Day 10 in Houston found us heading Downtown again and getting familiar with the 45 to the 610 (love that highway for reals) and the 288. So many highways! I'm getting the hang of it here though! What I was not prepared for was the time it would take to find a parking spot at the zoo. INSANITY! We drove around for one full hour, including getting gas because we ran out, and finally snagged a spot. I conquered the lot!
I felt so bad leaving my 2nd cousin's wife and 3 babies in the zoo to wait on us, though, but she was so sweet about the whole thing. As for trying to chat with 8 kids around, that's another story. We plan to meet up this weekend instead for the conversation end of things and so I can meet my 2nd cousin in person. SO EXCITED because I am already in love with his wife and kids and he has my genes so he must be AWESOME.
Anyway, I had nothing to complain about on the parking situation because my kids were pretty much angels in the van the whole time. If they had been tiny babies that would have been a different story, but now that they are older life is lulling me into the notion that things are "easier" ... I'm enjoying this "easy" before they all hit the teen years. I'm storing up all my energy. Here we go with the day in pics!
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| Okay, so I have a first cousin named Casey and now I also have a 2nd cousin's wife named Casey. She is fantastic! Michael photobombed. |
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| Casey's 3rd baby ... always happy, I am told. The other kids were getting tired, understandably, so there was no group photo this day. I will grab it Sunday! |
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| Sammy and the Jellyfish. |
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| We call all chimps, monkeys, etc. Sam's brothers. |
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| Callie stopped me to take this pic. |
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| Ever see a Komodo Dragon with a cast? |
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| Joel took a lot of great pictures! |
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| Sam wanted to go fishing with his net but we had to talk him out of it! |
After a ton of time in traffic on the 45, I swung into Weight Watchers to weigh in, somehow lost a bit, then went back to the hotel so the kids could swim.
As I was getting my dinner, a man approached me and started with, "You're in Room XXX, aren't you?" [readers, you think I'm going to give you my room number? then all my crazed fans would stalk me and ask for autographs]. I knew what was coming. It was pretty clear the floors are paper thin and every move we make was echoing downstairs to his room. He asked when we were leaving (no, he really did ask me this) ... I said another week or so. He is here, like, FOREVER. I felt bad and said I would try to keep them quieter (see tomorrow's post for another encounter with this man, and it turns out well!)
Then I go out to the pool and this cute kid with glasses approaches me and says my kids are gorgeous and that my oldest had all the kids pray before they ate. We started chatting and Jan and Hennig ended up being our buddies for the evening. They were only there one night but we had some stimulating conversation and talked about all the differences between American and Germany, where they are from and where I was born!
Click here for Day 11.
