Three Day Getaway

We took our first mini vacation of the year to Houston.  I wanted to take Summer to the Children's Museum there before she got too old to enjoy a Children's Museum. Houston's museum has excellent reviews and the reviewers also boasted of activities that would also appeal to the older kids.

We arrived at our hotel around 2:00pm and made the mistake of getting sucked up into lounging around on the comfy beds and watching cable T.V. I had planned on us doing a little Houston sigh-seeing once we got there but before we realized it it was 6:00pm. We went and ate dinner at a nearby Chili's and came back to the hotel and sucked in more T.V. O'well, I guess that's what vacations are for but we could have spent $100 less per night doing the same thing at home...minus the cable, that is.

The next day we met up with my littlest cousin who lives in Houston at the Children's Museum. My cousin Shannon wasn't able to meet up with us because she couldn't get off work, but luckily Ted was off that day and able to bring my cousin Emma to enjoy the museum too.

I do believe...no I KNOW, that both of those kids had a blast at the museum. We all gave it a thumbs up and it was a five star Children's Museum's in my opinion.  Summer gave it a 10 on a scale.

Summer "driving" the Mustang

 

Daddy, the passenger of Summer's "driving"

Hands down, Summer's favorite parts were the vehicles and  realistic ATM machines. They were pretty cool.  The kids get a card when they first arrive and the electronic card system  keeps track of money, age, height, weight, heart rate, and a litany of other things.  You have the standard art room, different professions, local bank chain, and local grocers spot.

There were so many different activities that I can't even begin to name all of them, and certainly can't post all 157 pictures I took there! Here are few highlights....



Cousin Emma and daddy, Ted.

I can see why this museum got voted the #1 Children's Museum in the nation. If you are - or ever will be - in the Houston area I would put this on your "List of Things To Do" with the kids.

After a long day we got back to the hotel just in time for Bo's late afternoon walk. Ironically our hotel was only a couple of blocks away from Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church. Funny thing about this is Toby and I use to watch Joel's sermons every week on T.V. when we lived in Alabama. He was the only religious speaker we would ever watch...I guess because, unlike traditional preachers, he preached more about love than fear, hell and damnation, or self righteousness. His sermon's reflected our view on what we perceived "God" to be. You could say we were quite a fan of Joel.

I suggested we take Bo for a walk by the church so I could take a few pics and maybe sneak a peek of the inside. When we arrived at the church I was so overwhelmed by how massive it was (it didn't look that big from the road against all the other huge buildings) that I decided that I would be in there much longer than I wanted Toby and Bo to have to wait outside for me so I just took some snapshots of the outside of the church....

That evening we ordered pizza delivery and watched more cable T.V.

The next day before we headed back to Austin we checked out the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. It was a beautiful morning for a walk through a nature center....

It's always nice to get away, but it's equally as nice to get back home.