A Trip to Houston

As promised, here's how we spent a few days of our spring break this year.  Daddy's been doing a little business down in Houston and really needed to go down there again and take care of a customer and Mommy was really tired of being left alone with the kiddos while he traveled (not to mention they wouldn't even be in school all week!)   So we decided that since Daddy would only be doing work related stuff for about an hour at the most that we would turn this trip into a little family vacation.  We knew that NASA was down there somewhere so we did a little research and found out that Space Center Houston is a seriously CHEAP and fun way to spend a day!

Of course, everything does not go the way we plan it though!  We left early on Monday morning hoping to miss traffic - not so much.  Josh's repair guy was supposed to leave at the same time as us or earlier so that he would be there when we got there - again, not so much.  We ended up waiting around for almost 3 hours for the repair guy.  Luckily we had packed a lunch for the kids and we found a neighborhood park fairly close to the customer's house.  The kids were able to eat and get out of the car for a bit and run around.  Cash was also able to fill his pants while we were there out in the fresh air (so much better than being stuck in the car with that!)  When the repair guy finally did arrive at the customer's house he hadn't come with all the supplies he was supposed to have and so we had to make a run to the paint store and back.  Finally, at about 4 o'clock we were able to make our way to our hotel on the other side of Houston  closer to NASA (another hour in the car.)   The hotel was very nice though and we were all so grateful to be out of the car finally!  We went and found a place to eat dinner and then went back to the hotel and crashed for the night. 

 

We woke up bright and early again and got ready to head for the Space Center.  I guess I expected a big huge themepark-like place so I was a little surprised when it was just one big building and more of a museum than anything else.  They did have this HUMONGUS playcenter (like the kind at McDonald's) inside.  I could not believe the size of this thing!!!!  Anyway. . .

 

First stop at the Space Center - the potty!!

Awwwww, mom!  "You have to at least TRY to go Ryley!  I'm not coming all the way back to the bathrooms again in 10 minutes."  Do you guys ever have this conversation?  It's a constant around here!

Next up we went into one of the exhibits -  lots of actual things that had gone to space and back.

Cash is such a little poser lately!  So cute.

 

We got to see lots of real rocks that have been brought back from the moon and even touch one!  So cool.

Like I said before, they had this HUGE kid's area and the kids were absolutely desperate to go play from the minute we walked in the doors.  W found this fun little game that mimics the controls of maneuvering the space shuttle to dock with the space station.  Basically you had to move the controls on the chair, which also moved the chair, so that a little laser lined up in these two different teeny tiny holes within 30 seconds.  Ryley, of course, was the only one to do it even though I had to hold him in the chair because it was really made for the bigger kids!

Cash had so much fun just running around and being a crazy man.   After a couple of hours of walking around and seeing lots of space related things we headed outside for a some lunch.   We went back inside and let Maddie and Ryley play in the play center.  Poor Cashy had to stay with us though.  That thing was seriously massive and so packed with kids (it was everybody else's spring break too!) that I was to afraid to send Cash in there.  He could have gotten lost so easily and stuck inside of it that we never would have found him.  Plus there were like a hundred exits and he could have come out and we would have never known it.  Maddie and Ryley didn't play for long in there though since it was so crowded. 

We decided to go get on one of the Tram Tours over to NASA next.  The Space Center is actually across the highway from the NASA base so they aren't really connected or anything but you can get on the base and take a tour (or three if you have 5 hours!) of the place if you want.  Cash was so excited to get on the train!

We first went to see the place where the astronauts train for the space shuttle.  This whole actual size shuttle replica was inside this HUGE building!

We also went to a building that had a complete replica of the international space station too.  It was all in separate pieces but it was really interesting to see.

We drove all around the base and saw so many things.  I think Josh and I thought it was more interesting than the kids did, but there were lots of things for them to see and enjoy too.  Like this:

 

This absolutely massive rocket display was so cool.  I am so amazed that this was actually thought up and build by people.  It boggles my mind!

It was such a fun place!  We stopped off at the gift shop on our way out and bought some astronaut ice cream - chocolate with chocolate chips.  Everyone except Cash (he's so anti-chocolate.  Where did he come from?!) thought it was really yummy - weird, but yummy!

 

On our way home from Houston the next day we stopped off at the Sam Houston Memorial right off of the highway.  This was a really cool place and I would highly recommend stopping there if you're driving by.     

Again, my crazy posers!  Silly boys.

I'm not exactly sure why but on the little walk to get to the statue they have this extra face from the statue.  Kind of weird.  The kids thought it was awesome of course.

And finally, just to prove that I was actually there I made Josh take the camera for a minute to get a picture of me and my sweeties. 

It was a short but really fun trip!