To Houston (part one of two)

Hey guys! I meant to get this post written a week ago, but it was crazy busy between tons of appointments, birthday, etc.  Anyway, I’m finally sitting down to write about our trip to Texas! (The whole post ended up being long, so I divided it into two parts).

My parents decided to celebrate their 20^th anniversary by spending a week in Houston.  I was super excited because I absolutely love trips and stressed because I had to bring my three week old joeys along with me and I didn’t know how traveling would affect them.

Christmas Eve

After a lot of planning and packing, we left the house around 11:20, which is a record for us. (We normally take forever to get out of the door). We drove through Alabama and Mississippi.

Aw, my little baby, Inky. ❤ The other three gliders were curled up asleep lower in the pouch.

We got to the hotel at a reasonable time and then went out for Chinese buffet! We hadn’t been to one in ages, so it was super fun. Baruch, in a very Baruch fashion, stuffed himself completely full and was waddling out of the restaurant. XD

Christmas Day

More driving! We went through Louisiana and finally got to Texas around five. We had rented an airbnb, which was great. It was so nice to have room to spread out. Jehosheba and I got our animals settled in. Then Jehosheba and the boys played a game of Monolpoly while Mama and Daddy got the Christmas meal ready. We’d made most of it before we left, so it was just a matter of cooking the game hens and reheating everything else.

De game hens. They were SO good. I’m not a fan of chicken or turkey, but these were AMAZING. (and so cute and tiny).

Stuffing.

Homemade apple sauce.

Mashed potatoes.

Rolls, carrots and cheese.

We finished eating and got some Christmas pudding. 🙂 Then Daddy read the Christmas story while we listened.

And finally, the pudding. 🙂

December 26^th

After a night of not sleeping (and staring from blurry eyes at my sugar gliders) I got into the van with everyone else. We headed to a really neat market. We got a bunch of awesome bakery goods that we split for brunch. They were sooo good!

(I love markets!)

We went to a mosaic park. Guys. It was so beautiful. Seriously. My pictures don’t do it justice. These mosaics were unlike anything I’ve ever seen. We hung out here for over an hour.

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After a short break at the airbnb, we went to an art museum. There were some cool pieces there, but there was also a ton of abstract, which I’m not a huge fan of.

We went to The Chocolate Bar and got some chocolate! I got a giant chocolate peanut butter cup. I had to share it with eager siblings because it was way too big. XD

That night we had the leftovers from the Christmas meal and watched a version of Alice In Wonderland. Then the parents went to plan the rest of the trip and we kids played Are You Smarter Than  A Fifth Grader. XD Which was a lot of fun. (And I won, but somehow that wasn’t very reassuring seeing that I wasn’t able to answer quite a few fifth grade questions. XD)

December 27^th

We tried to go to a market, but it was closed. We drove around for a while and then went on a little walk (during which my brothers delighted in hitting plants and me with their sticks :I).

Then we went to The Hobbit Café! It was SO much fun. It was a Hobbit themed restaurant…with Hobbit sized food portions! Jehosheba and I split a burger and we went away stuffed.  Even Baruch, who believes that he can’t get full, couldn’t eat anymore.

Baruch, thrilled beyond words to have onion rings.

This is the KIDS MEAL. Seriously, guys, it was gigantic!

This was my half of the meal. An avocado burger!

We went to an evening service at a little church (and GUYS no one was forced to wear masks DURING the service!). We came back to the airbnb and ate orange chicken while we watched Lion King 1 ½. Then the other kids watched Moana while I hung out with my sugar gliders. XD

December 28^th

We went to The Aquarium where there were a few rides and stuff. Jehosheba and Nahum had been wanting to ride a horribly not fun ride called The Slingshot (which wasn’t there), so the parents thought it’d be fun to give them a taste of some rides. The ones at the Aquarium weren’t bad at all. XD which I liked.  

Yoveil was so excited to ride!

That was the one we went on. 🙂 Super fun!

Waiting to get the tickets. 🙂

After we went on one, we decided to walk around the downtown area for a while. There were massive buildings. I was reminded again why I don’t like the city. XD

(That just looks ominous, doesn’t it?)

We got went to a coffee shop and got some cookies and coffee, then went in search of lunch. It was our luck to run into all of the places that were closed. XD

(Dovid and my cookie pieces 😋)

By that time it was probably two or so and everyone was really hungry and tired. We headed back to the van and went to The Pit Room – BBQ. It was super good. We hadn’t been to a BBQ restaurant since we lived in KC.

On the way back to the airbnb, we got more cookies and coffee (what a life!). When we got home, I made more cookies (seriously, you can never have too many…besides, these were sugar free XD) and we played Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. Jehosheba won.

We watched Frozen 2 again and then went to bed.

December 29^th

Daddy and Mommy’s wedding anniversary! We decided to go spend the day on Galveston Island. It was about an hour drive. We got to a historic district called The Strand. We had an awesome time walking around there. Everything felt super fun and festive (especially with the Christmas décor still up). We visited some little shops and got a piece of taffy.

Then we drove to the Texas Star Bakery and got a couple things to split there. We parked in another district and walked around the downtown there. We tried to go to an ice cream shop, but it was closed. So we got “lupper” (lunch + supper) at a little Mexican restaurant. Jehosheba and I split nachos.

We stopped at the beach and walked the entire width of the longest, continual sidewalk in the country. 🙂 The beach was so much fun. It was cold and getting dark by that time, but we walked barefoot for a while on the sand and got our feet in the water. We decided to come back the next day. Baruch said that it was more fun than any ride he could imagine! 🙂

We drove around Tiki Island, which is one of the smallest islands in the country. It was a really cool place. The houses were built right along the water. I’d hate to live there, but it was neat to drive through.

Then we went to The Boardwalk. It had a bunch of rides (and a Starbucks XD). It was dark by the time we got there. It was super close to the bay, which was cool. The other kids were really excited to go on some rides. Me, not so much. (Have I mentioned that I like to be in control of my surroundings at all times??) But after being bribed by the promise of a CD (thanks bro’s!) I decided to ride The Flare with them. (Yoveil was crushed that she wasn’t old enough).

We waited in line forever and were one of the last groups to ride. It was…um…yeah, it wasn’t very fun. XD Basically, you go really fast up a HUGE VERY TALL loop and then you get hung from the top of it. You’re looking down over the ground and it feel s like you could fall out at any moment. The whole place was shutting down after that, and Yoveil was crushed because she wanted to do some rides.

(Jehosheba and Nahum are in the front. You can’t see Baruch and I, but we were behind them)

As we started back to the airbnb, we kids bought Mommy and Daddy McDonald’s hot fudge sundaes to celebrate their anniversary. 😉 When we got back, we gave them some little presents that we’d made. 🙂 It was a lot of fun.

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And that ends the first half of the trip! Come back next time to see the rest!

~Hattush

Have you been to Texas? Houston? Do you like to travel? What is your favorite ride? What is the funnest vacation spot you’ve been to?