Saturday, April 14, 2012

Weekend in Houston

Once every semester, I have to travel somewhere in the state for a Board of Directors meeting for one of the professional organizations I am involved with.  It's a necessary evil but it's not quite as unbearable because since Evelyn was born, she and Dan have come with me.  It's made for some weekends away as a family, which is always fun!  This semester, we headed to Houston.  After Evelyn and I's morning spent in the doctor's office, she slept quite a bit of the trip there.  We stopped in a little town called Hilje for dinner and a big smokehouse that I have always wondered if it was good.  There are always tons of cars outside of it (it's right along the highway) - so we decided to try it for dinner.  It was ok...it's no Rudy's (I know...total chain restaurant, but it's seriously my favorite BBQ).
Evelyn enjoyed her dinner of turkey, green beans, mandarin oranges, and cheese!
Evelyn and Daddy at dinner
(she has to hold her own spoon while she eats now - won't eat without it)
I had to get a picture of this...these were the faucets in the restrooms.  Only in Texas.
We made it to Houston in good time, and got settled into our hotel room.  We brought Evelyn's pack and play for the first time (rather than letting her sleep in between us in the bed).  She was still fighting a low fever, and wasn't a huge fan of falling asleep the first night.  We have gotten to the point of giving her a bottle, rocking for a few minutes, then laying her down awake.  She'll usually fuss for a little bit, but fall asleep pretty easily.  She did the same on Thursday night, only she just got quiet and laid there - she didn't fall asleep.  As I was crawling into bed, I bent over her pack and play to check on her, and she was WIDE awake.  That brought on the tears, and every time we would move in the room, she would start crying again.  We finally got her down about an hour later, and she slept pretty well.

On Friday morning, she woke up earlier than normal - which I didn't mind because that meant I could see her for a bit!  Dan had run downstairs to grab some breakfast before I needed to take off, and when he got back Evelyn wanted his bagel more than her own breakfast.
Fortunately for her, Daddy shares!
While I was at my meeting, Dan and Evelyn had all sorts of fun.  They took a walk in the park next to our hotel (P - we stayed at the same Hilton you did for the Trials!) and found some fountains to play in.  She LOVED it - watching the other kids running around, getting her feet wet, all sorts of fun for a little girl!  After a nap, they found a mall for lunch and apparently saw Steve Nash (NBA player for the Suns).  Not long after they got back to the hotel, I got back from my meeting.  It was about 30 minutes before nap time, so we decided to take her swimming.  She loves her baths, and she loved swimming the first time we took her, so I have been looking forward to taking her again.
She was a little skeptical at first, then decided it was fun to splash. 
Then Mommy ruined the fun by deciding it was time to take her underwater for the first time.  That, she did NOT like.

After a quick bath when we got back to the room, it was time for a nap.
Sweet, sweet angel. 
 She took a really good nap (we had to wake her up after 2 and a half hours), which was good because we were planning to go to the Rockets-Suns game and knew with a 7:00pm start it would probably be a late night.  Our hotel was right across the street from the Toyota Center, so it was perfect.
We rode up the longest escalator that I have ever been on to get to our seats...
Then found some dinner...
I put a napkin on Evelyn's head because she was in her moby and I didn't want to drip ketchup on her!
The found our seats...
Evelyn was all wide-eyed, just taking it all in!
A family picture!
Evelyn had her dinner during most of the first quarter - it helped to keep her entertained.  Daddy got to watch the game and hold her while I fed her.
She also tends to eat better when she has something to watch/look at/be distracted by.
Dan's going to kill me for posting this picture...he thinks he looks hammered (which he is not).
Daddy introducing his little girl to his beloved basketball.
Evelyn loves chewing on straws (which is the red thing she is chewing on above).  We lasted through halftime, then decided not to push her so we headed back to the hotel for a bath and bedtime.  She did MUCH better getting to sleep on Friday night (thankfully!).

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast and decided to go back over to the fountains so that I could take some pictures and see her get so excited.
Heading to the park in my stylin' poolside gear.
She wasn't as excited about the fountains today.  Of course...I had a camera this time.  It was also close to her morning nap time (you think we'd have learned from swimming yesterday).
Daddy and Evelyn getting ready to get into the fountains.
Half excited, half not.
Really, really not excited.
She finally let Daddy put her feet in - but that was all she was having.
And we're done.
She sat and watched the other kids and the water for a little while.
Here are the fountains...
She finally let Dan sit down next to one of the fountains - but she wasn't having the water.
The water was a little cold, so I think coupled with it being close to nap time, she just wasn't real excited about the fountains.  We headed back to the hotel, so that she could have a good nap before we had to check out of our hotel, and find something fun to do for the day.  She wasn't so much into napping. 
Dan was watching a movie on his iPad - Evelyn wanted in on the action.
Dan tried to get her down while I took a shower and got ready, but we decided after about an hour (and about 20 minutes before check out time), that we would just pack up and hit the road home. We figured she would get a nap in then, and we could get home with some time to play and just relax at home.  We found a fun hole-in-the wall Mexican restaurant in El Campo on the way home.  It reminded me of one of my favorite restaurants back home - La Familia....mmmm.  They didn't have a baby beef and cheese, but it was still good!
Here are some highlights of the videos we took over the weekend...
 
All in all, a good weekend...despite a crazy start to the trip on Thursday!

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