a few shots, so I had to ask Andy and Heather to snap a few.

All ready to go:

Caroline had fun going through this little tunnel. She stopped to say hi to all the fish in the middle.

On the Kemah Boardwalk: the catfish have spread the word about the location of the feeders. Throw it in and they go wild!