Houston With My Folks

My parents came for a visit.  They come about twice a year and since we have lived in Texas for 10 years now ( I can't believe it!), they have seen just about everything there is to see here in Austin and San Antonio.  Cortis said, "How about Houston?"  Perfect!

So we drove down to Houston and visited the Battleship Texas.  It was a great place to tour.  The take-home message after visiting was "be an officer."  The officers had their own rooms. While the other guys slept in the halls, "hot-bunking"  so that the cots were always occupied.  As soon as you woke for your shift, someone else was ready to lay down and sleep there.

Here I am.  Thanks to Cortis for providing photographic proof that I exist.

Heidi manning the guns.

Phoenix looks ready to blow something up.

See what I mean?

There were quite a few stairs.

We also spent the day at the Houston Space Center.  Of course, we were far too busy to take any pictures except on the excellent tram tour of Space Center Houston.

So here are the kids in front of the awesome Saturn 5 rocket.  The most powerful rocket ever built and the one that took us to the moon.  This was literally the last Saturn 5 to roll off the assembly line and they plopped it out on the grass in the sun, heat,  and rain for dozens of years.  The last time Cortis and I visited, the Saturn 5 was not in good shape.  It definitely showed the wear of all those years outside.  We were so pleased to see the rocket spiffed up and in it's nice new building.  It was amazing.

It's just so big, the camera can't do it justice.

Here's my parents.  They must be happy to see us!

Phoenix in front of the Redstone rocket.  Funny, we had just seen a NOVA about these rockets.  The Redstones launched the first American satellite and America's first human in space, Alan Shepard.  So Phoenix was pretty impressed to see this rocket that he already knew so much about.

Heidi and I on the tram.

And cute little Adam, you can see why he has us wrapped around his little finger.

DRAMA!!!!

I'm finally getting these photos up, even though they are from the beginning of the summer! This summer, Heidi went to a Theatre Summer Camp, but on by the local high school. She had so much fun. They made their own costumes. Everyone had at least 1 line. They learned a little dance. And they got to put the whole thing on stage for their families to enjoy.

Of course, the photos aren't great because my camera isn't that fancy and she was way up on stage.

Here she is as a mermaid. She was so excited about being a mermaid. I can't imagine that the boys in the group were equally as thrilled.

Do a little dance...

Big group number

Heidi with the friend she made in her costume. We still have it in the closet if anyone wants to check it out. :)
Now for your viewing pleasure, here is our recording of the play. Of course, the hilarious part is that Heidi recited her lines in a British accent. It was a total surprise. When I asked her later, she told me that she was supposed to be stern and that accent made her feel more strict.

Heidi comes in at 3:40. I know the sound is really quiet, but I swear I cranked it up as high as it would go in iMovie.

Halloween!!

Fun times for Halloween this year, even though we missed Cortis while he was out of town. We had a church Trunk or Treat where we got way too much candy and then Halloween too. Here are the kids together.

Heidi is still all about fairies but this year instead of Tinkerbell, she chose another fairy from Disney. She is dressed as Silvermist. The fun part of the costume was spraying her hair black. She looks pretty good with black hair. But washing it out took about 10 shampoos.
Phoenix was Bobba Fett this year again. The new addition to the costume was the blow-up jet pack. Bobba Fett is a less well known Star Wars character but certainly beloved. We saw about 5 or 6 Bobbas at the church party.
Adam picked Batman to dress as this year. And check out his powerful muscles! He also benefitted from the spray hair dye, making him a reverse skunk.
Here we are about to go out Trick or Treating with our friends Amanda, Martin and Colomba.
We finally got around to carving pumpkins. I actually let the big kids do it themselves. Phoenix's is on the right. He carved it out almost entirely by himself.
Here is Heidi's pumpkin. She did hers all by herself.

Spiders!!

This is the spider Phoenix made for the spider unit in his class. I was super impressed with the anatomical details he added.

Pretty creepy.

Yummy Cupcakes

Here's a photo of my yummy and beautiful cupcakes from tonight.

Hair Cut

I couldn't stand it for another minute. My hair was so long. It had been driving me crazy for months but I figured that in the summer it's usually just ponytails so I might as well wait. One day, after school had started I woke up and it was "NO MORE." So I took my coupon for Great Clips and let them get rid of it.

So now it's shorter and fun and I like it a lot.

Boys Beds

Adam has been without a quilt/comforter since he moved into the "boys room" this summer. Of course, who needs a blanket when it's 100 every single day. Phoenix got to pick out a new comforter and Adam got the old one.

So here is the old comforter. I actually made it myself back in early 2000. We stuff a couple of pillows between the wall and the bed so Adam doesn't get stuck there while sleeping.

911 Calendar Award Ceremony

We had a very special day today. Heidi had entered an art contest last year for the CAPCOG (Capital Area Council of Governments) 9-1-1 2010 Calendar.

She won! And her entry is in June.

Today was the awards ceremony at the State Capitol, so we pulled the kids out of school and took a (short)trip to the capitol.

Here is Heidi's entry. I love it! The fireman is saving our whole family. You can see that she drew each one of us.

They gave her a framed copy of her art, several calendars, and a big bag of goodies.

We also took a tour of the Capitol building.

It was a fun family day and we are so proud of Heidi.

We got video of the award ceremony. The awards were announced by Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo. They recognized the artists, some 911 Kid Heroes (kids who had called 911 and saved people's lives) and 911 operators.

Then, in honor of 9-11, a bagpipe and drum group came and played "Amazing Grace." It was amazing. (And really loud! which the kids totally didn't appreciate. In fact you can hear Adam howling along right at the beginning.)

First Day of School

Here we are again.  After what seemed like a too short (and too hot) summer, the kids are back in school. 

 Heidi is starting 3rd grade.

 Phoenix is starting 2nd.

Phoenix looks pretty excited!

Wooo hooo!

Phoenix is getting right to work. 

Heidi's teacher met us at the door so I didn't get a shot of her at her new desk

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

So yesterday, we took the family to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for the day.  The big kids earned free tickets at school in a reading program.  All summer long, Cortis and I had been putting the kids off because, even with the free tickets, the trip would cost way more than we could afford.  We decided to just swallow the cost and try to make it through the month even with a Six Flags trip when unexpectedly, we got 3 more free tickets from a friend (Thanks Sarah!).  It felt like a tender mercy of the Lord.  I really feel blessed through this.  Of course, Six Flags dragged as much money as they could from us, especially that outrageous cost of food, but we all had a really good time.

This was the only ride we all got to go on.  It was a round raft ride that got one half of the raft really wet. Guess who was on that side?  Adam and Heidi also got soaked.  

We spent the first half of the day at the water park (thus no photos).  Adam was afraid of all the rides (even though he was tall enough for quite a few of them) so he played in the kiddie pool and Cortis and I took turns with the big kids.  Since it was a water park, I planned on bare feet but the ground was soooooo hot we quickly discovered that wasn't going to work. Cortis found these flip flops for us for only 7 bucks a piece!  My feet still feel burned from the brief time we did spend on the super hot ground.
This was the waterfall on the raft ride that made Heidi, Adam and me so wet.  We went right under it. 
Some scenes from the park.  We spent a lot of time in Wiggle World.  They had lots of little kid rides that the kids enjoyed a lot!

Adam and Dad.
Self portrait.  Love my white hat.  I bought it to keep my part from getting sunburned while swimming.  Now I use it for jogging and Six Flags too!
One of the fun little kiddie rides.  I'm surprised Cortis could fit inside there.
Adam on the Fruit Salad ride in Wiggle World.
Heidi loved this.  It's a miniature version of Fiesta Texas' Scream ride that launches people up 20 stories.  The kids only go up about 20 feet.
On the rotating airplane ride.  You can see Heidi in the blue hat in the plane in front.
This is Phoenix on the mini roller coaster.  He LOVED it.  He also rode Tony Hawk's Big Spin and made everyone in his car laugh when halfway through he said, matter of factly, "I'm definitely not riding this one again." 
Phoenix on Fruit Salad.
Heidi and Adam on the Airplane ride.  
Phoenix and me on the airplane ride.
We stayed until the very end.  The kids ran from Wiggle ride to Wiggle ride until they closed everything down.  While I was watching the kids, Cortis got to ride the Superman ride 3 times before the ride closed down.  

As we left the park, Adam said, "I like Six Flags."

This brought back memories from years past when our little one-year-old Phoenix said, "I happy" as we left Disneyland.  One of our most quotable Phoenix statements.