Trying on Houston

My parents, Grandma and Grandpa Texas, live in Houston. More accurately, they live in Spring, which is just outside of Houston. I am not from Texas; they moved there in 1998, the same year that The Dad and I moved to San Francisco. I've been trying ever since to get them to move back to Chicago(land). Until that happens, however, we'll enjoy escaping the Chicago cold during our grandparent visits.

The purpose our visit this time was to fete Grandpa Texas's 60th birthday. Which we did by spending lots of time with him, and lots of time outside. On Friday, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sam, The Dad and I took The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot to the Children's Museum of Houston, which is one of my favorite children's museums in the country. We spent most of the time outside in the newly redesigned water works area. The Tot was especially enthralled with this area. We also ate a lot of good food, went to the park, and visited with Aunt Jenna, Uncle Chris and the kids' new cousin, Baby N.

Despite the warm winter weather, I don't think I could ever live in Texas. I need public transportation and big, tall buildings. But it's nice to visit.

We flew home this morning at 7 a.m. The kids, especially The Tot, did not do as well on this flight as they did on the flight down there. He was really fussy during takeoff, although he eventually did take a nap on the flight (as I did, too).