The Texas trip...but not the wedding yet

So we went to Texas for 5 days to celebrate my brother-in-law getting married. It was our first time flying with 3 children. I think it will be a separate post altogether. ;) But I'm going to post wedding pictures in another post. Hey! Did you know it is National Blog Posting Month? Where you are challenged to write a post every day in November? I think I'll stretch this Texas story out to 2 or 3 posts...AT LEAST.

Anyhoo...for the last few days before we left, I tried to figure out how I would style my mop of hair for the wedding. I wanted to donate it, but didn't think it was a good idea to do it right before professional pictures would be taken. Tuesday afternoon, I called a local salon and asked for an appointment. That night I went and had 9 inches chopped off my head. In true east coast style, the stylist chopped my pigtails and said, "Oh. You look better already. That hair was doing nothing for you." and later, "Really, if you aren't willing to do anything with long hair, there is no point in having it." I swear, 4 years ago this would have had me crying in the chair. Now I just laughed along. Here is a picture of the first morning I styled it. I'm a bit better at it now...and it is usually just tucked behind my ears. Which looks fine. And I have product now. And I use a hair dryer. Look me! I'm a girl!

Okay, so the plane trip. Lordy. They were good, really. But they are 3 children. The plane was rows of 4...2 seats on each side of the aisle. Jeff picked our seats when he ordered the tickets, and somehow the best arrangement he came up with was 4 across and one in front of that row inside by the window. Hmmmm, I'll give you one guess who got a seat by himself in a row apart from the rest of the family. But the kids did really well. Andrew had to keep a travel journal while he was on the trip, and this is the picture he put on the page and what he wrote:

"I'm on a airplane and I'm next to my sister but if I'm meen I hoft to sit by my self."

Once we got to Texas, there was lots of time for the kids to entertain themselves. One of their favorite things was to make a nest out of pillows. Another was playing with their new Pokemon toys that I'd bought just for the trip. Another was waking up so incredibly early that we had to wait HOURS for the breakfast buffet to open (it opened at 6:30). Another was peeing and pooing on themselves so that Mommy would have to clean it up. I had packed really lightly so we'd have fewer bags (3 suitcases for 5 people..woot woot!). But I had not anticipated the sheer volume of urine soaked clothes to deal with. Michael had a case of the runs (pooed in the bathtub 3 times in a half-hour period), Lily couldn't quite sit back far enough on the toilet, but she didn't want help, so she would regularly shoot pee all over her clothes and the bathroom, and Andrew was so tired at night that he soaked our bed with urine and didn't even wake up...soaked the comforter that was ON TOP of him. As Jeff and I changed the sheets and comforter at 11:30 at night, we dubbed it the "Weekend of Excrement."

Honestly, they were really good...nothing they did was intentionally bad. Traveling with young children just is what it is.

Friday we went to the zoo before the rehearsal dinner. Houston has a really nice zoo. And it was hot, but not "I want to kill myself" hot. Here is Lily posing as a flamingo. She was standing there like this and I asked her if her foot was hurt. She told me, "No, Mom. I'm a flamingo."

The carousel ride. Michael picked an animal right next to the enthusiastic conductor. The man was trying to make Michael smile and waving at him and talking to him...and Michael just scowled at him, or grinned a little and then quickly looked away. Shy. That is my Mikey.

Andrew was "too cool" for the carousel, telling us to "give my ticket to a little kid." But he was a good sport and rode the white tiger. I think he may have even enjoyed himself.

The day after the wedding we went to a park in downtown Houston. It was really cool...even though my kids were rather timid.

There was a fountain park for the kids to play in. Pictured below is Michael working up the nerve to go in. Not pictured below is Andrew getting knocked over by a 2 year old (not Michael) and bleeding on the pavement. Not pictured is Andrew limping dramatically over to a first aid stand and getting a splinter in his foot as he dragged himself over the deck. Not pictured is Andrew howling in pain as the medic bandaged up his knee. Not pictured is Andrew pulling the splinter out of his own foot without crying when ice cream was offered as a salve.

They also spent a lot of time eating treats and watching tv. And somehow I have no pictures of our trip to another park in Houston that had an awesome train, weird looking ducks, and the science museum that we toured briefly. It was an awesome day that I have no record of.

Future posts: Lily the amazing traveler...and all the cute things she said. Chad and Monica's beautiful wedding. Jeff's weekend versus my weekend ;)