Bubble Bath

There are jets in the tub in our master bathroom and they make for some amazing bubbles. They were so big at first that Emery was too chicken to get in! We finally coaxed her in the water and she had so much fun. 

Squeaky clean after all those bubbles! What a cute girl.

A little bit of nature

A few weeks ago my friend discovered some nature trails about 20 minutes away from us. We headed over there one day and they were beautiful. I miss the mountains (or hills if I'm in Boise) and feeling like nature is close by. I really miss the Boise river and greenbelt and try not to think about it or I get sad. Anyways (must...stop...thinking...about...greenbelt...), the walks we took through the "woods" really refreshed me. I enjoyed it so much that Emery and I took Gavin with us a few days later. And then we took John and Mary Lou when they came to visit.

Isn't this tree breathtaking? One trail led to a big clearing with nothing except a few huge oak trees in it. And they looked like this one: old and craggly yet majestic. 

 This is an old windmill that has been overgrown with trees. The pictures of this don't do it justice. It has this...I don't know, quiet feeling, where you can see Nature has patiently waited to have her space back. The trees have twisted up through the bars and sometimes you have to look twice to see what's metal and what's tree. I guess this land was once a prairie then a family came and turned it to a farm. The son that inherited it didn't want a farm so he planted acres of trees. 

Check out that twisty branch!

When my friend and I went it had been raining for a few days prior to our visit. There were these weird fungus things growing on the trail. My friend pointed out they look like pig snouts, so that's what we called them. They were pretty gross, full of flies and gnats. But I had never seen anything like them so I had to snap a picture. 

Gavin and Emery enjoying the walk. 

NASA

Gavin's parents came to Texas two weeks ago and we had a blast. Gavin took a day off work and we all went to NASA and then on to Galveston for the first day. I had never been to NASA before and was pleasantly surprised how family-friendly it was. They had a big slide and games to play and things to build, and of course shuttles and spacesuits to see.

Emery had the best seat in the house. We were waiting in line for the Tram ride that takes you to the shuttles. Luckily we got there early and didn't have to wait long. They had a NASA parody of Gangnam Style playing and while it was funny the first time, it was quickly going from funny to annoying.

Tobin, Emery and Grandma, finally seated in the Tram. 

Whitney and Maylee, excited to see the spaceships. Maylee REALLY wanted to see an astronaut.

Gavin and his Dad

This is on the tour through one of the buildings. It's a real live spacesuit! They had a lot of robotic stuff that was pretty cool, one had fingers so precise it could text on a cell phone without needing autocorrect---I can't even do that!

Standing in front of one of the rockets. 

This part of the ship fascintated me. There were thousands of wires, tubes, switches, and buttons. To me it looked like a jumbled mess, but someone knows what every one of those things does and where it goes and why it's important.  

You can't really see it but there's a moon rock in that case.

We took lots of pictures at NASA and then NONE in Galveston. Oh well. We played on the beach until the wind got too strong (Gavin even swam--brrr!), walked around the shops in downtown Galveston, and had dinner at a little diner on the way home. It was a FULL day, but it was a FUN day! 

Frozen

We finally watched Frozen. Emery wasn't quite old enough to sit through the movie in the theater yet so I've been waiting and waiting for it to come out on DVD. Over Christmas break she heard the music from my sister and her daughter and she LOVED it. She would randomly burst out in "Let it go" but those were the only words she knew so she would just repeat them over and over.

We bought the digital version...on google play or something...and watched it a week or two ago. We all loved it. Well, I actually didn't like it the first time I watched it because *****SPOILER****** I was so mad that the first guy betrayed her. They SANG a SONG together!!! You can't have a lovey dovey romantic Disney duet with a princess and a BAD GUY. Come on, Walt! Gavin tried to tell me that Hans was bad news but I just kept telling him, "No! He can't be, it's TRUE LOVE!" Apparently, I am not a love expert (Wow, I've watched this movie too many times and I'm way too invested in the story).

But after watching it once the songs get in your head and sink themselves so deeply into your brain that everything seems to trigger "Let it Goooooooo" or "For the first time in foreeeeeveeeeeerr". The music is beautiful and no one can sing like Idina. So we have watched it a few times.

Emery loves it, here she is getting ready to watch it for the first time (in foreeeevveeeerr) with Gavin and some snacks.

Gavin learned the reindeer song on the guitar and sings it to her. She can't get enough of it. I loved Disney movies growing up, still do, and it makes me happy that she gets to experience them too. 

Santa's Day Job

This past Christmas there was a school bus driver that stopped to pick up middle school kids close to our house. The bus usually comes after Emery and I are home from walking Bella to school, but we had stopped to chat with some friends on the last day before Christmas break and the bus pulled up while we were there. The door opened and I noticed the driver was an older gentleman with a white beard, red furry hat, and a red jacket. Santa Claus! I pointed it out to Emery and the other little girl with us and they were quite excited. "Santa" waved, ho-ho-ed, and wished the girls a Merry Christmas. Three months later Emery still says "Santa's in there" or just "Santa in the bus" when we see a school bus. I guess he probably could use another job for toy off-season, might as well drive a bus!

Hide and Seek

Emery is a great hide-and-seek-er. Check out some of her hiding spots from the last few weeks:

She is pretty good at finding me when I hide. Granted I don't have too much time to hide seeing as she counts "1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 17, 17". You can only run and hide so far when you play games with a toddler!

Painting date

Gavin and I bought a groupon months ago for a "Merlot to Masterpiece" which is basically just a painting class. We bought it with some friends but unfortunately scheduling never worked out that we could go with them so we finally just went by ourselves.

We had bought a two hour class and the painting choices weren't the best but we decided on the Van Gogh blossoms interpretation even though it was red and I have nothing red in my house. Oh well.

Here's Gavin, before we started, getting in his artist zone.

It was so much fun and 2 hours FLEW BY! I probably needed at least 3 to feel like I was done. Here we are halfway through, Gavin's is the top one and mine is below.

And here they are at the end of the class:

Gavin's is so beautiful and real looking. He kind of just did his own thing whereas I followed the teacher step by step. I wish I would have just done what I thought looked good because I don't like mine as much. Haha, that sounds so silly, but the example painting they had us follow was NOTHING like the actual painting they showed online so when I got home and looked at the original painting again I was a bit disappointed. Instead I have these weird flowers and I don't even know what they are, I was just trying to paint them like they said. Serves me right for being a sheep I suppose. :) If I had more time I would add more branches and more of the little blossoms like Gavin's painting. I like the look of that better I think. 

Despite some things I would change about my painting it was such a fun experience. We never paint so it was fun to do something different. After we painted we went to dinner at a pizza place called the "Mellow Mushroom" where our young server with his rasta hat kept telling us we were a "super adorable couple". I don't know why but it made me laugh.