Day 14 - Part 2

4th of July started just like a normal day. We did some grocery shopping for our Falafal dinner. We took a quick dip in the neighborhood pool. We got the kids dressed in their 4th of July best. We cooked dinner and had Popsicles for desert...Took some photos... After dinner we made a plan to find a great parking place to watch the downtown fireworks. Our first parking lot pick was closed, so we drove around for a minute and found an empty, grassy lot that was facing where the fireworks would be going off. Well...we started something because in about 45 minutes, about 30 other cars joined us. Still, we had a nice grassy area all to our selves to have a little picnic...

Sharon showed me some camera settings that I have been playing around with. This picture shows my view from my chair. It wasn't this light out, but leaving the shutter open for 15 seconds let me capture this...

Then I used the firework settings to capture our show...

Leaving our little grassy spot was no picnic. It might have been the worst traffic I have ever seen. But Scott's phone has real time traffic congestion tracking. Some team work got us home while others (no names) hadn't moved 2 blocks.

Overall it was a great day. Of course any day is a good day when you wake up the next morning and you are still wearing the same thing from the day before!

Day 14 - Part 1

Too tired to post...will update in the morning...Happy 4th!

Day 13

Eli's sleepover was a huge success! We never asked once about me or coming home. He made himself right at home and slept snugly between Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ira.
We I came to pick him up, I felt like I was CPS coming to take away a child from his parents. He left kicking and screaming. I fully expected him to ask to stay there again tonight, but he didn't.

Later, Aunt Sharon, cousin Rachel, Eli and I spent the day around town. We shopped down in the Galleria area and had a nice lunch.

Olivia and Nathan spent the afternoon with Grandma. Aunt Inez came over with two of her grandchildren, Sarah and John. The cousin had a nice afternoon playing games, watching TV, coloring and eating pizza.

Scott left Oakland today and is coming into Houston at Hobby airport tonight. The kids will be very excited in the morning to see DADDY!

More local flooding pictures

Local news has a good slideshow of today's flooding around town...

Day 12

We only thought it rained yesterday. This morning Eli and I woke up to the windows rattling from the thunder. And then it rained. And then it thundered. And then it rained while it thundered. It didn't ever seem to let up. But Anne and I had to get going and go pick up the kids from cousin Rachels house. I am glad we left earlier than later. Olivia and Nathan had the best time with her. This is an experience they will never forget.

When we got home, Anne's friend and longtime neighbor came over with her grandson. He is 5 like Nathan and they got along just fine. By 4pm the kids where starting to go a little stir crazy. The torrential rain never really let up at all today. By almost 5pm we started hearing stories of streets that were flooded and impassable, people getting stuck in high water and the bayou about the crest.

At 6pm we had a nice dinner with everyone including Aunt Inez. We had turkey burgers, oven fries and fruit salad. And Mojitos! After dinner, Ira drove me around the corner to see the bayou. The rain wasn't as heavy and it had receded some. This is what it looked like..

It was a raging river. Very swift and quick moving. When I got here last week, the bayou was a little trickle that wasn't 2 inches deep.

Here are a couple more pictures from around town from the local paper

Geez! If we wanted wet and cloudy weather for the 4th of July, we could have stayed in Humboldt!
The official count is 8" just today in Houston!

After dinner, it was early to bed for Olivia and Nathan after a late night before at their sleepover. Eli stayed up pretty late while Uncle Ira, Aunt Sharon, Aunt Inez and Grandma visited. When it was time for Sharon to go home, once again Eli's bottom lip fell down and begged to go with her. It went something like this:

Sharon: Give me a kiss...I gotta go home and go to bed.

Eli: Nooo...take me to your house. I wanna go with you to your house and sleep.

Sharon: Ok. Give everyone a kiss goodbye.

Eli: Ok.

Eli: Bye Momma

Eli: Aunt Sharon...lets go!

Eli is really loving his Aunt Sharon and Uncle Ira. I am sure that I won't hear from them tonight...he will be cozy in bed with them!

Day 11

Today it really rained! And thundered. And some lightning. And of course today was the day that we really got out and about town. We started out with a visit to Anne's longtime friend of 63 years, Elaine. From there, we had the tire pressure checked and stopped for some lunch. After we ate, the rain was really coming down. We saw some flooded streets, but nothing we couldn't pass. My undercarriage has never been so clean! We made it to the Houston's Children Museum by 1:30, just in time for the thunder and lightning. We walked in and examined a few of the exhibits. First was the telephones... Next we stumbled onto one of the best exhibits I have ever seen at a Children's museum. It was called Kidtropolis. It was an interactive kid city where children try out different careers, earn a paycheck, open a bank account, manage money and "live" life. It was so cute and Olivia and Nathan had so much fun. It was a bit overwhelming for Eli, so Grandma took him upstairs to the TotSpot for some more age appropriate fun.

For Olivia and Nathan, they started out getting a job at a bicycle repair shop. That is where they earned their first paycheck. Next we went to the bank where they opened an account and got an ATM card. Next we went to work at Veterinarian. You got to choose your animal...

Grab it's chart and mark down the animals vital signs...

Once you complete you "job", you head over to the bank to either cash your paycheck...

...or head over to the local ATM to make a deposit or withdrawal...
And in Kidtropolis, you get to give your parents an allowance which they can take to the bank to cash...
Some of the other jobs you could hold were News Reporter...

....you could cast your vote at City Hall...

...work in a forensics lab....

...and get a free ride in a police car...

There was so much more including a grocery store where you could work and buy groceries, a restaurant where you could be an employee or a customer and a stock trading floor.

We finally caught up with Grandma and Eli and headed downstairs for some last minute self-face painting....

And this was the final result...

After our exciting afternoon, we dropped Olivia and Nathan off at cousin Rachels house for a cousin sleepover. She bought more of the yummy cupcakes and planned a walk to a nearby grocery store to buy dinner. When we checked in later they had a kid themed dinner of chicken, mac & cheese and fruit. They were eating cupcakes and playing Wii with plans to play Sorry and Scrabble.

Sharon and I had a much needed retail therapy vacation to Nordstroms. We spent a couple hours combing the 3 floors looking a cute clothes, jewelry and purses. We had a quick dinner on our way home while Eli spent the evening with Grandma. When Sharon dropped me off, Eli cried for Aunt Sharon to take him with her....it was so cute and sad at the same time.

Day 10

Today promised to be a better day and it was. We set a Joachim record by being fed, showered, dressed, lunches made and out the door by 10:30am. Our plan was to take advantage of the cool front (only 80 degrees...and for one minute it reaches 79 degrees) and visit Hermann Park. We had good information that there was a train circled the park and we thought the kids might enjoy it.

We boarded the train at the main station and rode it about half way around the park to the play ground. Like most parks in Houston, it put everything to shame in Humboldt. There was a toddler playground, preschooler playground and a older kid/handicap playground. Oh...and the water playground. We explored them all except the water one (remember the cool front...) and the kids really got expend some energy.

We decided to not ride the train back and instead walk back past the lake with the ducks. We sat on a bench overlooking the lake and ate PB&J. Before we knew it the ducks started approaching us...and before Olivia knew it a big black duck walked up and snatched her sandwich out of her hands!
We then used up half a loaf of bread that was just for them. The kids had lots of fun, but I think Nathan had the best time. Nathan is our lover of all things living. I can't tell you how many dried up worms have gone threw washing machine. Today he was the duck whisperer. They gathered around him more than the other two and he evenly divided up his bread between all the birds.

The entire time at the duck pond it was raining and slightly breezy, and after about 30 minutes we walked back to the car to go for a drive around old neighborhoods of Houston.

After a few more errands we head home and cousin Rachel came over with Bentley the dog. The kids immediately pounced on her to play the game Sorry. Eli was her partner, while she played against Olivia and Nathan.
Later, Uncle Ira and Aunt Sharon joined us for a yummy Chinese dinner. After such a long day and good meal the kids were exhausted...