A Day Trip to Galveston

When we settled in Texas, we settled in a suburb equal distance to Houston as it is to Galveston. So this weekend when it was 65 degrees and sunny and we were left with ''What should we do today?" we opted to see Galveston. Now we had been a couple times before but for the beach. This time I first went to the Galveston tourism website and searched ''budget friendly''...since we really were just wanting to sight-see. We found two things that sounded like good, cheap, family fun: The {free} ferry from Galveston to Port Bolivar which dolphins can often be seen from and a candy shop called LaKings located on the Strand. Off we went.

We chose the Ferry first.

The kids loved it! They couldn't wait to depart the landing and get out of the van.  It's a 20 minute Ferry ride across the channel so it's just enough that they have fun without getting restless.   

 Logan is "Star Student of the Week" this week and with that honor comes the responsibility of taking care of the class mascot :Brown Bear. Now he can say that Brown Bear saw a ferry this weekend :)

After the ferry we spent about twenty minutes at Port Bolivar before the kids were itching for that taffy we had talked about. Most of the homes were built up on the stilts, which the kids thought was neat.

 Ron was amazed and actually pulled the car over...those ''rocks'' on the ground are all oysters!

A quick ferry ride later and we were on our way to The Strand.

If you've ever been to Lawrence, KS ''Mass Street" well "The Strand" is a lot like that but bigger, right by the Gulf and from the Strand you can see Cruise ships dock in the port. We (in the fashion that we do) just hopped in the car and went and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the day we went was a Chili and Beer Fest. Lots of yummy 'fair' food and microbrewery beers. I enjoyed sipping on a Strawberry Daiquiri while we explored. At last we found La King's Confectionery...also known as "the taffy place". Walking into La King's was like walking back in time. Soda bar, candy cases, adorable little tables and chairs everywhere and the sweet smell of sugar!

I got so wrapped up in it all that I didn't think to take photos until we were at the back of the shop, watching him pull the taffy. D'oh!

 He puts forty pounds of taffy on this belt and it stretches it out. The end of the belt will cut and wrap each piece of taffy. 40 pounds of taffy will be cut into about 3000 pieces and it takes about 30 minutes. This flavor was ''Mardi Gras'' and was yellow with ribbons of purple and green. It tasted like ''tutti frutti".

 As the machine started wrapping, the sampling begun! After tasting a warm piece, it wasn't as exciting to pick pieces out of bins. We bought peanut butter, pina colada, strawberry, orange, watermelon, root beer and cherry. I didn't taste all of them but there were no complaints. All in all, a fun afternoon followed up with dinner at Rainforest Cafe. The kids LOVE Rainforest Cafe.

I'll be home for Christmas!

We have been in our house for about three months now. Long enough that we have most of the pictures hung up, the bedrooms have curtains and tiebacks, we've ripped down the wallpaper in the master bathroom and have the necessary tools to patch/prime/paint (just need to find the time!). We celebrated our first Thanksgiving and finally feel settled. Decorating for Christmas was a blast. Having a mantle to decorate is new and really helps pull it all together.

Overall, it's gone well but we were REALLY looking forward to going ''home'' for Christmas to Kansas. We had planned on being in Kansas from the 21st-31st but the weather had other ideas. Luckily we left Texas a day early because the weather turned ugly quick!

We had a lot of fun in Kansas. A LOT of fun. And it snowed EIGHT inches the day after we arrived so we had a white Christmas. Snow, baking, family...it was great and much needed after not being with extended family for a holiday in three years.

 

We were very fortunate to be able to visit Grandma Great (my dad's grandma), whom we hadn't seen in over two years. She had a few falls and was hospitalized a few times while we were in Italy and I honestly didn't know if we would get to see her again. Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure she's 94 years old. Other than her vision, she does really well...still lives on her own in an apartment for seniors. Our trip to Kansas in October was so quick, we didn't have time to drive to the town she lives in (almost 2 hours from where we were in Oct) so I was really thankful we had plenty of time to see her. 

She still tells it like it is ;)

So we saw Grandma Great on Christmas Eve as well as Papa Bob (my dad's dad) who we saw again on Christmas Day.

Christmas eve we went back to my parents house to settle in and wait for Santa. The kids were so freaking pumped up on Christmas Eve that they were up until almost 11pm!

 

For real. It was a long night but made for a fun morning!

The kids all got exactly what they asked Santa for, everything they asked Nana and Papa for, plus lots of extras. Spoiled? Probably but they are good kids :) After opening up presents and getting ready for the day we packed up our stuff from Nana and Papa's house and headed down to Grandma Phyllis' house to see everyone, open more presents and for Christmas dinner.

 

 I got to snuggle and spoil my nephew again, so that was fantastic!

 

We also got to update our four generation pictures...

And the Dads/Papas took the kids outside to enjoy that White Christmas before it melted. They made both a snowman as well as a snow pyramid. It wasn't very cold out with the sun and no wind, which made it a lot more fun (according to them).

 

 All in all, a perfect Christmas!

But as a family we learned an important lesson...home is Texas now. It's kinda sad to say but makes me happy that we're all happy here. By day seven in Kansas the kids wanted to go ''home''.  Asking to just go home. They had a blast but they missed their beds, their house, their rooms and they wanted to play with their toys. We headed home 2 days earlier than planned and it worked out great. We slept in. We spent Christmas money at Build A Bear. We enjoyed our new waffle iron and air popcorn popper with late breakfasts and afternoons spent cuddled up watching movies.

Remember the time..

...when mom sent us to school only to discover that there was no school that day, that it was an in service day?

Yeah, that happened this morning. I felt like a total doofus but holy cow were they excited and they thought it was hilarious! They immediately ripped off their shoes, hung up their backpacks, asked for their robes and went to play.

Tutorial: Using a Silhouette Cameo with a Sharpie pen to address cards

Last year for my birthday, B gave me a Silhouette Cameo. While I don't think I've mentioned it on the blog, this machine is amazing! I used it last June to make a "Classroom Jobs" board for Ryan's first grade teacher. We went with a board that looks like an iPhone, with each app being a pocket that holds the student's weekly job.

In order we have Line Leader, Door Holder, Calendar Reporter, Boys bathroom monitor, Teacher's assistant, line monitor, weatherman, girls bathroom monitor, substitute, caboose, classroom helper and the last "app" pocket holds the names of students who do not have jobs this week.

 I made every single app, cut every square, using the silhouette. This entire board, from idea in my head to laminated finished project, took less than two days to make, working when the kids were busy or after they went to bed.

I LOVE my Silhouette Cameo. And no, I'm not being paid to blog this. I seriously just love it.

My Cameo also came with some sketch pens. But I think they're less than stellar. They don't always write smoothly and I'm not a huge fan of the metallic choices. But I did realize that pretty much any pen would work, if the machine would just hold it. (The sketch pens are chubby!). So after brainstorming, I realized a small strip of electrical tape would make a regular fine point Sharpie or Sharpie pen, chubby enough. After successfully addressing over 50 Christmas cards, I took a quick iPhone video tutorial.

 

The video: It's not fancy, I'm pretty sure you can hear my dogs and kids in the background but I think it could really help others who are looking for a personalized yet quick way to address envelopes. The result is more thought out than just feeding an envelope through the printer. You can tell it was done with a pen/marker but people aren't going to know how your handwriting looks so neat!