Vacation Time!

We took our first "vacation" as a family of four a couple of weekends ago.  I put vacation in quotations, because we have taken several trips as a family of four to visit family; however, we have not really gone to see special specific vacation sites on our trips.  So, our first official "vacation" was to the Houston area, where we not only visited family, but also took some time to visit some fun "vacation" spots.

My brother, Jeremy, and his family (Brandy and Traber) were visiting us from Oklahoma and came along with us to vacation in Houston.  Jeremy and Brandy are both teachers who have the summer off.  They are enjoying it this year by taking several fun trips.  Drew's parents were AWESOME hosts for all of us.  They went out of their way to make us feel welcome and make sure we had a good time. We all had a blast there!

On Sunday, our first day there, we visited the Houston Zoo.  One of my best friends from High School, Jennifer, and her family reside in the Houston area too.  We were able to meet her at the Zoo as well.  We had so much fun and I absolutely loved getting to know her family better.  (I haven't seen her in about 9 years).  We had a great time at the Houston Zoo.  It was super hot though.  We were so glad they had a splash pad within the zoo so the kids could cool off after lunch.

On Monday, we visited Galveston beach.  The kids (minus Abbey) really enjoyed playing in the sand and experiencing their first beach.  Abbey wasn't as much of a fan--but she will love it in about a year, I am sure.  We visited the Strand Historic District in Dowtown Galveston for lunch and enjoyed walking in and out of the cute, unique shops.  After that, we headed to the Kemah Boardwalk.  The Kemah Boardwalk is home to waterfront restaurants, amusements, charming retail stores, festivals and seaside shows every day.  While we were there, we let the kids ride a train, a carousel and an airplane ride.  Also, Papa gave the "big kids" a gift--he bought us some tickets to the roller coaster.  It was SO much fun!

On Tuesday, we visited the Children's museum.  The kids had a blast trying out each of the exhibits.  It really was a fun Children's Museum.   On Wednesday, we let the kids play at a nearby park, had some lunch and then headed back home.  

Here are some photos with some highlights of our trip.  We are finding that when we are having fun, we tend to take a lot less photos.  With one of us watching/holding/nursing Abbey and the other chasing after Luke, sometimes taking photos is not easy.  But, we were able to capture some fun moments in pictures: