Part 1: San Jose

Red Woods

 Happy Anniversary to my Sweet Love and Best Friend!

Beach Fun

 Harlow and Nathan's first time seeing tide pools

Good Morning! All ready for an exciting day!

 Point Lobo

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Met up with Ammon and Kirsten's Family at Dennis the Menace Park

 Harlow is a big fan of Ethan and followed him around the entire time.

Tyler, TX

I was going to take the boys to the zoo Monday afternoon, then I stepped outside and said "no way!" it was nearly 100F, so we just went back to the hotel and went swimming.  That night when Nathan got home from work we grabbed some Mexican nachos and then headed to a water park that we had been given free entrance tickets for from a kind woman we ran into in the Marriott parking lot.  It was a miniature water park that was all inside.  And we all had a blast with our fun Family Home Evening Activity.

Early the next morning we were out the door and headed to the zoo.  I haven't been to a zoo for a long time.  It was fun to see the animals...but many of the animals were sleeping - morning siesta, I guess.  And though the zoo opened at 9 it was still pretty hot and humid.  I am glad I rented a wagon or it definitely wouldn't have gone as well.   

You can see Kelton's poor little red face, and this was at 8:45. before the zoo even opened up.  We tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, the boys riding in the wagon.  We were all warm and sweaty - but so was everyone else there, so no biggie, right?! 

Galveston

We absolutely loved Galveston!  We had heard less than positive things about it but we were very pleased.  There was no seaweed and no jelly fish.  The water was brown but it was from sand; the beach is very long, stretching far out into the water.  And the water was warm, not hot, but like perfectly warm.  Nothing like the cold California beaches.  Nathan and I both agreed that at least with this trip we prefer this beach to that.

We told Harlow that there are sharks in the ocean.  His response, "Well if I see a shark I'll just dive under the water."  Problem Solved! 

We parked right off the beach and walked our stuff down.  The day was beautiful, the water was perfect, the beach was clean and not too crowded.  The people around us were friendly.

After the beach we went and got some delicious pizza at Russo's before heading home. What a great day! We'll definitely be coming back!  Next time we want to ride the ferry and see the dolphins. 

We love Texas!

Harlow and Daddy like to catch Geckos together.  

Oklahoma City, OK

Museum of Osteology

America's only Skeleton Museum

Over 300 Skeletons with many hands-on exhibits. 

Very Unique. Focuses on the form and function of the skeletal system. 

Some things I thought were interesting: they had a human dwarf skeleton whose shoulders, hips,  and knees had fused together naturally in her life, the hunchback skeleton made me think more about my posture which is pretty terrible,  holes in the skull for surgical reasons have been found in skeletons as early as 6500BC...I think I am remembering that right... it is one of the earliest medical procedures done and healing in the skull indicates healing and that the patients lived - fascinating! The snake (particularly the anaconda and the king Viper) skeletons blew me away, so huge and intricate.  Harlow liked them all and kept shouting at me "Oh My Hugeness, Mom come see this!"  Maybe the Monkeys were his favorite.  I enjoyed teaching him about our skeletons and how they make it possible for us to move around, stand up, live.  The museum is self guided, reading the information yourself is obviously tough for little ones but I really enjoyed it and then I was able to share what I was learning with Harlow.

Pool

Kelton fell asleep on the way back to the hotel but woke up right as we pulled up.  We ate a little Burger King and then hit the pool to wiggle and tucker these kids out so they'd both take naps for me at the same time... it worked :)

We enjoyed the pool.  They love water.


FHE - Oklahoma City Temple

Oklahoma City National Memorial

Free Concert

Thanks to Dover we got free VIP tickets to see The Avett Brothers at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion.   To be honest I didn't care for them very much.  The music was good, its the lyrics I wasn't the biggest fan of.  But the band that went before them were super fun (I can't remember their name....). But they were a fun country band. We all enjoyed dancing.  Kelton was mesmerized by the band.  The boys both did really well.  We left around 9:30 or so, so a tad bit early but that was fine with us.  Just fun to go out, listen to some live music and let people see us going out with our family, having a good time together.

Temple Time

Went to the temple with morning with a new friend Michelle White (my Relief Society President) and her two cute boys Jack and Walker.  Harlow was excited to walk around with Jack and all enjoyed getting wet in the fountain.  As we drove up I saw the spire rising up over the trees and I felt this excitement come over me.  As we pulled into the driveway tears filled my eyes.  I love the beauty and power and peace of the House of the Lord.  We are so blessed to live close.

I bought some pictures of the Houston temple to put up in our house.  One went in the boys room right by Harlow's bed.  I wish I could have captured the look on Harlow's face and the screams of excitement that exuded from this boy as he climbed up on his new bed and straight to the picture.  "The Temple, the Temple, the Temple".

Daddy, I have a new bed with a ladder

With daddy out of town what is better than buying and putting together a loft bed all by myself. The boys loved it and tried to be good helpers. We were all excited to show it off to Daddy tonight over FaceTime.  

I remember going to my friend Amber Eliason's house and seeing her two girls in the loft bed. The older one slept on the top while the younger one was on a mattress that sat right on the floor. I really liked that idea because it is hard to put a baby up even just a little bit because they'll probably roll off but having them on a mattress on the floor is nice.  Kelton isn't going down there yet, I don't want to give him that much freedom. He'll be staying in the port-a-crib for still a while longer. 

*We were given and used the crib that Nathan used as a baby which is just fun. In our move the bag of parts got ripped open and some were lost :( So we have this beautiful crib just sitting here, propped up against the wall. So sorry Kelton, it's a port-a-crib for you, at least until we get replacement parts, replace the crib or you get big enough to put you on the mattress on the floor....time will tell I guess. He actually loves and sleeps well in it so I'm not worried about it.

Eat Mor chikin

Today was Chick-fil-A's cow celebration day.  Dress up like a cow and get a free meal. Last year was so crazy in Provo that I thought about not going, but the kid in me just couldn't resist. Plus, we decided to go at lunchtime which I'm sure helped.  I cut out a bunch of spots.  I taped some on me but waited to tape them on the boys until we got there. I just thought that the car seat would destroy them.  I was losing my cow spots left and right.  I'm pretty sure I left somewhere between 10 and 20 in the parking lot alone.  (No more of this folks, if I'm gonna make this a tradition I'm going to make shirts for all of us. Well… At least for me and Nathan. Though sadly, Nathan wasn't able to join us today. He was at work and has his supervisors in town. He was taking all of them to lunch today. I'm sure they ate a lot better than Chick-fil-A.) Harlow was losing his spots too.  When we get there and got out of the car I asked a lady sitting on the table outside if today was even the day because no one was there decked out in cow attire. It was; they had just already taken off their spots. And after waiting for a few minutes I saw people coming and going with their spots on. Chick-fil-A would've been considered very full for a normal day. Nearly all the tables were taken up. But I literally waited behind two people and then was able to order our food. We got our free meals, The kids got to play in the play place and I got a chat with some wonderful people/new friends from our new ward. Compare this to last year when we waited outside in the blistering hot afternoonness for over an hour and once we got our food it was so packed we could barely sit down and the kids could barely play.

I love Texas!

Blueberry Picking

The girls in my ward and area use an app called GroupMe.  I hadn't heard of it before but I'm really liking it.  It holds an ongoing open conversation between all the members.  People ask questions, give suggestions, say they're going to a certain pool or other fun activity so that y'all can meet up and do it together.  Its really fun.  Anyways, Stacie Cheney, a new friend on mine mentioned that she had gone to pick blueberries.  She passed the info on to me when I asked about it and we went the next night.  It was really fun and something we'd never done before.

About 15-20 minutes away is Moorehead's Blueberry Farm which has 20 acres of blueberry bushes. They charge $2.50 Per pound. and you can just pick to your hearts content.  They gave us a few buckets and with bug spray all over us we ventured off into the brush.  I didn't think it was warm but poor Nathan was sweaty shortly into the picking.  (It's just the humidity)

Sunday morning we had a yummy blueberry pancake breakfast before church. It was such a fun morning and we are having such a good time together that we forgot what time it was and were a little bit late to church... But at least we still made it for the sacrament and for them to read our records in in our new ward.

some fun things about our new area

We've gotten quite a few thunder storms.  When it rains it usually pours!  There was a lightning show, no thunder, just constant lightning.

It is so green here.  Gorgeously green.  We love that.  And there are miles and miles of bike/walking trails by our house and all in the woodlands.  

Mosquitos, oh yea, we've got them.  Funny/terrible thing is that for the most part we don't feel them.  They can get you without you even knowing it and then later that night you are covered with terrible, itchy bites.  The boys are slightly allergic to them.  Their bites get big and hard, sometimes they puss even without being scratched.  Poor Kelton got a big one on the top of his right ears and oh, it was gross.  And Harlow looked like he had elephantitis on his leg with so many bites and them all swelling up.  You forget to put bug spray on once and they'll make you pay.

It is warm here and very humid.  In general we really like the humidity.  Nathan's face is so clear, I never have to put on chapstick and lotion is rare.  The mornings and evenings are nice and cooler, at least for now.  The day time gets warm/hot but to be honest it is not that bad.  I was expecting DEATH when we came and so far we haven't had it, though July and August are still waiting to rear their heads.   Yes, you get sweaty but everyone is sweaty so at least you're not the only one.  And like Vegas, you go from your air conditioned home to the ACed car to the ACed store...so it really is not bad.

We had found medium sized toads, baby toads, geckos, armadillos, and snake skins all right by our house.  We try and catch the animals we can and let the boys get a close look at them.  Just too much fun.

Happy 4th

We got to be in the Parade!  Nathan and Harlow rode their bikes and Kelton and I  jogged along with the stroller.  The route was about 1 mile long and had a small town feel.  Harlow liked being in it and biking up to the different families and calling out "Happy 4th of July."

We went to the Youngberg's house with some other families and had a nice BBQ.  The kids played in the kiddie pool while we chatted.  The boys took naps (all 3 of them) and then we headed out to the Water Way to watch the fireworks.  It was warm, with not much breeze.  There were lots of people there.  Harlow thought the bull ride was fascinating but wouldn't do it himself.  The fireworks were fun to watch.  getting out was actually a breeze.  We parked by 24 Hour Fitness that had a back exit and were able to get right out, missing all the traffic.

Kelton's first steps

Kelton took his first steps today.  Harlow was the first to noticed him.  We were sitting down reading books in the boys room, Kelton was standing up holding on to the book shelf and off he went.  We called Nathan in to join us and just had a little party, taking turns having Kelton walk to each of us and cheering like crazy.  I love seeing how proud of himself he is.  His record was about 7 steps tonight.

On The Road Again

This is how Halrow kept himself entertained pretty much the entire 4 days while in the van.  The boys did amazing, the best job they've ever done in the car, thank Heavens!

Day 1

Monday morning, before we left Provo, we were able to go to the Provo temple (#1) one last time.  My niece Addy just turned 12 and was able to go to the temple to perform the ordinance of baptism for those that have died previously.  It was a great way to start off the morning and to start off our trip.

Arches

We hiked "Double Arch"

Here's the nice one

and here's Harlow's face when we tell him to "Smile Big Buddy"

Drove to Monticello, gassed up and headed to the temple.  The gate was unlocked and we were able to walk around the temple grounds.  Kelton was so excited to get out and crawl around.  He was not a fan of crawling on the crab grass but  the incentive of a little orange ball we found got him on it, crab-style.  We pulled Harlow's bike out we raced in the parking lot.  A nice little improv Family Night.

Monticello, Ut Temple (#2)

We drove to Cortez, Co. and stayed at "Ute Mtn Motel".  It was 10ish and we were tired.  Harlow was jumping all over the place, yelling with excitement in the room...it wasn't all that nice, you could smell smoke and yea... "oh yucky, okay Lizz, I'm not doing a Motel again" ...or maybe just not this one Nathan.

In the morning I got to meet an italian family that had also stayed there. I am so grateful I speak italian!

Day 2

Four Corners

As we came up and passed Shiprock I kept making guessing about where the "Ship" rock was.  I was pretty sure we finally found it and was telling Nathan.  His response was:  "I'm not going to admit the rock looks like a ship until it actually looks like a ship"...which he never did.  But it kinda looked like a ship, especially if you lived there and that's what you were staring at all the time.

Santa Fe, NM

Went a bit out of our way to visit our dear Aunt Susie Green in Santa Fe.  Her house was as awesome and interesting as she is.  She took us to the park and cut up a golden melon for a treat.  She was sweet to make time in her busy day, last minute, to make us feel special, loved, and cherished - as she always does, without fail.

Albuquerque, NM Temple (#3)

We stopped to visit the Albuquerque temple and get dinner.  We drove a few more hours and slept in Tuckcumcari, NM this night. Only 10ish more hours to go. As we were unloading our bags we found a toad by the hotel doors. It chased down a fly and ate it - having boys is so fun cause you love seeing stuff like this.

Day 3

Daddy needed to do some work on the computer so after causing some trouble in the breakfast area I took the boys outside where I let Kelton crawl around on the cement and in the rocks, which I got praised for by a new friend we made and her dogs while being outside. She said her son and many other people won't let their kids get down in the dirt and play and it seems to her like when people do that those kids end up being more sick anyways.  "Gotta build up our immune systems" Totally agree ma'am!

Dallas, TX Temple (#4)

We stayed at hotel a little outside of Dallas.  It was late but we had promised Harlow that we would go swimming.  The hotel staff let us go even though it was after hours.  It was nice to cool off and have a little bit of wiggle time with the boys after a long day of driving.  We found a beetle on the edge of the water which Harlow then followed around, pestering the poor thing.

Day 4

Only a couple hours on the road in the morning, listening to "Spider Man" by They Might be Giants a few dozen times and we made it to Houston, our new home!!

We went to sign our last bit of paper work and pick up  the keys to our home. We're here! We're in Houston! The office was on the same street as the temple, just a few blocks down so we stopped to take our first family picture at our new temple and walk around a bit.  We saw squirrels and a snake.  It was definitely warm and humid, but not the "death" we were expecting.

Houston, TX Temple (#5)

Welcome Home Andersen Family!  We are now Officially Texans!  Yeeee-haaaa!!