Memorial Day Weekend

We had visitors, yay!!! Some of Hadley's family (Mom, John, Kenzie, and Maycee) got to come down here to Texas.  It's so good to be around family!  We miss them like crazy, so it's always fun to see them.  But this time we got to go and have a little extra fun while they were here.  We went to The Kemah Boardwalk!!!  We had heard about this place from some of our friends here, but had never been. So we went and tried it out.  It was fun and I'm glad we got to go check it out.  It's in Galveston Bay I think.  There is a long ol' boardwalk to stroll down, rides & roller coasters, restaurants, a trolley, hotels, an aquarium, and shops.  I was so sad, I forgot to bring my camera. Luckily, my in-laws took some pics and sent them my way so I can document our trip. 

(A couple of these pictures I just got off some websites about Kemah, the ones with no peeps in them.) 

In the aquarium, we got to see a little excitement.  Ya know the place that you can touch the stingrays? Well, there were a couple of boys in there that were either tryin to make something happen, or were just pretty dumb..... but either way, they were grabbin on to the stingrays tails as they would swim by.  Well they did it to two at the same time.  All the sudden both stingrays went into turbo speed and they started flyin around the outside of that little pool, like they were chasing each other.  They were going crazy fast!!  Then all the sudden when they came back around to those boys after doing a few laps in serious turbo speed, they skidded their little slimy fin things up on the wall right here where we are all hangin over, and soaked those boys, and that guy in the red shirt.  Oh I about died of laughter.  Hilarious! 

 

Here we are inside the aquarium with one of the animals that were freakin Jerz out.  They had a little rain forest section where all the animals moved and I loved to bring her up to them right when they're about to start moving.  She was so scared of them.  But she would hug me super tight, so I loved it.  I know, that's rude of me.  But it's so cute, and funny! 

We heard that there was this great little splash pad near the boardwalk that everyone can go play in and so we all got decked out in our swimming suits and headed out.  Well, we get there, and there's like this little circle, with water that shoots up every once in awhile.  And only LITTLE kids were playing in it.  HAHA (I guess there was one adult couple in the fountains.  The guy was pushing/holding his girlfriend/wife's face down in one of the fountains. Pretty funny.)  

So anyway, we were just walkin around the boardwalk, goin into shops, going into restaurants, riding rides, in our swim suits.   Super awesome.  

We watched a lot of boats and yachts go through here.  Man, it would be so fun to go out on one of those!  Me and Had decided one day we are going to go out on a yacht.

Just ignore my sweet face I'm pullin.  Had was messin with me.

We ate dinner at Joe's Crab Shack.  Pretty darn good!  They put these bibs on Kenz and John cuz they ordered their famous crab, and gave them some sweet crab cutter openers as a souvenir.

We decided it would be more fun if we stayed right there, in the Kemah Boardwalk Inn.  And it was!!!  Probably my favorite part about the whole place.   Here's the view off of one of our hotel rom's balcony.

It was so cool to stay at this hotel, right on the boardwalk.  John and Melissa were so nice and they bumped me and Had's room up to a suite, even though it was their anniversary.  It even had those white robes for us to lounge around in. We put the kids down to bed and went and hung out on the balcony in our robes, and did a little people-watching, and talked.  It felt so surreal, and magical with all the lights, and rides twinkling below us.  It was like our own little private vacation!  We had such a good time!!

While they were here in Texas, Jeter, Mayce and Jerzi had a lot of fun just playin around and being kids.  I love to watch my kids play with family.  Nothing makes me happier. 

 

Jete and Jerz are both in long sleeves and pants in 85 degree weather, just hangin out outside like it's no big deal.  Do ya think we're climatized yet?  They might be, but I'm definitely not.  It's in the 90's every day, and every day I feel like I'm going to die of heat when I walk out the door. 

Well we did lots, and ate lots, and shopped and hung out with them while they were here, and we loved every second of it.   It was so fun to have them here.  We love them so much and were so happy they came.  Thank you for everything you guys!!!

Butterfly Garden

Jeter and Jerzi got one of the coolest gifts ever for Easter from their Grandma McArthur. 

 ( I know, Easter was awhile ago, but I'm slow.) 

They got a butterfly garden! 

They got a little jar thing of larvae in the mail (which are totally gross and I hated the thought of them being in my house).  They stayed in the jars though, and I didn't have to touch them.  Then we got to watch them shake themselves up into a little cocoon or chrysalis or whatever ya call it.  I thought they spun a little cocoon, turns out they shake and wiggle to form it.  It's crazy, and disgusting, and cool to watch.  We watched them every day, and then about 7 days later, they started breaking free of the little shell they created.  We got to watch as a new butterfly emerged!  We all loved to watch them.  It was pretty cool, even for me, who hates any kind of bug/insect/flying thing, etc.  It's pretty amazing how a disgusting little worm-like thing can change into something completely different, and a little more pleasing on the eye. And even cooler that we got to watch it all happen. 

After a couple days of watching them fly in their "garden"  and feeding them sugar water and orange slices, we let them go. 

Our butterflies
(There were 10 of them.)

The instructions said that once you let them go, they will stay pretty close to where they were released for a few days.  I told Jeter and Jerzi that, and ever since we let them go, whenever they see a butterfly in our yard, they say that its one of "our" butterflies.