Home Sweet Quite Warm Home

(Video of the fam at Galveston Beach...I'm not blog savey enough to figure out how to get this down in the right section so count this as your preview to the show)

I love going back and visiting good ole Houston, close to where I grew up and where my family now lives. I especially enjoy it since now between having a big girl job in Utah with little PTO saved up and at the same time not very much money (thank you student loans), I rarely get to go back there.

Well...I was fortunate enough to find myself on a plane heading towards Houston about a month ago, for Labor day weekend! Although what went down was not exactly the itinerary I had planned for, it turned out to be a fun trip packed into 3 short days. Highlights from the trip, with pictures included of course:

1) I saw all the amazing work that my dad and his helper did on our house...it looked SO different! I'm always blown away at how handy my dad is at renovating the houses we move into, (not to mention fixing cars and other random things around the house.) We have been spoiled with that growing up and now the guys I date have a disadvantage in that I expect the same level of skill in them...as if I need to make dating any more difficult than it is these days. :)

Before pic with our floating door and high ceiling

Remodeled ceiling, the new floor for the new room

New room upstairs above the living room

2) FOOD food and more food! Mom cooking, dad's grilled fajitas, Shipley's Donuts twice, Bluebell homemade vanilla ice cream on pie - um YES PLEASE, pizza and much much more. Disgusting example of a Registered Dietitian? Perhaps, but you'll have to get over it because that's what we do in Texas, and I feel good about my decision. It's called Intuitive Eating or...maybe I've become so accustomed to encouraging weight gain with my babies that it's rubbing off with my eating habits...whoops.

3) Schilitterbahn! What's that you say? Oh just the hottest coolest time in Texas. No big deal. We went to this waterpark annually as a family and I have so many fond memories of our trips there. Apparently they have expanded and now have a location closer to Houston over in Galveston so we decided to check it out and loved it! We even conquered the slide with a 80 foot drop where you shoot down at 40 mph with winds at like 45 mph at the top. Be impressed, we were.

                       

lazy river

huge slide

Pretty sure I had entered my happy place right about now

4) Galveston Beach! I know I know...you all think our beaches are disgusting and full of seaweed or whatever you say but I happen to LOVE this beach. You know why? It's not as gross as you think AND the water is WARM so you can actually get in it, voluntarily...and enjoy it! Take that California beaches. Nothing trumps water at a perfect temp. Ah, just thinking about it makes me feel so warm and cozy inside. Unfortunately there was a bit of a storm coming in that day though and then my brother James and I drifted out a bit too far and got called back in by the lifeguard. (And you guys thought I wasn't a rebel/daredevel...)

Butt shot...ooh yeah

It was so windy!!

Beautiful Rainbow

Love the sky in Texas

5) Back to sleeping in "my room" designed to be a sewing room but used as both during my summers at home...lost among the sewing/crafty goodness on the small bed in the back...it was hard to return to my princess queen size bed in Salt Lake, let me tell you. Oh wait...:)

Old pic of me and my dog Pardner sleeping in our fancy smancy beds

6) Simply sitting around without a worry in the world, catching up with the good ole fam. Enough said.

Jealous yet? You probably started feeling the need to covet my life back when I first mentioned that I went to Houston. Worthy cause for coveting if you ask me. Anyways, there was definitely more that I'm missing but just know that I'm ready to go back again...hopefully next time for the big Houston Rodeo!!