Texas Trip part 2

The plan for that Wednesday was to go to the Houston Zoo. As we were on the freeway it became obvious that as the line for the zoo exit was already long, that maybe the zoo was not going to be the best idea. Then as we got off the freeway, and couldn't even get close to the zoo, we decided that maybe we should go somewhere else. So we wound up at the children's museum. Melissa, Oliver, Iliana, Rogan, and I wound up in the toddler area upstairs, while Rachel, Sarah, Roxy, and Roscoe wandered the rest. It was also crowded but but still fun. The toddler area had slides and mirrors, and cars, and blocks, and even a little area for the infants with bumpos. Then we went outside where they had a water area and the kids played in the water and got wet. On the way home, we stopped and got shaved ice again. The afternoon we relaxed and watched TV and Rachel made us barbecued pulled pork for dinner. Then we watched scary movies, since Rich doesn't like to watch them so Rachel likes to watch them when we're around.





Thursday was St. Patricks day. Rach and Rich do this holiday really big in their house, so I made sure my kids had their green on. Rachel bought really cute hats for Iliana and Rogie. That day we went to this awesome wild animal park where you ride on this tram and the animals come up to the tram and you can feed them. This was my favorite part of the trip. As soon as we pulled in, we had an animal come into the car! And it was my first time ever seeing a rhino (which was far away, but pretty awesome). I was a little nervous for Oliver since he was pretty scared of animals for a while before this, and I didn't know how he would react when they came up close. But for a while before the trip I was prepping him with animal books. He did pretty good and only got a little nervous. He threw the food to the animals though, instead of letting them eat from the bucket. The part he loved the most, however, was the free pony ride. As soon as he saw the ponies, he wanted to go on them. He calls horses "sit theres" or "yee haws" and they always say "yee haw" and that ride was the best thing ever! He was so sad when he had to get off. Then we went to the little petting zoo area that was right next to the giraffes. At one point Oliver tried to squish through the fence to get to the giraffes. Then we went to Chikfila for lunch, and the kids played in the playground more than they ate lunch. That afternoon we relaxed, played in the yard, and rested. One the afternoons, we skyped Anne, but I'm not sure which one. That afternoon, Mom came to Texas! She was staying for a month to care for the kids while Rachel worked, so her stay overlapped with ours. That night we went to the movies (we saw Red Riding Hood) at this theater where they serve you dinner while you watch the movie. Which is pretty awesome, and I wish they had one here. It was nice to spend with the girls without the kids. By the time we got home Rich had the kids all in bed!

Friday was our last day. I packed in the morning, and then we went to breakfast where they have giant food. Then we all got ready to go, said our goodbyes, and left for the airport. We said good bye to Rachel at the airport. We went through security, waited, boarded, flew (me in front, with Iliana, Melissa and Sarah behind with Oliver). Oliver had a lot of energy this flight, so he did a lot of jumping and kicking and not even Spongebob would keep him still. Then we got into the San Diego airport which has to be the lamest airport ever, where you have to go through security again after you land before you get to the next plane. So we got through security where there was a super long line, and we were a little worried that we wouldn't make it, but we didn't need to worry, since our plane was delayed and delayed, which then turned out very badly since it was delayed for a couple of hours. I spent the time chasing Oliver around the airport while he ran and ran,and tried to lift poles and said "heavy" and basically had a blast. I figured this would tire him out for the flight. Finally we got to board, and we were on our way home. I sat in front again, Oliver fell quickly asleep, Iliana fell asleep, and we had a quiet flight in the dark. As we flew into Sacramento we saw that it was raining, and raining hard. We landed, and went to get our luggage. Nolan surprised us there. I had to do a double take because he had shaved his beard and mustache. We went outside and it was cold and pouring! We were not dressed for this type of weather. It was so nice to be home and with my husband.