Houston Trip Minus Me

One of the perks of working for a big corporation is that they have company functions you can participate in. The next best thing is to have a relative working for a big corporation. My sister Melissa got tickets for us to the Museum of Natural Science in Houston through her company. The tickets included food, entrance to the museum and a documentary movie called Flying Monsters 3D, about flying dinosaurs. As soon as she told me about the dinosaurs, I knew Eric would be thrilled. I also knew that since this was on a Friday night, I wouldn't be able to go, so the rest of the family went without me.

This first picture shows where their table was, in the big hallway under the dinosaur bones--pretty cool. Both of my sisters and their kids went, as well as my brother-in-law. He seemed more interested in the museum than the other kids. They split up into two groups because Melissa wasn't able to get tickets to the same movie showing for all of them. Patrick took our boys and my nephew Nick. Natalie went with the girls and the rest of the family. My parents weren't interested in going, so they stayed home. My family stayed with them, so they got to see them before and after the museum and then this morning before they left for home.

My sisters and Patrick also texted me various photos through the night, so at least I felt like I was a little bit involved. Cynthia texted me a couple of photos of the girls in front of a shark mouth, and then this one of Natalie in front of a prehistoric shark, a megalodon. Natalie still loves sharks.

I'm not going to post all of those photos, but another one showed the girls with their glasses up as if they were giving a toast. Melissa said they were "raising a cup to Aunt Melanie." Awww, that was nice. Natalie said they were "trying to act all official". There was another photo of Anthony and Nick getting on a spinning ride. My sisters and I are prone to motion sickness and my sister Cynthia texted me, "Our boys are crazy!" Patrick also sent me a photo of Eric eating cotton candy with a caption that said, "Hi Mama! I am eating pure sugar at 9:45!" They left the museum at about 10pm, and Eric was clearly tired but still going. He had a blast!

Patrick was really good about taking photos for me. I'm going to have to teach him a few things about changing my camera settings, but he still got plenty of good photos. Even though many of the photos were blurry because he couldn't use a flash in the exhibits, I got to see a little of what they were seeing.

I turned this photo black and white because of the funky red lighting in the exhibit, but I love how he captured Eric's facial expression while Nick put his hand in the dinosaur's mouth. He looks a little scared but fascinated at the same time. Apparently, Patrick couldn't get Eric to put his own hand in the dinosaur's mouth.

I definitely had to share this photo. Patrick got the idea for the boys to pretend they were running away from the dinosaur that was chasing them. What a cool idea! I bet the boys were all over that one. They look like they're really getting into it. :)

Alex wasn't in many of the photos. He and Nick were constantly trying to hide behind Anthony when Patrick was taking photos. Patrick had to resort to quickly snapping photos when Alex was there, and as a result, many of them were blurry. I appreciate his effort, though, and I feel like I was almost there with them. I'm hoping that Patrick will post here on the blog with a few more details about the actual exhibits and how the kids enjoyed them.