Catching up

Ok, here’s pictures from three different days.

The first one was from a restaurant called Lupe Tortilla. Apparently there’s quite a few Mexican restaurants in Houston that have a sand play area for kids, and this was the closest to us. Prices were a bit high but food was good, and Thomas had a blast. He didn’t eat anything while we were there, but we took a to-go box and he ate in the car ride back.

Here’s Thomas at Memorial Park. He found a stick and had a ball.

Here’s Jeannie and Catherine at Memorial Park.

Lastly, here’s Thomas playing at the play area in Greenspoint Mall. It’s a nice play area with only one possible exit out. A good thing as there’s three levels and unless you’re a giraffe (which there’s a picture of one on the side), you’re not going to be able to see them every second. There’s also a CiCi’s pizza inside the mall.

We’ve got some catching up to do on the blog. Here’s some more pictures from the zoo. We’ve probably been half a dozen times so far.

Here’s Thomas and his dad playing in a puddle.

Here we are riding the train that goes around Hermann Park (the zoo is in the park).

Here he is petting a goat at the Children’s Zoo.

And here’s one of Thomas laying his head on dad after a long, exciting day.

Today we went to the Houston Space Center. Thomas played it up well past his nap time.

Here he is in the ball pit area.

Thomas loved the space shuttle. Here he is playing with one of the models that spun around.

And here he’s playing with a model that’s on display. Note how he climbed up to the model, pretty sure he’s not allowed up there.

As we were waiting for Jeannie to get her membership card, I had Thomas try on an astronaut helmet.

Once we got home, I let him jump in some puddles.

Yesterday was Catherine’s two month birthday.  We went to the Memorial City Mall to take some pictures in front of the carousel (my idea).  You get one guess as to where we ate first…Pizza Inn!  We’re slowly weaning ourselves off of Pizza Inn (or getting tired of it), so we’ll be trying out other places soon.

First thing we did was let Thomas go to the play area.  I’ve got some pictures this time.

Here he is posing for his picture.

Here he is on the bridge.

Thomas on the Merry Go Round.

Now for some pictures of Catherine (it was her two month birthday after all).  First one is of her in front of the Carousel.

And here’s a picture that was pretty much taken by accident, but I think it’s my favorite.

Took the whole family to the Galleria last night. It’s the largest mall in Houston, supposed to be really nice…but we like the Memorial City Mall much better. For one, there’s no play area in the Galleria! There’s more stores, more restaurants, more of almost everything else, but no play area.  Other good things about Memorial City Mall are that it only took mere minutes to find parking, everything’s on one level, and there’s a Target as an anchor store (we generally shop at Wal-Mart, but having Target as part of the mall is just too convenient).

On the bright side, they had escalators which Thomas enjoyed, and a small aquarium with fish (Thomas could spend hours looking at fish).  Next to the aquarium was a car they were showing off, Thomas had to crawl under it to check out the suspension.  So it wasn’t a complete waste of time, but it’ll probably be the last time we go there.

The whole family went to the Houston Zoo today.   They let us use just a print-out of our Chattanooga Zoo membership which I had just purchased yesterday (many zoos have reciprocity with other zoos).  Thomas had a blast.

Here’s Thomas trying to climb the fence to play with the giraffes.

Here he is trying to get in the elephant area.

And here’s Thomas playing in the water park.

Since we have a membership, we’ll probably be going quite often.  The only things we really missed out on today were the zebras and riding the miniature train that goes around the park.

Of course, what outing would be complete without a visit to Pizza Inn?

Thomas and I went to Hermann Park yesterday.  We parked in front of the zoo and apparently walked the long way around to the playground area.  We took the short way back.  On the way we passed a large pond, quite a few ducks, saw the train, and a few homeless people too (not something we’re used to, the signs on the trail that said to not be alone after dark were a tad scary too).  Thomas was pretty upset that he couldn’t run after the train and hop on, but loved the play area.  He probably would have played till he passed out, but after a couple of breaks I decided to head back.  We found a much shorter route back to the car, went by Pizza Inn again, then back to the RV.  Thomas pretty much passed out as soon as he got in bed and took a LONG nap.  He had fun, and I got my exercise for the week.

I did some research trying to find the best places to take Thomas to get all his energy out.  Memorial City Mall got some good reviews so we went to check it out.  It takes a while to find parking, we went to Target (it’s attached to the mall).  After buying a $130 stroller that really wasn’t needed, Jeannie took Thomas to the play area while I put the stroller together.  The play area is the nicest I’ve seen in a mall so far.  The one back in Chattanooga is a bit larger, but this one has more stuff, and is just cooler.  There’s a “pond” with bumps in it that toddlers seem to love for some reason (Thomas included).  There’s poles and a dragon tale that can be spun around.  Multiple slides.  Multiple bridges.  Things to climb on and jump off of.

Afterwards we went to California Pizza and ordered a club pizza.  I didn’t care for it that much, but the Italian sodas they had weren’t too bad.  On that end of the mall they have a big hearth that seems to have a working fireplace (it was too warm to actually be used), an ice rink, and outside has a small water area.  Thomas ran through the water, something you couldn’t ever do in Tennessee in early March.

This deserves its own post, at least for us.  We were worried that all the Pizza Inns had closed down, as all the ones near us had closed down around the same time.  Well we found multiple Pizza Inns still open in Houston, and found one that had buffet about 15 minutes from us.  All our old favorites are there, from meat-lover’s to cheeseburger to chocolate chip pizza (they call it a pizzert).  Thomas enjoys the pepperoni pizza and the vanilla ice cream, and when he’s not eating he likes to hop like a frog and play in the small arcade room they have.

So far we’ve all been twice, and Thomas and I went a third time.  It hasn’t even been a full week yet.

My wife’s first travel nurse assignment is at Spring Branch Medical in the Postpartum unit (she’s also contracted to work some in the L&D department as needed).  We’re staying about ten miles away, giving her a 30 minute drive to work (as opposed to back home where we lived about 30 miles away, with a 35 minute drive).  So far Jeannie seems to enjoy her new assignment.  We’ve found a few shopping areas, and a restaurant we thought had long been out of business (separate post on that).  Thomas doesn’t seem to mind the smaller living area, he still bounces off the walls and we take him out a decent bit to get his energy out.  Things are still a bit hectic, but we’re starting to settle in.