Battleship Texas

 We love going to museums and all sorts of site seeing.  A while ago we went to the San Jacinto Monument.  It was pretty cool.  It's the worlds tallest memorial column, standing 15 ft taller than the Washington Monument.  My husband especially loved it because of its history, him being a very proud Texan!! :) The top of the monument has the Lone Star of Texas with an observation deck inside.  The kids thought that was really neat to see out over the bayou.  And...they got to go on a long elevator ride up. 
I love this picture of Andy and Halle.    Along side of the monument is a 1300 acre swamp, grassland where the battlefield took place.  There is a boardwalk for a good part of it, and despite the mosquitos, it was actually a nice walk and pretty view.    

 

We then headed over to the Battleship Texas.  This was awesome!  It's the 1st Memorial battle ship in the U.S.  It's now also a flag ship of the Texas Navy.  It is the only surviving USN vessel that fought in WWI and WWII and has 17 different gun configurations.  The ship is just across from the San Jacinto Monument in the Houston Ship Channel. 

 

We of course found ALL 17 'big guns' and more.  These are the kids "mean" faces.  It's a BIG ship.  Many of the guns still can be maneuvered, sans the bullets of course.  The ship is currently being renovated back to it's original state.  

We had a very interesting talk about why there were so many guns and why they were used to kill people.  Basically, it came down to this:  "sometimes there a lot of bad people in the world and sometimes we have to kill them to keep everyone safe."  This later lead to a lot of funny conversations that I'll post soon. :)  

It did make me think about war and how scary it must actually be to be shooting at people and hiding behind the steel frames and duck holes for protection from these tiny bullets:  yeah, bigger than Payton.  (And yes, I know they aren't actually called bullets!) 

 

I actually found this very interesting.  If some one ever complains about not enough closet space or doing laundry, show them these pictures above.  :)  

They had many "bed/holding rooms" and then these cots also lined every 'hallway' of space along the lower decks.  There was a large kitchen, soda/snack shop, tailor, dentist, doctor, etc.  Also a tv room, (not exactly sure how that worked since it currently has a flat screen), game room, gym and yep, a "hanky panky" room, right next to the infectious disease room. 

 

It's definitely a good workout just looking at the ship.  There are stairs, no more like thick ladders, everywhere.  You also would have to get over a fear of heights very quickly as our kids found out.  They were 'brave' as they said and climbed all the way to the top lookout.  It's amazing how they build these things and I'm curious how different the new ships are with updated technology. 

My kids still think we're gonna move next year and can't really tell ya if they are from Utah, New York or what.  But for now, we are starting to love Texas and it's history.  

Don't Mess With Texas!!
 

Self portraits.

Halle and I enjoy sidewalk chalk.  We generally do it while waiting for Paytons bus to get home from school.  The current phase is now drawing rainbows and tracking each other. 

Normally I just trace the kids but today Halle wanted to trace me.  Hmm.  If that is what I look like, I think I'm now depressed and will no longer be blogging..  :)

It's all gone to the dogs...

I love my dog..despite the fact that she drives me crazy sometimes.  Like digging the back yard to get cool and sitting RIGHT next to me (too close next to me) when I sit down.  I love her so much I caved and agreed to let her ride in my car (ugh) to go to Grandma's house so she could play (several times). We are really a site in our little car with our 2 kids and enormous dog all in the back seat.   I did NOT like it at all, but I dealt with it since my sweet hubby convinced me it would only be a temporary thing.
Well, that day has finally arrived.  Boo now gets to join the rank of all other dogs and ride in the back of a truck where she belongs.  If a truck were for that one purpose alone, I'd be happy.  :)

Andy had been looking a very long time and patiently waiting for the right deal.  It finally came and the kids were so excited when we took them 'truck shopping'.  Payton new exactly what he wanted and thankfully we were able to find it. :)  Halle just wanted a "big, strong truck that is pretty". 

Payton had to make sure it had a radio.  He carefully looked the truck over- all over, and then said he approved.

After being crowded and having all sorts of crazy, fun adventures in our little car, we are looking forward to all the fun things we can now do.  However, if you ask Andy, he'll sadly say, "it's my wifes truck", and he gets to use it on weekends. :)  If only they made trucks with excellent gas mileage for going to work.  Hey..I'll share it!

Afterwards, we went to celebrate Payton getting his cast off that afternoon.  What a fun day for him.  Nothing says celebration like ice cream.  :)

Happy Easter!

The kids had a really fun time decorating eggs this year.  I know we did do it every year, but I think they are finally old enough to enjoy it now.  Plus, they finally like eggs now and will eat them so that made it more exciting I guess.

They were very proud of their eggs and suggested we do it every day.  Also, they figured we could color ALL of our food and were trying to decide the best way to go about it.  I finally convinced them we could color our food by other methods.  That.. and we were heading up to Grandma's where there would be more egg coloring.

                                           All ready for the Easter Egg Hunt

So much fun playing with cousins!! Didn't take them very long.  Everyone got a basket full of goodies. 

Last Easter we were traveling so this was basically Halle's first Egg Hunt.  She just loved it!

What can I say..we love our pinatas.  The kids had a fun treasure hunt that ended with the 'golden duck'.  Its always fun watching kids try and do this.  They had more fun hitting the duck then getting the candy that fell out. 

                                         Payton was so happy to get to color more eggs. 

Again...this was basically our kids 'first' Easter, doing the egg hunt and baskets.  They were very surprised and happy.

Eventually...

So I am a slacker..... this fact does not surprise me.  I am, however, surprised to hear people mention I need to update, because I highly doubted that anyone actually even looks at our blog. ha ha  :)  So for those 2 people (one being my mom ) I'll update later today..or tomorrow..or maybe Friday at the latest..hee hee.
Mostly I've had issues with uploading my pictures.  Then we've been out playing and when not playing I am too busy resting on my couch with a nice cup of Blue Bell Ice Cream.  It's very difficult to type with a spoon you know. 
Until my MASSIVE update, I leave you with a cute conversation with Halle:

"Mom, I love you."
"Awe, I love you too."
"I love YOU too!"
"I love you to the moon."
"Mom, I love you to a cow."
"...........ok.....(laughing)..is that far?"
"Mom, the cow jumps OVER the moon, duh!"

Of course.....