Visit to Graceland

This is Patrick taking over for a few posts here and there on the Road Trip to Wisconsin (and home again). I decided that on the first day we would make the drive all the way to Memphis on our first day of driving. The scheduled drive time would be about 11 hours but I am afraid that with traffic and stops for food it took a little longer. In fact, the worst part of the drive was construction on I40 between Little Rock and Memphis.

Anthony drove a small block of time for me earlier in the day, and I originally planned to have him drive the last portion of the trip with me navigating. However, the construction was so bad that instead of him driving, I had him on his phone googling ways to get me around the massive parking lot that I40 was turned into. That help allowed us to negotiate around a large part of the mess.

Eventually, we finally crossed over the Mississippi into Memphis on our way to the hotel I scheduled us to stay in for two nights. I had my phone passed back to Natalie so that she could take pictures while going over the bridge and she decided to go ahead and text Melanie one of the pictures. She was her usually silly self, but with all those hours in the car it is probably easy to understand.

My driving plan up to Wisconsin included staying a full day in Memphis with time to spend in Graceland as well as Mud Island. I chose Mud Island over a River Boat trip as I thought the kids would enjoy it more and the schedules for the various boat tours was a bit daunting. Anyone thinking of seeing Mud Island after following the link above, you need to know that it is CLOSED on Mondays.

Graceland was open and we all went on the tour. The tour was a bit too long for Natalie and Eric. Alex, Anthony, and I enjoyed it.

The mansion itself is quite amazing, from the entry way and living room on past the dining room and a number of the other rooms.

The dining room is quite ornate and stately. I didn't include the picture of the one bedroom on the first floor which, if I recall correctly, was for Elvis' parents.

The second floor is off limits to visitors, apparently it was off limits to guests even when Elvis was living in the home.

The audio tour was both informative and entertaining. Even though Natalie didn't seem to say much about the tour she certainly seemed to be listening all through the tour. Eric would periodically get lost and we would have to reset the audio tour to the correct room for him.

The older boys and I enjoyed the stories about, and the appearance of, the Jungle Room.

This is another picture of the Jungle Room that you get to after traveling through the basement. We enjoyed the fact that Elvis had a TV room in his basement with three televisions so he would watch all three stations at once. Yes, all three channels at once.

The green shag carpet on both the floor and the ceiling made the room a bit different. It is quite clear that Elvis enjoyed his partying.

Outside we were able to view the resting places of Elvis and some of his family members. I didn't include some pictures of those due to the large number of people in the background, including children.

At this point in the tour, Eric was clearly fading and bored.

But still willing to smile for the camera.

After the Graceland tour we also visited the car museum to see some of Elvis' cars. Eric was willing to ham it up for some pictures. most of the displays were so dark it was very difficult to get a good picture. The black Ferrari has Eric's approval.

Yes, the most tired member of the family is willing to pose for pictures.

Here is where my planning failed. After Graceland we made the drive to Mud Island, planning to eat nearby and explore there. When we arrived the woman at the parking area informed us it was closed on Mondays. Sure enough, it is, says so on their website. Great planning Papa!

Fortunately, we did find a place to eat that the kids enjoyed. We ate at the Kooky Canuk in downtown Memphis. The kids loved seeing the huge burgers on the menu as well as the "contests" of people that ate some of these massive burgers in a ridiculously short amount of time.

Then we drove around a bit to try to find the Glass Pyramid we saw while driving in. Meanwhile Anthony and Alex googled information on the Memphis Pyramid. They found some of this entertaining enough to make up for Papa's planning blunder. The pyramid itself is closed as it is being renovated now by Bass Pro Shops but we did stop outside the fence to snap a picture.

Tomorrow will be the next leg of the trip--Robinson and Chicago.

Natalie's Belated Birthday Post

It's been another chaotic week, chaotic because of Patrick and the kids coming home and the kids getting ready for school to start on Monday. It was also chaotic because I lost 24 hours being on call last Sunday--plus the extra hours catching up on sleep after that call.

This was a picture that Patrick took of Natalie eating the Molten Chocolate Cake at the Chili's in St. Louis. They were still traveling across country at that time, so this was the best he could do for her under the circumstances. Chili's is one of Natalie's favorite restaurants, and she ordered her favorite dish--Salmon with Garlic and Herbs. It's one of the few times she will eat broccoli, which is the veggie that usually comes with the dish, so I'm good with that.

Then, last Friday, August 15th, we invited three of her swim friends over for a sleepover. We didn't tell them it was for her birthday or anything, but Natalie knew we were celebrating her birthday. Patrick grilled steak (again, Natalie's choice), which her friends all really enjoyed. These are high-powered swimmers, so even though they were on their yearly three week break from swimming, they still had the appetites to match. They were almost fighting over the first steaks to come off the grill. I enjoyed it because I usually only see them at practice or at swim meets. This was a much more relaxed, fun atmosphere.

After dinner, I took all the kids, including Alex and Eric, to Brindles for ice cream. I convinced Alex to come along so I would have someone to talk to, but he ended up listening to his music with his earphones in place for most of the trip. The girls were hilarious in the car, though, so I was enjoying hearing them talk about this and that. Natalie can talk, but not like these girls.

Her three friends ended up sleeping on the floor of her room. Although there is an extra twin bed in there, they wanted to be together. Aspen had a hard time sleeping, so the others ended up waking up too. They didn't get much sleep, but clearly they didn't mind.

The next morning was an early one, as Renzi's dad and Aspen's mom came to pick them up by 10:30am. I made them red velvet waffles and turkey bacon. Again, they basically fought over the first pieces to come out and I barely got to eat any of the turkey bacon. Luckily, Eric was there early helping me in the kitchen, or he might have lost out also. Ally's mom didn't come pick her up until noon, so Natalie got a little more time with her. This is the only time of year that these three can have a sleepover, because the rest of the year, they have practice every weeknight and some Saturday mornings plus swim meets almost every weekend. Natalie actually wanted to invite a couple of other non-swim friends, but she felt like their interests might not overlap, so she wants to invite them over at another time.

This is one half of a scrapbook layout that I made quite a few years ago about Natalie's birth. I can't believe that my baby girl is now 12 years old. Her body is definitely maturing, and I think I can finally see her personality maturing as well, especially with the back problems and how she is coping with that and other things. Swim practices start again next week, along with school. Wish us luck with that!

Howdy Night

Tonight was Howdy Night at Eric's school. It used to be called Meet the Teachers Night, but I guess maybe they thought "Howdy Night" was more Texan or something. We only received notice yesterday, Wednesday, of who Eric's teacher was, via a postcard mailed to our house. Last year we didn't get that postcard until after Howdy Night. We had to go to the school that night to ask which classroom to go to.

We were a little disappointed that Ms. R wasn't Eric's teacher. When we went back to the public school system from private school six years ago, Ms. R was Alex's fourth grade teacher. She really impressed us when about a week into the school year, she already knew that Alex was way beyond what she taught the class, so she gave him different work to do so he could stay challenged. We were also disappointed when Natalie didn't get her for fourth grade. She started teaching second grade last year, so we were hopeful that this would be our year--but no. Ms. C is Eric's second grade teacher for this year.

We'll have to wait and see what sort of teacher Mrs. C will be for Eric. She said in her info talk about her class that she was trying a format with less structure for the second year in a row. That might benefit Eric because then he can just go at his pace. We already know that strategy won't benefit a classmate of Eric's--someone who was in his class last year and is in his class again this year, someone who NEEDS structure. Ms. R already told us to watch what is going on in Eric's class. We'll see how it goes.

For now, Eric is excited that a couple of his classmates from last year are in his class again this year.

End of the Road Trip

After Anthony and I were at the Chicago airport taking our respective planes, Patrick again packed up the van and drove cross-country with the kids. This time, he was doing all of the driving himself since Anthony was no longer with them. On Monday they drove from Chicago to St. Louis and stopped at the Arch. Natalie actually seemed excited about this one, and Eric told me that he thought it was pretty cool that they got to get in the Arch and ride to the top. At the top they got a wonderful view of the city.

They had a late lunch/early dinner at Chili's. Patrick planned on specifically stopping there because it's one of Natalie's favorite restaurants, and Monday was her birthday--more on the birthday later. After that stop, they drove on until Springfield, where they stopped for the night. The drive was over seven hours total.

On Tuesday, they drove another six hours plus, until they got to the Dallas area. There, they specifically stopped by to see Patrick's paternal aunt. Even though they technically live close to us (about 5-6 hours), we haven't seen them since Anthony was our only child. We would have seen them in Milwaukee this weekend, but they had a devastating loss last week. Their daughter-in-law died suddenly, and they are still recovering.

They had a nice visit. The kids got to meet Aunt Jean and Uncle Dave for the first time, and Patrick's cousin Debbie was able to come over. Aunt Jean even baked cookies for them. Now we're all Facebook friends so we can keep tabs on each other. I was sad that I missed it.

Today, Patrick made the five hour or so drive back home. I got off early from work, but they still beat me home. I'm slowly combing through all the pictures and I still hope to post more of them by the weekend.

Home Again

I flew back home this morning, and I've been busy getting some stuff done around the house that I've been meaning to do for months, so this will be a short post. Hopefully I'll get around to editing the photos from my trip and I'll post many of them here. Some of the group shots may require some head-swapping, which will take time...

Anthony flew back to Boston this morning also, and Patrick is on the road again with the other kids. Poor Natalie is spending her 12th birthday (today) in the van for seven or so hours. They did stop in St. Louis and they got to see the Arch plus they went to a late lunch at Chili's (one of her favorites), but we'll be trying to make it up to her this coming weekend. They should be back by Wednesday, in time to enjoy a week and a half of the summer before going back to school.

Patrick's mom and dad had their 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration this past weekend. This is the best photo of all the kids together, so you might see this again on our Christmas card this year. I'm unhappy with how grainy the photo is (dark room and all). One of these days I'll actually learn how to use my flash correctly. It was really nice to see both of Patrick's sisters and some of the relatives we haven't seen in many years. Patrick's sister Lisa planned the whole thing, and she did a fabulous job. I'll share some more photos in the coming days.

Finally With My Family Again

Wow, what a day. I was so happy when I finally saw this cute face covered in chocolate ice cream. I was supposed to leave San Antonio at 8:15am. I got a text at 4am, saying that my plan wasn't going to take off until 11:55am. I was supposed to get into Chicago by 11am, but now I wasn't even scheduled to leave San Antonio until after my original arrival time.

Patrick was with the kids in Chicago, waiting for my arrival. He was planning to pick me up and then we would drive to Milwaukee to meet up with the rest of his family. Now that pick up time was getting pushed back. I was not happy. Also, I had arranged for a friend (and co-worker) to pick me up on her way to work. I couldn't just stay home. I had to be at the airport for another three hours.

When I got to the airport, I went to the Southwest Airlines Ticket Agent and asked why my plan was so late. She immediately said that she had instructions to give me a $100 travel voucher for my inconvenience. Then, she informed me that the departure was delayed even further--2:15pm. Oh my goodness. She then offered me a second $100 travel voucher. She never stated why the plane was delayed so long, but I heard another agent tell someone else on the same flight that the plane was in Dallas and had been struck by lightning, so they were checking it out and they didn't know when it would be ready.

I was worried that after they delayed the flight for so long already, there might be the possibility of the flight being cancelled all together. Patrick was worried that he had to check out of the Chicago hotel by noon and he didn't know what to do with the kids where he didn't have to park somewhere with a van full of luggage. We were both worried that we wouldn't get out of Chicago and arrive in Milwaukee until late in the afternoon/evening.

I explained this to the ticket agent, and she eventually found another flight for me, except going straight to Milwaukee. I had to rush to get on a plane going to Phoenix because it was already boarding. I was the last passenger to board that flight. Luckily, the seat I found was in the middle seat between two people that weren't too obese and they didn't smell. I had to change planes in Phoenix to get to Milwaukee. Meanwhile, Patrick went ahead and left Chicago and drove to Milwaukee. The kids were already having fun on the beach outside of my in-laws' condo when Patrick went to the Milwaukee airport at 2pm--earlier than that original flight was supposed to leave San Antonio. I got to have my Eric hugs and I got my $200 in vouchers for future travel on Southwest Airlines.

The kids were all on the beach when I got there. We all had ice cream at a nearby shop that was a short walking distance from my in-laws' condo. The weather was bright and sunny and in the 70s--20 degrees cooler than San Antonio.

Natalie got reacquainted with her other girl cousins. Natalie even played with Aunt Lisa's old Barbie dolls with cousin Sydney. Gasp. Natalie hasn't played with dolls in years. They said they didn't have anything else to do. I had to take a picture to document the event, of course.

I probably won't be able to post again until we get back home, but I wanted to share what happened today with my plane flights.

What They Are Up To

I have been going to work like I normally do, and either Patrick or Natalie have been texting me pictures of what they are up to. Patrick will have to do a full report when we get back, but for now, this is just a few pictures of what they're up to on the road trip, and even fewer details.

They spent the day in Memphis on Monday. Their first stop was at Graceland. I didn't get too many details, but I'm happy that even the big boys are in this picture. I had to laugh because Anthony and Alex are posing in their own special way, but that is part of their personalities. Eric seems to be the one posing for most of the pictures.

Patrick wanted to take the kids to see Mud Island, but it was closed on Mondays, so they went to the car museum instead. They seemed to enjoy the car museum enough. This photo made me laugh because, as I mentioned a few days ago, Eric seems to be into doing this thumbs up thing right now. He might as well get it out of his system now, but he is definitely a little cutie when he does this.

This is the part of the trip that I really wish I could have been there for. They went by the town that we used to live in, to visit our good friends. Gary is Natalie's godfather, and he had an early birthday celebration planned for her. I spoke to Gary the night before, and he said he had the margarita mix and the fridge was full of meat.

I received this picture today. They got into Chicago yesterday, and they visited the Chicago Bean today. I didn't get too many details about this, except that they walked there from the hotel and that they left Natalie in the hotel room because her back was hurting from all of the walking they had been doing already.

I miss this sweet kid. I'll be able to see them all tomorrow.

Road Trip

After Patrick and the kids left on their road trip yesterday, I parked the extra car in the garage. I saw this in the driver's side door pocket. Anthony had left his name tag there, and seeing it made me very sentimental. Sure, I'll see Anthony again when they pick me up from the airport later this week, but next week, he will travel back to school.

My friend Alicia and I were talking tonight about whether or not it's easier to send Anthony off to college this year. Right now it feels harder. Last year I was trying to hold it together because I knew Anthony was nervous. This year, I guess I don't care--Anthony isn't nervous this year. He is happy there, and he is enjoying himself so much that he wants to go back early. This year, though, I'm going to visit him in October, instead of waiting until December to see him again. That will make it easier on me. I've already booked the flight.

Patrick and the kids leaving just aggravated this feeling. They drove approximately 740 miles yesterday, until they reached Memphis. Patrick let Anthony drive only about 85 miles, and he drove the rest. He was very tired at the end of the day. Natalie texted me throughout their trip, sending pictures of her brothers trying to sleep, playing games, and she even sent me a selfie. She told me, "You said to take pictures." Yes, I did, and I was so happy that one of my children paid attention to me.

They are headed to my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary party. I was talking to Eric about the party last week. He said, "Kids don't usually go to anniversaries." He just remembers that when Patrick and I go out to celebrate our anniversary, he isn't invited. He was wondering why he had to go to Grandma and Grandpa's anniversary celebration. He also wondered out loud why kids don't go on honeymoons. I told him that the 50th wedding anniversary is a big deal, and that Grandma and Grandpa wanted to celebrate with their kids and grandkids. Eric said, "50 is a lot. Doing one thing 50 times is a lot." That boy cracks me up. I can't wait to see him again along with the rest of the family at the end of the week. I'll have to get Patrick to do some blog posts about the trip when they get back.

Family Time

As I mentioned in a previous post in June, the kids have been playing a game called Smash Up almost daily. Anthony plays when he wasn't at work. Patrick, Eric, and Alex play the most. Natalie plays some of the time. They finally got me to play a couple of weeks ago, after giving me those big puppy dog eyes, and saying, "Please, Mama!".

I've played three times total--I even won one of the games. It's a great game and has really great re-playability, but I overthink it and that confuses me, so most of the time I'm content to watch the rest of them play. Alex usually has to help me sort it out. I can totally see why Alex and Anthony are great at it, because their minds are analytical that way, but I'm also pleased to see Eric starting to think that way too. He gets some help from his brothers, but he has won games before. He amazes me with how intelligent he seems to be, even at seven years old. Of course I'm a little biased...

Eric also exudes personality. This is a picture of him yesterday, just after he put on the 3D glasses for watching the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. He put his thumb up on his own--no one told him too. Yesterday also, after tasting some lime sherbet at Brindle's Ice Cream, he put this thumb up to show that he liked it and that he wanted to get the lime sherbet. He cracks me up.

The whole family went to see Guardians of the Galaxy yesterday at the Rialto Theatre, where Anthony worked this summer. He had pre-arranged it with the management, and got us all in for free, as long as the movie was not going to sell out. We went to the 11 am showing, which happened to be the 3D version. We didn't originally care about the 3D, but the first non-3D showing was at 12 noon, and we wanted to go earlier. An additional plus to seeing the 11 am show was that since the 3D version is usually more expensive, at $9.50 a person, and the morning showings are less attended anyway, we figured it would be highly unlikely that the movie would sell out.

We all had a really great time. The movie was very entertaining. My family likes action movies anyway, but this one also had a lot of humor that everyone in the family could understand. The 3D feature did add a little something to some of the scenes, but seeing it without the 3D would have also been very enjoyable.

We didn't end up buying any snacks, so this movie was super-cheap for our family of six. The boys had gotten up shortly before we left, and the rest of us ate a big breakfast of pound cake waffles with chocolate chips, and turkey bacon. The kids did all go to Whataburger after we got home though. Patrick wanted to get through his list of things to do before their road trip, and I wanted to get through the leftovers in our refrigerator.

We all went to church Saturday evening and went out to dinner at El Mirasol. This was Anthony's last meal in San Antonio before going back to school, so he tends to always choose El Mirasol. Tomorrow I'll post a little about the road trip.

National Cheesecake Day

Yesterday, I was post-call and therefore not at work, Anthony wasn't scheduled to work, and The Cheesecake Factory was offering half-price cheesecake slices, so of course we used that as an excuse to have lunch there. There were a lot of people there, but we decided to sit outside, so we didn't have to wait for a table. The temperature and humidity wasn't bad, especially for a summer day in San Antonio.

Natalie and I were going to share an order of Miso Salmon, my current favorite entree at The Cheesecake Factory, so we sat next to each other. She was very reluctant to have her picture taken, but I'm so glad that she eventually agreed. Can you believe she didn't like her hair in this photo because some hair was sticking out at her ears? Patrick and I have to work extra hard to get this girl to believe that she is beautiful.

Eric was making as laugh in this picture. At first he had a super big and silly smile and squinty eyes, then he decided to have "big" eyes. His eyes got smaller by the time I snapped this picture just because he was laughing so hard. Silly boy.

It was nice to have lunch with Anthony. I'm starting to miss him already. He constantly tells Eric things that aren't true and then Eric hesitates for a second and realizes that whatever it was Anthony said wasn't true. The downside, of course, is that Eric doesn't believe ANYTHING anyone else tells him either, because he has been trained to be skeptical. Anthony insists that he is trying to show Eric that even adults can be wrong sometimes. Thanks, dear. Maybe you couldn't have waited until he was a little older--to give your parents a little more time with a child believes everything we tell him. What's also scary (and admittedly, funny) is that Anthony says he will do the same thing to his kids when he has them.

Alex couldn't come with us yesterday because he was still volunteering at the PE Camp at his high school. Yesterday was his last day, however, so he was free today. I told Patrick yesterday that I would "fall on the sword" and offer to take Alex to The Cheesecake Factory again for lunch today. :)

We would have gotten Alex something yesterday, but he wanted the Fettucini Alfredo, and that dish is better fresh rather than heated up. He also wanted to get the Strawberry Shortcake, which comes with ice cream, so obviously, that was not something we could easily bring home for him. I had to help him with it because, after eating almost all of his food (which was a full dinner portion), he was already pretty full, and this dessert was so HUGE!

Eating there was not a problem for me either, because I had my second favorite favorite entree--Chinese Chicken Salad. It used to be my favorite, until they started offering the Miso Salmon. All the entrees at The Cheesecake Factory are large. This one is so big that even before I eat it, I put half of it in a to-go box so I can put dressing on the part that is left. That way the lettuce can stay half-way crunchy for the next meal. I got the lunch portion and it was still very big. I took off the noodle thingies that they use to decorate the top before putting half of it in the to-go box. Alex decided to try to pick it all up in one piece.

Oh, and I ordered an extra Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake to take home. I don't need to be eating that much cheesecake, but my family loves the Godiva one, so they will be snacking on it tomorrow. A second meal at The Cheesecake Factory was a nice excuse to spend a little time with my second oldest son.

Shop Girl

Alex and Anthony have been asking for new dress clothes. It's nice that they do like to dress up once in a while, and for Anthony at college, we especially like that idea. Since Alex has been volunteering at PE Camp at his school, he is gone during the day. Of course, I have to be at work anyway. Yesterday, he wanted to go shopping. Since we didn't have anything planned for dinner anyway, the whole family went to the mall so we could eat dinner then shop.

The reason why I like to eat at the mall is that the whole family can choose what they want to eat. This is especially nice with our two youngest, who are picky eaters. So, the six of us got food at five different places. Alex and Anthony got food at Chick-Fil-A. Eric got his "usual" spicy chicken nuggets and vanilla Frosty at Wendy's. Natalie got a pizza roll at Luciano's. Patrick got a gyro at Opah Greek Flavor. I ate a Philly cheesesteak sandwich at Charley's Grilled Subs.

Luckily, I finally got to sneak a picture of Natalie's sleeve while we were eating dinner. She and her cousin Emily were playing with my parents' label maker when we were visiting. Natalie got the label with Emily's name plus another label that says "alpaca's are cool" (sic). I had told her that "alpaca's" didn't need an apostrophe, but she didn't care. Emily had Natalie's name on her sleeve, and on the other label, she had "Unitato". I can't remember if I've posted about it here before, but Natalie likes to give every one nicknames that end in "tato". "Unitato" is short for "Unicorn (po)taro". Anthony is "chair tato". Eric is "minion tato". Alex is "fashion tato".

After eating, Patrick took the boys to JCPenney where they bought some ties that were buy one get one free. Alex also bought a couple of dress shirts. Natalie had not really been keen to go shopping, but wow, once she got in the shopping mindset, my credit card was smoking. Our first stop was to Journey's. She seemed shy and hesitant to choose a shoe to try on, but the salesman pointed us to the sale rack, and I saw the turquoise shoe in the photo. After he brought out that one, he brought out the red one with white polka dots--since she had said she liked the color red. That was on sale too. She also wanted a T-shirt that had a picture of a dinosaur with a cell phone taking a selfie. In the background is a meteor falling and the label "#selfie". I had to admit that shirt was funny. So, we spent about $80 there.

We then went next door to the Journey's Kids store. I had hoped to get Eric another pair of sneakers, but he didn't like any of the ones they had there. Natalie saw some Toms and she was automatically interested. Her red pair are quite worn (see photo). She ended up buying a black pair for about $40.

Then, we were on our way back to meet the others when we stopped at Aeropostale. She ended up buying a top that showed a bit more cleavage than I thought she was comfortable with, but she also got a pullover sweater/hoodie to wear over it and a pair of leggings. The total haul for my daughter including the previous purchases--about $180. On the plus side, she can wear any type of closed shoe to school, and she still fits into her uniform shirts and pants from last year. My wallet was happy when she wasn't as into clothes and shoes, but I'm glad she's paying a little more attention to what she's wearing. She credits Alex for getting her "into shoes". I sent him a text thanking him (with a sarcastic wink) when we bought the first two pairs. He, of course, replied, "You're very welcome".

Lucy

I have a couple of photos left to share from our Houston trip. My sister Cynthia's family got a dog a couple of months ago, and they named her Lucy. We got to meet Lucy for the first time this past weekend. My sisters and I never grew up around animals, so it's a new concept for us, Lucy seems to be a good dog. She gets excited, but she doesn't bark a lot, and she seems to be very loving. Eric loved petting her, and Lucy often hung out next to him when he sat on the floor. I tried to get some photos of Eric with Lucy, but Lucy wouldn't sit still for photos--sort of like my kids, except for Eric. Lucy also woke up Anthony each morning by licking his toes and/or face. Anthony slept on the floor in the game room, putting him at the right level for Lucy to reach.

Speaking of kids not wanting me to take pictures, I asked Natalie and Aly if I could get a picture of the two of them, after all, Emily let me take a photo of her with Natalie the day before. They both asked if they could shoot each other with water guns in the picture. I wanted cooperative subjects, so I say "yes". I also thought that it would make for a great picture. I love this!

While we're on the topic of "Lucy", I took Natalie to see her first rated "R" movie yesterday. Anthony was working, so Patrick stayed home with Eric, and I took Alex and Natalie to see the movie. I found it interesting that they adult and kids' movie tickets for rated "R" movies are the same price--$7 apiece at the theatre we went to. Honestly, she's seen worse in other movies and TV shows, so I didn't have a lot to discuss with her afterwards.

Tomorrow I'll post about my dear Natalie's recent shopping trips.

Visit to Lolo and Lola's House

We visited my Mom and Dad's house on Friday. I would have gotten food from a local restaurant to bring, but Mom already took care of ordering food from a "new place". She doesn't do as much cooking as she used to, but she has a lot of great places to order from. When we got there, Anthony said, "And you thought there wouldn't be enough food?" Well, I should have known she would have ordered enough for us plus my sisters and their families if they had come too. Mom ordered a full styrofoam take-out container of a barbecued pork dish and another similar container of chicken. She had another container filled with a noodle dish. She also made one of the kids' favorite--arroz caldo or "rice soup" as the kids call it. On top of that, she made one of my favorite dishes (and one that I always ask her for when I visit)--hot and sour soup. For dessert, she had brownies and flan.

Cynthia and her family had a dog-training session with their new dog Lucy. Melissa was at work and actually, her daughter Emily went to lunch with her dad and he dropped her off pretty much around the time we got there, so Emily and Natalie got to pal around all afternoon. One of the things they did was that they drew pictures with their eyes closed, then they would ask us to identify what they had drawn. They had a lot of laughs about that one. Eric then decided he would get in on the action, except he just wanted to draw. One of his drawings looked like a long-necked dinosaur with a long tail. Of course we all thought it was a brachiosaurus. Eric said, "NO! It's a Shunosaurus! Can't you tell by the club-tail?" Wow, okay--uh no, I couldn't tell by the club tail. I don't remember reading about a dinosaur called Shunosaurus. He was really taking the drawing seriously. Look at that face above!

Anthony came with us on this trip specifically because he will be going back to Boston soon, a couple of weeks before school starts. This will be the last time he says his Lolo and Lola until Christmas. One of the things I really wanted to do while we were there was to get a picture of him with his grandparents. My sisters agreed that this was probably the best photo of Dad, even though he looks mad in the picture. This is pretty much his expression nowadays. I don't see him as often as my sisters do, and it's still a bit of a shock every time I see his physical and mental decline. At least now, Mom has someone come to help her few times a week, but I wish she would get more help.

I finally got the girls to somewhat willingly get in the picture. It's too bad Alex couldn't make the trip with us, and I wish Nick and Aly were there too, but it was nice to get a photo of Lolo and Lola with their grandkids during our short visit to Houston.

The Boys

Here we are near the entrance of the Museum of Natural Science in Houston. We were waiting for one of my sisters to arrive. I had not taken my big camera out of the bag since the end of June, so I used that as an excuse to the boys to pose for a picture.

My nephew Nick is on the far left. He has had a growth spurt recently, so he is now taller than me. He is eight days older than Alex who is the same height as Anthony. We think Eric is following Nick's height trajectory.

Eric and Anthony spent a lot of time in the dinosaur exhibit--most of the time we were at the museum, actually. Anthony willingly spent the time with Eric. They will both miss each other when Anthony goes back to school.

The other activity that we did at the museum was see a "Mysteries of the Unseen" 3D movie. The boys (Nick, Anthony, and Eric) saw it with Cynthia, John, and me.

It's hard to get these boys to pose for a photo. My sister Cynthia got this quick snapshot while they were in the gift shop. The boys consented to let her take one photo. They looked at it after she took it and they said, "It's blurry. Oh well" That means that they weren't going to stand still for another one. I was happy to get any photo, blurry or not.

We actually spent a bit of time in the gift shop. Museum gift shops have cool stuff that you can't find anywhere else. Cynthia got Anthony some early birthday presents since he will be back at school then. One of them is a shirt with a pirate but with the label substituting the symbol "pi" instead of the letters "p" and "i". He also got a flask with the chemical structure of ethanol--"alcohol". Technically he can't legally use that yet, but he thought it was cool. Yes, my son is a geek.

I know this is a picture of Natalie, but my photo of Anthony wasn't as good. This was a "ride" that basically spins in different directions. Natalie is here about to ride it with Aly. Anthony rode it with Nick. I took videos of both.

Eric wanted to ride it too, but this ride was restricted to individuals five feet and taller. Technically, Natalie is just under five feet tall, but they didn't measure that closely. She was 100 pounds and 58 1/2 inches tall at her doctor's appointment last Friday. Emily didn't ride it, she's like her mother and gets motion sickness very easily.

Tomorrow I'll share some photos I took of when we visited my Mom and Dad.

The Girls

This will be a photo-heavy post. I had to share all of the photos of Natalie with her cousins Emily and Aly. Ever since my sisters and I were pregnant with girls at about the same time, I had hoped that our daughters would be close. Natalie sometimes feels sad that she can't be with her cousins much, since we live in another city, but when they get together, they pick up where they left off and they are best buds.

I'm not sure why they wanted to do this pose, but they did it last year when they were all at the museum, and they wanted to do this again. I just love that they are doing it together. By the way, you can't tell from this picture because of the angle that I took it, but Emily (middle) is the tallest, followed by Aly (left) then Natalie (right), which is pretty much their age order.

Here they are again with this pose that they also always do when they're together, with the two fingers spread.

One thing you can't see here is that there was another girl with us. Melissa has been dating a man named Michael, and he has a daughter named Mason, who is 13-years old. We met Mason for the first time during this trip to the museum. She is beautiful girl and did well especially considering that she didn't know anyone else.

Last week, Melissa asked Cynthia and me (via text) whether or not it was a good idea to bring Mason. Emily had expressed some reservations because the cousins know each other so well, and none of them knew Mason. Aly expressed similar reservations. I didn't even ask Natalie. She can talk to anyone--we see it all the time at swim meets. She'll start chatting up a storm with the girls in her lane, even though she's only just met them. I just told her to include Mason in whatever she's doing. I'm not sure that worked out entirely, but maybe the next time they meet, it'll be easier to include her. Hey, Mason loves photography, so she's already tops in MY book. :)

I can't resist taking a photo of these three from the back. Here you can really see their height differences.  They all have such long pretty hair, too.

There were a lot of great exhibits at the museum. We spent a little time in their new Magna Carta exhibit as well as the ongoing butterfly exhibit (which included the area about insects). My brother-in-law John was focused on the fact that the Magna Carta was supposedly signed on his birthday, June 15th, except in the year 1215. :)

I wanted to include one more photo of the three of them being goofy in front of a screen where they were showing the shadows of a bunch of bugs in motion. It's just as well that Anthony didn't see the bug exhibit. Alex still likes to talk about the time when Anthony saw a cockroach that he thought was alive and he, according to Alex, "screamed like a girl". That's not to insult any girls, but to describe how high-pitched Anthony's scream was.

I definitely had to include this photo because of the expression on Natalie's face. That face is so "Natalie" and how expressive her face is. They were all taking a little quiz on insects. She must have been either stumped by the question or surprised at the answer. Emily is on the far left, and my sister Cynthia is in the middle. Nick and Aly were seated right in front of me when I took this picture. None of them did very well. I guess we don't know a lot about insects.

Tomorrow, I'll share some photos of the boys.

Still a Dinosaur Boy

I'm in Houston with three of the kids for a couple of days. I have enough photos already that I'm going to have to break up my photos from just today and post a few at a time in the next few days. My sister's company has a yearly party at the Museum of Natural Science in Houston, and she usually invites us all. I've never gotten to go before, because they always have it on a weekday and by the time we find out the date, my work schedule is already set. This time it worked out that I could leave work early today to drive to Houston with the kids. Patrick would have gone too, but Alex didn't want to miss PE Camp. He is volunteering at the PE Camp for his school this month.

We got to my sister Cynthia's house before 3:30pm. We hung around the house for less than two hours before we had to leave again to go to the museum. I definitely do not miss the traffic in the Houston area.

Of course, the first thing Eric sees is the dinosaur in the museum gift shop, and he has to stop and stare at it for a bit. This is a Hesperosaurus, which is apparently a type of Stegosaurus but the plates on its back were not as tall.

After that, Eric spent probably a good hour or so at the dinosaur exhibit. I never made it over to the dinosaur exhibit. He had gone there separately with Anthony when the rest of us were sitting down, having some snacks, and socializing. They served hot dogs with the fixings to include chili and cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, and queso. Cynthia fed us ahead of time, so we didn't worry too much about eating. My family hasn't been able to eat hot dogs since watching the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on the Fourth of July.

For some reason, Eric didn't want to go on the dinosaur ride they had there for kids, at least not at first. We were about to leave when he decided to get on the "Bronco-Saurus". Luckily by then, there wasn't much of a line any more.

We also had to exit through the gift shop where we had come in. He saw all of the dinosaur toys and we lost him for a bit. He enjoyed just looking at all of the figures, picking each one up and examining them. He wanted to get one of the T-Rex toys, but I convinced him that we didn't have to get it there. I might have to place an order at Amazon for that T-Rex soon.