Children's Museum

We recently took our first trip to the Children's Museum with Jody, Evelyn, Dana and Maxwell, and had such a great time!  I'd been hearing about it and hearing about it for so long and was really excited to take Layla - it sounded right up her alley.  We weren't disappointed!  As soon as we set the kids down, they took off and never looked back.  The Tot Spot is awesome and we had a great time watching the kid's faces light up with every new toy or display they came across. 

Layla is Little Miss Organization (wonder where she gets it from), so she had a blast with so many of the set-ups they had.  She loved the oversize light up peg board and sat there making sure everything was arranged to her liking.  Same thing with the wall that you could drop different sized balls into.  She had to make sure everything was right where she wanted it before moving on to the next thing.

Although we didn't get any pictures, the kids also loved the Water Works exhibit outside!  They were fascinated with all of the different fountains and waterfalls and somehow managed to get soaked even though they could barely reach anything.  That's when we called it a day, but we'll have to go again soon - there was so much to look at and play with that we only made it halfway through before leaving!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the kiddos playing.  I tried to get better ones but everyone was too busy to even look at me!

Galveston Trip

Last month, Nick and I were spontaneous (for once), woke up on a Saturday morning, and decided to get out of town and take the baby to Galveston for the night.  So away we went!  We sprung for the "deluxe" suite at the San Luis Resort and headed out for some fresh air and seafood!

We took Layla to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, and she was mesmerized.  I swear, nothing fazes this girl.  She loved looking at all of the saltwater fish tanks and pointing to the fish ("fish-eees" according to her), and every time there was a "storm" in the restaurant, or the animals started their noises, Layla looked around and said "Wow, wow, wow..."  Too funny.  She even took a picture with the big green frog walking around the restaurant!  Good sign for pictures with Santa later this year??

After lunch, we headed down to the beach to take advantage of the great weather.  The water was beautiful!  I guess since there hasn't been much rain, the sediments in the water weren't stirred up, and it was so clear.  Nick was out to above his knees and could still see his feet - unheard of in Texas!  Layla had a great time playing in the water.  Now that she's walking and able to explore more easily, I think the beach held much more interest for her.  She and Nick looked for shells, "jumped" in the waves, and basically had a great time playing together.

From there, it was a quick nap and then off to dinner at Fish Tales, which was so good!  Then we took a walk along the sea wall before heading back to the room for baths and bed.

The next morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel IHOP and then swam at the pool before checkout.  We were planning on one more outing on Sunday afternoon, but Layla hadn't slept very well the night before, meaning Nick and I didn't sleep well either.  We were all pretty exhausted so we decided to head back to Houston early.

It was a wonderful, much needed get away!  I love creating these little family memories.  Nothing fancy, just us spending some quality time together without worrying about work, errands, etc.  Layla is growing up so fast and these are the times I'll always cherish!

"Yuck, saltwater!"