Thanksgiving in Houston

We spent Thanksgiving in Houston with the Fishers this year. It was great to take a break from school and enjoy spending time with family in the warm weather. Jeff and I are both excited that this is likely our last snowy winter. We’ll be in sunny Arizona by next winter! A little off topic, but Jeff got a job with W.L. Gore in Phoenix, AZ. This was the job he wanted so we’re very happy about it. I’m so glad he’ll have a job he enjoys. And we’re excited about the location too. I really was hoping we wouldn’t end up somewhere in the snow. Neither Jeff nor I are big fans of snowy weather. Also, I love that we’ll be just 5 hours away from my parents’ house. It’s just the right distance that we can have our own separate lives, but we can see them easily. They’ve already offered (very enthusiastically) to babysit the kids on any weekends when we want some time to ourselves.

Okay, back to Thanksgiving. Jeff and I arrived Wednesday and naturally, one of the first things Jeff wanted to do after we got to the house was to go for a motorcycle ride. Jeff grew up with motorcycles and loves them. I feel so bad taking that away from him, but I would probably literally worry myself to death if I let him get one. Since the odds of an accident go way down if we only ride them when we visit his parents’ house rather than him riding one every day, I’m okay with a few motorcycle rides while we are there. Plus, I must admit, it’s really fun. We went on a nice long ride. I told Jeff to be extra careful since we were bringing our nine-week-old unborn child along. On the way home, we pulled into a shopping center where we saw a TCBY sign, but we were duped because TCBY definitely wasn’t there. It had gone out of business. I didn’t see another frozen yogurt place for the rest of the week. Apparently Texas doesn’t believe in frozen yogurt. Luckily Baskin Robbins has exactly one flavor of frozen yogurt: vanilla. So we stopped there to get me some.

That night after dinner, Jeff and I were invited to spend the night at Ben and Caitlin’s house a half an hour away. It was fun to see them and all of the technological gadgets Ben has installed around the house. Bethany had a great time playing with Jeff as usual and the four of us adults played Wii until we were ready to go to bed.

The next morning was Thanksgiving and Ben had been pulling for the very talented Jeff to be on his Turkey Bowl football team early that morning. He got his wish. We headed over to the field early and I quickly discovered that there was a very good chance I would be an icicle by the end of the game. I thought the transition from Provo winter weather to Houston winter weather would be a pleasant and warm one, but I forgot about Houston’s humidity! I was SO cold! And it didn’t help that before the game, I ran up and down the wet field with Jeff and my canvas shoes got soaked. I paced back and forth for a lot of the game to prevent myself from turning into an ice cube. The guys did great! Ben played quarterback and managed not to favor Jeff too much as a receiver. As always, it was fun to witness my studly husband’s athletic prowess in action.

That night, we went over to the Driggs’ for Thanksgiving dinner. They are Jeff’s aunt and uncle (Cheryl is Greg’s sister) and they live within walking distance of Jeff’s parents’ house. They switch off hosting duties from year to year. Jeff’s cousin (Cheryl and Allan’s daughter) Emily was there visiting with her husband and cute kids. Jeff and I had fun playing with her cute daughters. Dinner was great! I actually managed not to over-stuff myself. Greg smoked some turkey and brought it over. I think it may have been the best turkey I ever tasted! It was a very enjoyable Thanksgiving.

Friday, we all spent the day at the NASA Space Center. We drove about an hour to get there. The pregnancy was still a secret so I had to hide my carsickness. My morning sickness was never severe. I never threw up or got so sick that I couldn’t function. I just felt kinda yucky for a few hours a day, but being in the car for a long period of time definitely made the sickness a lot worse. Lucky for me, I had my sweet, sympathetic husband there to hold my hand and let me lie on his lap. We had a good time at the Space Center checking out all of the displays and playing on all of the interactive ones. We watched (slept through) a couple of ancient IMAX movies, but everything else was great and Greg was generous enough to pay for all of us to get some of their overpriced food for lunch. The funnest part was watching Bethany enjoy herself.

Bethany laughed so hard every time they put this helmet on her head! She loved it! So cute!

Checking out the tiny space astronauts live in in the space shuttle

The little kid next to me has his hand on the plastic pane between us and the display. A minute before this picture was taken, poor little Bethany didn't see it and ran into it face first.

We went on a tram tour to this place where we saw a life-sized space shuttle that they use for practice.

What an attractive man!

On the tram

This thing was HUGE!

I would not enjoy the life of an astronaut.

I wasn’t feeling too great Saturday morning and it took me a while to get going. I was glad Jeff convinced me to go to the school parking lot with Greg, Renita, Kyle, Kinzie (Jeff’s 15 year old cousin), and Jeff to try out the BloKart. It was sooo fun! It was basically just sailing on wheels. We sat strapped into the seat holding the rope that controls the sail. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy to catch the wind just right and when the wind picked up, we could really get going fast! I got some really good wind on my turns and got going so fast! It was awesome! We each took a couple of turns and were out there for a couple of hours. I was bummed I forgot the camera. Here's a picture of some people I don’t know on BloKarts.

After we finished with the BloKart, Greg, Kyle, Ben, Caitlin, Jeff and I went to a shooting range while Renita watched Bethany. I’ve never been a fan of guns, so I didn’t particularly enjoy it. It was really loud and I felt deaf with the earplugs in, but mostly it made me really nervous to have a whole bunch of strangers around me shooting guns. I was glad Caitlin was there because after I tried a couple of the little guns, I spent the rest of the time having a nice conversation about books, husbands, video games, kids, and food with her. The guys had fun. Luckily, Jeff is pretty indifferent about shooting so I don’t have to feel obligated to go with him to ranges. After the guys had had enough, we drove back to pick up Renita and Bethany and went to Red Robin for dinner. It was delicious, of course, and we got cute Bethany a balloon after we ate.

Sunday was our last day in Houston. We went to church in the morning and after we got home, we helped Renita put up their incredible collection of Christmas decorations all around the house. No surface was left untouched! She’s got some pretty cool stuff. I especially love the nativity scene they got in Alaska with the igloo instead of a stable and the arctic animals instead of barn animals. So cute! Ben, Caitlin and Bethany came over for dinner and games. Jeff and I played with Bethany and took her around to see all of the decorations. I made the mistake of picking up one of the little people from the little light-up town to show her up close. Of course she grabbed it and did not want to give it up. Jeff asked her for it a few times and every time she shook her head and pushed his outstretched hand away. We tried to distract her with other things to play with, which she willingly played with, all the while, keeping the little person clutched in her tight little fist. Finally, Greg came out with a Dum Dum sucker for her. She reached for it, but he told her she had to give him the little boy first. She looked at it and thought for a second before handing it to him. She sucked on the lollipop for a while and then begged us to pick her up again so she could reach one of the little town people. We told her no. She thought for a second and offered us the sucker. It was so funny seeing this little one and half year old trying to strike a deal!

After dinner that night, we played Guesstures. I had never played before. It was a really fun game! We had a lot of fun and it was a great way to end an awesome visit.