These are kind of in order (thanks blogger), but for those of you not on fb (ahem ;) I thought I'd share a few bonus pics. Our travels led us to lasso Texas; I meant to post a pic of the map :) But we headed straight down through Oklahoma, then scooted to San Antonio, popped over to Houston and Galveston, then back up through Dallas to return to what the kids all agreed was their favorite part, "Seeing Mr. Vance and Mrs. Nancy!" What a blessing to have a home to call our own for two days on the way down and two days (well, nights) on our way back. Family is great! |
| Our first stop was the National Cowboy Museum. The girls thought these clothes looked tiny, but I bet they both would have fit into them :) |
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| This was a weather exhibit . . . not our favorite aspect (the frontier town inside and the water gardens outside were much more fun :). |
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| Some serious weather must be ahead! |
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| "Wanted: Strong young man, must be willing to learn." I know just the *man* for the job! :) |
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| They could not wait to get into the church in the little frontier town! I think maybe because it was Sunday and we were at museums instead of church . . . we've got a preacher and a musician ready for duty :) |
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| I like taking pictures of him taking pictures ;) That's the museum in the background. OK had lots of flowering trees and WIND. But the rain held off on this day (until an overnight thunder-boomy!) |
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| Selfie-time! |
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| I know C is blurry, but look at that big kitty over her shoulder! This was at the OKC Zoo (yeah, we still had a few hours in the day, and our own zoo pass got us in for half price). The grounds were beautiful--all the flowers blooming! They had several animals that our zoo doesn't like bison, grizzly bears, Asian elephants, and more! We enjoyed our stroll and collected crushed pennies along the way ... the kids have quite a collection if you're interested in seeing their adventures in squished copper ovals :) |
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| Book reading time on the comfy couch |
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| Whoohoo! Going to see Chip and JoJo! |
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| So, they weren't there, but the kids got to play outside (nice break on the trip), I got a cute t-shirt, a delicious candle, and an adorable locally made mug . . . also the best cup of Chai ever!! |
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| Magnolia silos |
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| Proof we were really there (although Chip and Jo Jo were not :( ) |
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| The next morning, we toured the National Park Service Missions of San Antonio. Some are well-preserved, some not so much, but the kids learned a little something, received Jr. Ranger badges, and got to see a different side of Texas. |
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| Remember the Alamo! We actually got to go inside this time--there were sooooo many people remembering the Alamo that day ;) But look, there in the sky--blue?! |
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| Buck's interesting eye for photographic art--a cross surrounded by thorns. |
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| The early dwellers of said missions were pretty ingenious in their ability to move water to the desertlike plains of San Antonio. We drove by the aqueduct (but didn't stop because of the mosquitoes). This is the oldest mill in Texas, amazing how they figured out all that stuff! |
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| The kids couldn't help but notice the cheerful yellow and green passenger boats floating along the RiverWalk, so after some Mexican food and ice cream, we decided to be extra touristy and join the fun (it was also educational--man, I wish we could write some of this off on taxes!) |
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| The Gulf of Mexico was not as happy to see us as we were to see it . . . the crazy weather stuck with us all the way to the bottom of the state. The piers were closed because of the crashing waves and the streets were flooded with standing water . . . but we surfed through to find groceries at the local market and fresh fish at a restaurant (hello, pricey, Gulf-fresh fish!) |
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| Dad cooking up some fancy hot chocolate in our VRBO condo |
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| The condo complex had three pools, this one was not heated, but it was also not occupied by anyone else :) Our kids are used to swimming in cold water--the pool where they take lessons is kept cool for swim team practice. |
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| We didn't have any high expectations for the weather, so we thought we'd do something indoorsy the next day. Off to Houston we went (just 35 ish minutes away) to see the Houston Space Center and Johnson Space Center (remember the video of Graysen dancing, "NASA Johnson style" at the air museum near us? Yup, this is where they filmed it; you know and where they sent a bunch of people into space . . . :) |
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| This was our lunchtime buddy--he really liked the cookies Buck baked at the condo the night before :) Gotta love a back of the van picnic on vacation (as often as we possibly can!) |
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| After watching a movie on the history of NASA and future plans for Mars missions, playing in all the hands-on exhibits, seeing all the stuff that'd been taken to outerspace, and learning about the International Space Station life through a sort of mini-play/presentation, we booked a tram tour that took us onto the Johnson Space Center grounds--super, duper cool! All that stuff behind the kids is current training protocol for all future missions. |
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| This is the Saturn V--it had a home of it's own :) All those pieces come apart while blasting tiny humans beyond the boundaries of earth and atmosphere. Crazy! |
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| Blast off, indeed! |
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| These are some longhorns they keep on the NASA grounds . . .??? |
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| The next morning after breakfast, we decided to check out the swanky side of town (Galveston was once the capital of Texas and a major shipping port around Civil War times). Here's some interesting facts if you'd like to know more about the Bishop's Palace we toured next :) |
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| The arrow keyhole in the little tower was my favorite! Like a story book castle!I think the audio tour we took said the railroad baron family who built this mansion spent $250,000 on it, right before the turn of the century. |
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| Getting some education in the music room just off the main entry . . . can you imagine the parties they held here?! |
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| The lady of the house was a trained artist. Somehow she did her own ceilings in the dining room--maybe she was really tall. She was the mother of 9 children, and that many children probably did make her climb the walls . . . ;) She also painted a floral border in her bedroom and dragons and fantastical things in the above-ground, built-like-a-fortress basement. |
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| Mr. G at the top of the grand staircase with all the fancy stained-glass windows behind him (the kid in the portrait is one of the original owner's sons with his pup). |
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| Well, the house was pretty much empty besides ourselves, so the tour took less than an hour, gift shop included (kids love their postcards and pressed pennies). So we swung by the Texas Seaport Museum. It was okay, but not our favorite stop. Plus, the sun (as you can tell by the hand shades) was starting to come out, and inside was not where we wanted to be. The tall ship was super cool, and I just realized I don't actually have a pic of it loaded . . . hang on a minute . . . |
There it is! Originally only under sail, they added an engine later in its career to make a lot more voyages, as you will see in the next picture (dad, I thought you might like some of this side of our history trip :) |
| Busy girl! |
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| This is still a working ship, for parades, etc. We watched the volunteer crew shimmy up the ropes and unfurl the sail! What an incredibly complex job--I don't know how sailors managed it in bad weather on oceanic crossings. Amazing! |
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| So, not everything inside remained original, given its variety of service over the years, however this builders' plaque was! Any relation? :) |
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| The captains quarters were also mostly original--quite an upgrade considering what the other sailors had access to, but even still, you could not really be a very large person--height or width--and enjoy this lifestyle :) |
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| Finally, out came the sun and dried up all the rain! We needed some warmth and Vitamin D on this vacation. I asked God if He could give Buck a little sunshine, and boy did He! |
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I thought the nieces and nephews might enjoy this guy's picture . . . there were little aqua-blue jellyfish all over the beach (don't step on them, they sting!), but this thing was basketball-sized--weird looking, huh? :) |
| Other than $20 in laundry quarters and a crazy-loud bachelorette party on our last night, the stay in Galveston was really nice. We were glad, though, to be heading back to see our cousins :) After making us breakfast, they took us downtown OKC to a botanical center. Outside was a children's garden where all our kids had fun :) |
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| Looks like our two G kids found a great photo op! |
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| We had fun exploring the pretty, jungle building! They even had a chocolate tree! |
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| After a BBQ lunch, our hosts took us to see the giant Sooner sculptures. The weather was gorgeous and we discovered OKC has its own less-crowded, more activity (like putt putt)-based RiverWalk area in Bricktown. We were super impressed! It had a fun, clean, festive atmosphere. |
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| V & N also took us to see the Oklahoma City Memorial. It was very well done and very moving. I'm sure our kids will soon be studying this event in our American History lessons, but they'll never get the same depth of experience as having Mr. V explain that day, while they walked through the grounds where it happened. |
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| This picture makes me smile--I didn't post it on FB because it's perhaps not the most flattering of everyone, except M, that boy can smile like a champ! I told them that the first picture hadn't shown up because everyone was in the shadow of the house. Well, moving to the back of the van where the sun was glowing warm and bright was an entirely different picture ;) They made the best of it, even if it looks like they're all blinking on purpose, hee hee :) |
1 comment:
Enjoyed seeing the pics and the explanations - looks like you did a lot of fun things, in spite of the weather. When we flew out of Houston last week, you could still see where some of the flooding occurred.
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