#TheKerrieShow in #Houston Day 15: Meeting My Second Cousin and Monument Inn

Ah, Palm Sunday and a lovely time at the church just up the road from the hotel. Then back to the hotel to grab some lunch and it was time to head up to Katy, Texas to meet family I am not sure I ever met (maybe when he was a tiny baby and I was like 5 years old?). As is my way in Texas, we took a wrong turn and added half an hour onto our trip of an hour! But we were determined to make it and so we did!

Original family name Solberg, then got changed when my great grandpa came to this country to Solsberg. Then my grandpa's brother changed his to Solsberry. This is Richard Solsberry, my second cousin.

My man holds Casey and Richard's youngest and puts her straight to sleep with talk of the petroleum industry (just kidding!)

Callie stole my phone and took some fun shots.

THIRD cousins and they got along famously. Amazing kidlets!

My second cousin's wife, Casey, who is also a blogger and an amazing mom. She was showing me the "beauty" setting on her phone, which took like 10 years off both of us! DANG!

It's hard to explain what this day meant to me. I had been Facebook friends with Casey for a while and thought she was a really neat person. I was curious about my second cousin and it was very emotional for me to get to meet him. The majority of his side of the family has passed on, so it was important for me to show him that he still has family and that we aren't THAT far away. We had a great time there and I was truly sad to leave and wish we could get together more often. Casey and I are thinking: Family Reunion!

And across town for dinner

San Jacinto dealy-job where Sam Houston kicked serious butt, apparently. I don't know my Texas history so I hope this butt-whooping was necessary. This was right up the road from where we had dinner.

Super cool battleship on the way to the restaurant.

Our dinner view at Monument Inn. Merrie was our server and totally rockin'

My dinner. I think I might be a little bit spoiled.

The best family in the world at dinner. Man, they are so easy to take out to eat these days! They are all old enough to sit through a meal and not run around and it's really enjoyable! Aron had eaten at this place before and wanted to take us.

A neat wall art thing made of class with a shell for an eye. Callie had to take this picture!

Eva stared at this random girl all through dinner and wanted to make sure she knew she is pretty. At the end I asked if I could take their picture together and she was sweet enough to say yes.

Aaaand, rounding out this day we find Daddy trying to ride a chair down the stairs. He unfortunately did not have the key to make it go or you would be watching it on video right now! We do like to have fun!

And this concludes another day in the paradise that is Houston with my Family!

#TheKerrieShow in #Houston Day 14: Galveston Island

Saturday Aron had to work for part of the day and then we took off to Galveston Island. The kids and I were already a little crispy before heading south to the beach but we are always up for more sun, surf and sand. Here is our day in pictures. Another heavenly one and highly recommended as a family destination!

It's a hard life I lead.

I breathe a sigh of happy when we arrive at the south side of the island and I can see the water.

There are a bunch of these houses along Seawall where the paint is peeling and the windows are broken out. Why doesn't someone sell the land for a zillion bucks and let someone else develop it?

Yeah, I am the Queen of the Selfie since I now have a phone where I can see the picture while I am taking it.

My family on the beach. Yessss.

My ghetto iPhone 6 case. Can't get sand in that puppy.

Me and Eva.

Sammy building a sand something.

Pizza joint on Seawall where we had shrimp pizza and Hawaiian pizza.

Living my personal dream: at the beach with my amazing husband, 5 healthy kids while proofreading my book.

Yumalicioius.

Eva stared at the dough guy until he did some more flipping for her!

#TheKerrieShow in #Houston Day 13: Lunch with Daddy, Dinner by the Pool and the Lego Store

Friday was another lovely day in Webster, Texas! We drove up to Texas City to pick up Daddy for lunch and we headed to Grand Prize BBQ, which was super yum!

The owner is super awesome and great under pressure. They have quite a lunch rush and handle it quickly!

A lovely day for a hot tub hangout.

Aron came home from work early!

Dinner by the pool

Took Michael to the mall for his one cool present from us from Houston and we all know I hate the mall!

Me want.

Michael's choice from Baybrook Mall right up the road from our hotel! Score!

32585 Harmony Road in Paola, Kansas, I Love You and UPDATE

So this happened where I fell in love with a house a year and a half ago and we even went to see it even though Mr. Kerrie doesn't want to live in Missouri and now that we do virtual school and Missouri has crap options neither do I. BUT then the new owner left a comment HERE on the blog where he was like on the movie Good Will Hunting when he yelled, "I GOT HER NUMBAH!"

So I'm sitting here in Houston waiting for the new owner of THIS house to tell me they bought it. And I will be happy for them but could you please, new owner, like check in from time to time? I am harmless and would just like to know how you are settling in. We could be neighbors-ish someday, after all, so throw me a bone! I promise to not stalk you or mess with you like that idiot lady who didn't get a house and then terrorized the new owners. I promise! I am way too busy for that kind of stuff anyway! This house has everything we have been looking for, but ...

This is a "bedroom" or office on the main floor and would be our homeschool room and my office and probably also the LEGO room where we would put LEGO creations on shelves all over the place.

This place is going on my vision board and in my prayers and if it does not sell before we get home I want to go look at it so badly but the price would have to drastically come down, for real. Mr. Kerrie and I don't want to owe on a house until we are in our 90s, ya know?

Update: We did the mortgage calculator and it was looking good, BUT don't forget you have to also add 1/12 of the annual property taxes and 1/12 of insurance into that total package and month payment and then we came up with a figure that would have us not being able to turn the heat or air conditioning on at this dream house as we walk around in rags and eat lots of beans, rice and peanut butter daily. Not worth it.

Update 12/1/17: This house was $425,000. Entirely worth it but too rich for our blood. We have moved to a home in MISSOURI (never thought my husband would move here) and for $372,000 we got 8 acres, a house of 2,752 square feet (entirely manageable), a ranch so we can ignore the lower level when we're old and our knees don't work anymore. We also got a POOL and a huge pond and trees and a fenced backyard and a pool table, washer and dryer came with the place. It is a dream come true!

#TheKerrieShow in #Houston Day 12: A New Writer Friend and the Houston Museum of Natural Science

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is free on Thursdays from 2-5 p.m. Let me tell you that is not enough time to explore the place because there is a ton to see and do. They are giving you a preview so you will buy a membership and you probably should. This town is KID-FRIENDLY, people ... one of the most kid-friendly towns I have ever been in ... and I did not expect a museum like this to be so hands-on for children, which was WONDERFUL!

So here is our day in pics. I like to try to do one new thing every day while we are here, even if that just means eating at a place we don't have in Kansas City, meeting someone new, going somewhere new.

Sometimes we end the day with swimming and sometimes we start it that way. Today the kids hit the pool before we went to the museum.

Then we hit the highway and made it downtown to meet up with my new writer friend, Jill Morgenstern.

My friend Jon called these "mesmerizing" ... and they are. The kids just sat and watched the pendulum swing back and forth until eventually it would knock down a dealy-jobber.

Some gorgeous gems in an exhibit

My Mommy crown

Sam's brother

We need this at our house ... helps understand the Periodic Table of the Elements way better than I ever learned it in school!

The geovator. You get inside and pretend to go down into the earth where they drill oil and learn all about the process.

Too late to go on that cool grassy trail hill but I got a pic in front of it. They were tired and ready for the trek home on the 45 South.

I got all adventurous on the way home and wanted to try out the Sam Houston, or the Beltway or the 8. Every highway has like 76 names here. I paid a whole lot of money to drive on it but we got to go over a huge bridge and come back over it.

And here ends another lovely day in paradise. For real this place is growing on me.