Houston, June 2012

Late one Thursday evening in June we were sitting around lamenting the fact that we didn't have any plans for the weekend.  Angie and Hyrum had talked about coming to Utah for a quick visit, but it wasn't going to work out.  Instead, they offered their buddy passes to us and we decided to try and fly stand-by the next morning to visit them in Houston.

The girls were great on the flight.  They were excited to be back on an airplane (their first time was last year when we took a trip to Seattle).

Angie and Hyrum enjoy the heat.  Alison and I, not so much.  We loved swimming in the pool just outside their apartment, but we didn't love the Houston temperatures and humidity that stretched above 100 degrees most of the days, reaching 111 degrees during one especially hot afternoon.

One of the Marston's friends was having a birthday party and the girls were excited to try and help bust open the soccer ball pinata. 

At dusk that evening we went to watch the bats fly out from under the Waugh Street Bridge.  It is estimated that there are 250,000 bats that live under the bridge. Seeing the bats was pretty cool. Smelling the bats was disgusting.

On Saturday, we went out to the Johnson Space Center.  While a little pricy, we all enjoyed the museum, activities, the tram tour, etc.  They are working on a Space Shuttle replica just outside the museum.  Most Houstonians are disappointed that they were not selected as a final resting spot for one of the decommissioned shuttles.

 Ada touching a space rock.

 Lyla loving life.

They have a Saturn V rocket that you can see on one of the tram stops. 

We celebrated Alison's birthday while we were there.

Kate loving her chocolate ice cream.

Kate would wake up early (like usual), here she is terrorizing Hyrum while he still attempts to catch some shut-eye.

We went to the Houston Aquarium.  It wasn't too large, but the exhibits were well done.

They had a Siberian tiger that was very active.  I'm not sure what a tiger is doing at the aquarium either...

 The picture is fuzzy, but the tiger was out to get us.

 While Alison and Angie went shopping at an enormous mall (The Galleria - 2.4 million sq ft, 380 stores), Hyrum and I took a walk with the girls to the Williams Waterfall.

You can see just how big it is from this picture.

Lucky for us, the Astros were in town.  We got in for less than $5 each, the stadium was air conditioned and we sat in some great seats.  This was my 15th MLB ballpark and Alison's 9th. 

Ang was kind enough to take the girls home early, so we were able to stay and watch the game go into extra innings.

Angie and Hyrum are some of the best hosts.  The girls slept in their home office, we slept in their bedroom, Lyla slept in their closet and the hosts were forced to sleep in the kitchen/family/dining room.

It was a bit of a struggle getting home.  We tried getting home on Tuesday, but the flights were full. I ended up buying one-way tickets for me and Kate to get home on Southwest, so I could get back to work.  Alison then stayed in Houston and tried to get home on standby Wednesday with no luck, but finally made it on a flight with Lyla and Ada on Thursday.

Kate and I had an adventure getting home.  That journey deserves a post of its own, but here's a picture of my shorts while we were on layover in Vegas. That should hold ya over!