Sean & Char came for a visit the week after Easter, and it was so nice to have company and to be able to show them all the things we love about Houston. (My mom came to visit quick in December but it was only for one overnight stay before we took our Disney Christmas Cruise out of Galveston, so we didn't get to do any fun/touristy things with her.)
We started by surprising them with a visit to the new house when they got off the plane. Ryan and Aidan went to pick them up at the airport and I went over to the house with Mason to meet them and surprise them. (It's a model home so it's empty, I just had to get the sales guy to unlock it for us). The new house is 45 minutes north of us and since Ryan was already going to be up in North Houston at the airport we figured it was the perfect time to pull this little trick on them.
Ryan told them he had to stop at one of his attending's houses to pick something up for his Grand Rounds the next morning... hehe.
It was fun to be able to share in our excitement!
We didn't intend on actually buying a house so soon, but once we laid eyes on this baby we knew we had to have it. I describe the neighborhoods around a big city like this as being "crammed like sardines" or "you can reach out your window and touch your neighbor's house".
Not this one.
We have 3/4 an acre, fabulous front and back yards, and enough room for the boys to run around and play ball, it's a corner lot on a cul-de sac, so there won't be any "through" traffic, and all without being in our neighbor's personal space!! We are totally in love with this house!
Large kitchen...I'm in love...and they're repainting that ugly mustard color white for me.
Looking into the living room from the kitchen
the living room
The next morning Nani & Poppy hung out with A & M so I could go watch Ryan give his grand rounds presentation, then later that night we took them to an Astros game. Ryan and I love baseball, and being 15 minutes away from an MLB park has been glorious. (We only made it to one Phillies game when we lived in Allentown, because the boys were too little and required a sitter, and it was over an hour away). We now root for the home team the Astros, and we have tickets bought for one game each month of the season so far.
Friday was spent just hanging out and spending most of our afternoon at the Pool in our apartment complex. We even used the "community" grill over at the pool to make some BBQ for dinner, which we ate poolside! Aaaahhhh....vacation.
We had mexican beer, $1 hot dogs, and everyone had a blast!
Mason even overcame his fear of the water and now not only will go fully into the water, but was jumping in!!!
Ry and I ran back to the apartment to get all the food to cook for dinner and when we came back this was what we found....Char said he was so tired he passed right out on Sean shortly after we left.
Saturday after we all went to Aidan's soccer game, we got the chance to take Nani & Poppy to a real Crawfish Boil that was being put on by all the neighbors along one street in a fancy shmancy neighborhood in Houston called Bellaire. Yup, Bellaire. I believe it is Ryan's program director, Dr. Holcomb that was the main house the boil was set up at. They blocked off the street so you couldn't drive, and the kids played ball and rode their bikes while the adults drank Shiner Bock and ate crawfish.
These tables are constructed specifically for crawfish boils. Once the food is done being boiled it gets dumped on these tables and you dig in...the large open cutout in the center has a trash can underneath it.
The aftermath. eeeew.
I am not a fan of crawfish, and didn't even try them (but I did try the boiled garlic with some crusty french bread, and a cauliflower head that was so spicy I almost died), but it was really interesting to watch how they do the whole thing. They had live crawfish shipped in from Louisiana that morning (don't be impressed, we're only 1.5 hrs from the state border), and they toss them in a cooler and give them a good rinsing for quite some time to get all the mud off the MudBugs. Mason was fascinated with this process, and quickly made friends with the man washing the "bugs", who was very nice and let him help.
He wasn't afraid. At all. In fact, none of the kids were. They were walking around with solo cups filled with water and crawfish in them!
Mom, look! Can we take him home???
Uh, no.
Aidan got a chance to help wash a batch of bugs too!
Louisiana themed goodies for everyone to enjoy. The boys grabbed some beads and were completely tattooed with crawfish and alligators before we left. I scored a cool crawfish boil necklace that has a crawfish, corn, potato and garlic on it...the typical things that are thrown in a boil, although this boil also had cauliflower, artichokes and mushrooms in there. All of it was way too spicy for this chica to even enjoy. I spent my time munching on other appetizers and food that guests brought....and we brought Texas shaped cookies, decorated with Nani's suggestion and bearing a flower sprinkle where Houston is!
Stay tuned for Part 2!!
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