After leaving Bullard, we made our way south to Houston. We meant to stop for a quick lunch on the way, but didn't manage to make that happen. Instead, when we arrived at the Houston Children's Museum, we first stopped in their cafe. We again stumbled upon "Taco Tuesday," but this time around we got actual tacos instead of ice cream tacos. Thankfully, the tacos were large, tasty, and filling. Even better, everyone liked them. Unfortunately, our "quick" lunch took a long time to arrive, so our short time at the Children's Museum was cut even shorter.
We'd visited this children's museum once before, but it was eight years ago, and my kids were so much smaller that it felt new again. The boys found a ninja course to test out. Afterwards, Bryce commented, "that wasn't really very hard."
It was just the right amount of challenging for Graham.
Nellie and Graham spent the majority of their time in Kidopolis. More specifically, they spent most of their time in the grocery store. It's funny how much kids enjoy grocery shopping when it's all pretend...
One of my favorite parts was the outdoor water area, mostly just because it was fun to help fill up the giant bowl at the top of the Flow area and watch it tip over. Overall, we had an enjoyable few hours at the museum. Since we got in free with our Pacific Science Center reciprocity benefits, I'll call that a win.
We then made our way south for a joyful, and long overdue, reunion with our friends, the Goits. The first Sunday in our new ward in Titusville, Florida (when Aubree was just 3 months old), a young couple was blessing their 4-month old daughter. Mark leaned over and whispered, "I know that guy! We had a few engineering classes together at BYU." After Sacrament meeting, we went over to say hello, and Sarah and Matt invited us to join them for dinner that afternoon. The rest, as they say, was history. Sarah and I became such immediate friends that we knew that we must have been friends in the pre-existence and were just reuniting. Aubree and Rachel, though just infants, soon also became friends. I know most babies don't actually have friends, but these two were an exception.
Sadly, the Goits moved away just 10 months later. Though (as I admitted earlier) I am not good at keeping up with cherished friends, every time I get together with Sarah it's like no time at all has passed.
This time around, we loved seeing our kids connect. Sarah and Matt's kids are just about the nicest kids on the planet. Every time I turned around Mikey was giving me a hug or thanking me for any small gesture. Nate and Thane immediately headed outside to play games and hunt for lizards with the neighbor kids.
Aubree and Rachel re-bonded over books and music. We had an impromptu jam Greatest Showman jam session with Aubree on the violin, Sarah on the piano, and Rachel singing. It was fantastic!
Sadly, the Goit's schedules didn't allow them to join us for daytime outings (Sarah is in grad school currently and her kids were in the middle of state testing), so Wednesday morning we set out to Space Center Houston (another great reciprocity benefit) on our own. The place was packed with school field trips, so we first made our way out to see the space shuttle piggy-backed on the Boeing jetliner.
It brought back so many memories of our time at Kennedy Space Center! We used to watch space shuttle launches from our front yard. I told the kids stories of how Mark worked on the shuttles and would often come home saying things like, "today I crawled in the cockpit of Atlantis." It made it all that much more meaningful.
We waited in a long line to take a tour of Johnson Space Center on a tram. It was interesting to see the layout of the campus.
At one point, I asked Bryce, "So, do you think you might want to work for NASA." He immediately replied, "No, I still want to work for Boston Dynamics." But then we toured the Vehicle Mock-up Facility, and he saw a huge robotics section complete with two famous robots he's read about a lot, and he commented, "Well, maybe I would work for NASA if I could work here!"
Wednesday evening was a double treat. First, the boys got to go to Scouts with Mikey and Nate. Rachel had gymnastics, but Aubree attended Young Women's without her. The Mia Maids had a presentations about college scholarships. Aubree learned that she could start applying at the age of 13 (which, obviously, is right now). Since then, she's spent a lot of time researching and is excited to start the process. We'll see if that excitement translates into follow-through, but I sure hope it does!
Second, Mark was flying in that night! Nellie especially was super excited. I told her, "After you get your pajamas on and go to sleep, Daddy will be here!" A few minutes later, I was surprised when she came running down the stairs with her pajamas on, yelling, "Where is Daddy!?" Apparently she'd missed the "and go to sleep" part of my statement, and thought that as soon as she got her pajamas on, Mark would magically appear. You can imagine her disappointment.
Thursday morning, with the kids all thrilled to have Daddy with us, we drove to Galveston for a beach day. The Goit's loaned us their boogie boards and beach toys, and it took a surprisingly short amount of time for the kids to be out in the water. Aubree, Bryce, and Thane traded off on the boogie boards while Graham body surfed in his life jacket. Graham sure does love adventure! Which reminds me, on nights that Nellie's had a hard time, I double checked with Graham to see how he was holding up with the constant change and unfamiliar people, locations, and situations. He answered, "There aren't any worst parts; I'm just having too much fun everyday!" and gave me a huge hug.
Nellie was reluctant to get in the water, but loved playing and dancing in the sand.
When the boys weren't in the water, they were working on various sand creations. We started out with a sand castle, but eventually that turned into a volcano.
Nellie made a lovely little friend named Mia. Speaking of friends, every time a kid would come near where the kids were playing, Graham would go over and invite the child to come play with him. On one such occasion, the boy's father answered, "Sorry friend, he doesn't speak English." They were from Germany. Later on, however, Graham and this little boy spent a good chunk of time punching waves waist deep in the ocean.
Mia's parents were also lovely. They didn't speak much English either (they spoke Spanish) but were incredibly generous with sharing their play toys, bubbles, and even their pizza! Sooooo kind!
We stayed and played for well over four hours. In retrospect, maybe that was too long because, despite applying and re-applying sunscreen, most of us came home quite lobstered (Bryce being the most notable exception...he just turns golden).
Before leaving, we stopped at an outdoor shower post to try to minimize the sand we brought back to our car. Thane and Graham volunteered to clean off all the sand toys. They fought most of the time they were washing the toys, but they managed to get them all clean.
We spent a final enjoyable evening with the Goits on Thursday night. Nellie said, "I don't want to leave their house!" Thane asked, "why can't we stay at each person's house for a week?!" (I told him that we've already stayed with 7 people, so that would've made our trip already 7 weeks long!)
One of my goals on this trip was to reconnect with dear friends and family, and so far that goal has been met beyond expectations. It just makes it hard to keep having to leave.
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