Warm enough for Water!

This whole last week has been in the 80s so after a few days, we decided to "water" the backyard and by that I mean play in the sprinkler. Ready to go...
Nothing better then a sprinkler.

Then on Saturday we decided to make our yearly trip to the beach in Galveston. We started out with the ferry ride. It is a lot of fun and Harrison loved nothing more then running around on a big boat.

Then we made our way over to the beach (back on the Galveston side of the ferry).
We haven't been since this time last year (we avoided it when it was hot) and Harrison did not have the greatest time. We spent most of the time with him whining on my lap and upset about having sand on him and he hated the waves. He got knocked over by one and that was it...he was done.

This year...totally different. He LOVED everything about it!
He loved being in the water and playing in the sand. We enjoyed the sun and the time to relax and kick back on the beach. Jumping waves with Daddy.

And Aunt Dillan.
Learning very quickly not to try to get sand out of your mouth when you have sand all over your hands.
Getting buried in the sand.
This video is a little long, but he is pretty funny. Like a butterfly breaking out of his cocoon. Ignore me talking in the background (that is the #1 reason I hardly post videos on our blog...I hate my voice in the back).



As we were packing up to go, I took all his swim stuff off and put his towel on him. In the light of keeping things PG, I didn't post the pictures of him with his towel flying up. Although, it was pretty cute watching his little guy naked and running around the beach for a minute.
Within a few minutes of getting to the beach, Jeff yelled to me that a successful cartwheel had split his swim trunks. It was time for a new pair anyway. So Jeff made a quick trip to Walgreens to replace this hole. It was pretty funny!
We had a great day at the beach and are loving being outside. It is this time of year that I love being in Houston! My family comes this week too so it should be a really fun week!

March Madness!

Despite the week starting with A LOT of rain on Monday, we had a really fun week.
Monday we spent inside and played with a lot of stickers. We even got creative...
Notice, he even had one on his belly button.
We did some of our normal things (play group and the library) and even were able to start enjoying the backyard again. Harrison pushed around his car and collected all the weeds aka "flowers" in the backyard.
He had a pretty nice collection by the time he was done.
I think my favorite thing is that he knows the door opens, yet he still climbs over the other side. He even opens the door but still climbs in.
Thursday was St. Patrick's Day, which I love! Maybe because I have some Irish in me or maybe because I just love holidays. Either way, we started the day with a special breakfast with a lot of green and Irish Scones. I love them and need to make them more often!
Harrison isn't so sure about the green apple sauce though!
Then we decided to make a trip to the zoo. We finally hopped on the bandwagon and got the annual pass. We love the zoo, although a trip during spring break was a BAD idea! We only stayed for 2 hours and it was so crowded. We are going back soon when all the kids have gone back to school. Anyone else want to come? Here are just a few pictures from the day. I didn't stop for too many pictures...too many people!
Pointing out the Nemo fish.
The new rhino exhibit
And the elephants. Our favorite stop every time.
And of course, we can't have a week in March without some basketball games. We have all filled out brackets and Harrison is tied for first with mommy (at least right now!). He is loving the games and finding things to do while he watches. And we are loving watching BYU...sweet sixteen, here we come. Although it would mess up our brackets, we would love to have them here in Houston for the Final Four. Go Cougars!
We also made our debut trip to the Splash Pad for the season. We are excited to go back soon (probably this week if it is going to be in the 80s) and are excited for spring! We went with one of Harrison's best friend Sam and they both ran around loving all the water. I'll try to remember the camera next time.

To infinity And beyond!

We spent Saturday at the Johnson Space Center. I have been once, but it was fun to go with Jeff, Dillan, Richie and Harrison. First we took the tram ride over to the actual NASA campus where they do Astronaut training.
He always loves to ride when there is no carseat involved.
Harrison enjoyed all of the different training models. These are all parts of the International Space Center.
Loves the space ships.
Climbing a Jet Engine. They use 5-6 of these to get a shuttle up into space!
At the base of a rocket.
This thing was huge! It is Saturn V and was never used in an Apollo mission, because money ran out, but is made to be in space!
Climbing inside a Jet Engine (you can see that Harrison wore his Buzz shirt... we couldn't go see space ships without Buzz!)
We had to send in a rescue mission. Otherwise, I don't think he was ever coming out!
Saturn V
Once back at the Space Center, Harrison loved the 4+ story play area. This thing was a ball launcher and he loved filling it up and watching the balls fly!
Then we each had a turn taking the escape shoot out of the shuttle.

Harrison took several turns.
"Finally a shuttle I'm allowed to climb on!" He would not sit on it either until he pointed out every part that it had (i.e. nose, windows, wings, fire, wheels). It was cool to see how much he knows.
I think we might have a future astronaut on our hands!
Testing out a simulator. It amazes me how good he is at the controls.
Inside a space shuttle.

We were there from open at 10 until about 3. We had a great time and saw a lot of stuff. It was exhausting though! I love that he fell asleep with his hands behind his head!What a fun day we had. It was awesome watching Harrison run from thing to thing and learn so much. He now knows what an astronaut is, that space shuttles have fire and I'm sure much more. I love when trips are fun and educational!

Off Limits

I don't know if I have said recently, but I LOVE having a backyard! Especially one with a fence and in a place where we can use our backyard pretty much year-round. Love it!
Well, this week (and part of next week) our yard has been off limits. We put down a lot of stuff last weekend (fertilizer, bug killer, weed killer and planted some new grass seed) so we want to give the stuff a chance to settle in before we are all over it again. That has made it an interesting week. We have found lots of other stuff to do, but really miss (and can't wait to have) our yard again!
Instead, this week we spent a day at the rodeo (see previous post) and a lot of time on walks and at the park. We even went to feed the ducks.

Harrison would much rather walk around and pick up sticks, rocks and other things then play on a playground.

One of the parks we went to had a water front and Harrison threw in all of his collected treasures from our walk, plus whatever shells and rocks he found there.
We also had friends come to play. Although, I did not have boys who wanted to stop playing and smile for me, we did manage to get a picture of Harrison with his favorite baby. He always begs to hold her and help her. I think he will make a good big brother one day!
So despite being out our backyard, we still found ways to get out and enjoy the wonderful spring we have here in Houston! I love when everything is back in bloom.