The Egbert Update: Spring Break fun!

After working 5 shifts in a row and taking a CPR renewal class we headed to Houston for our spring break trip. We purchase a city pass which was good and bad. We kinda tried to plan too much for the short time we were there. It was fun and busy, but I think I will plan a more relaxing vacation next time. The pictures are very much out of order, but I will give a run down of what we did and then give the pictures captions.

Thursday we drove down and checked into our hotel and went to the Downtown Aquarium. It was neat, but really not that impressive. Highlights included seeing some neat sharks and a corny but fun little train ride through the shark tunnel. Cami really enjoyed the carousel and we rode it three times in a row since the line was short. They had some neat jelly fish and a cool octopus and some stingrays and a white tiger so those were pretty much the highlights there. Then we picked up some pizza and went back to the hotel for a quiet dinner and swim in the hotel pool...or soak in the hot tub for JD since he hates cold water and would not try out the pool. Cami had no problem going back and forth that meant that I had to endure some pretty brutal shocks to my system to follow her since she is not quite old enough to swim on her own, although she does get around pretty well with her puddle jumper.

Friday we headed to the Houston Zoo. I think this was probably my favorite part, even though they really didn't have anything extraordinary. It was still nice and we didn't get to see everything. I should mention that through all of this Cami had a pretty nasty cold, but still had high energy so we plowed on with our vacation. Cami really did pretty well and despite my worries, we didn't have any major issues or meltdowns although we weren't little angels necessarily either. Highlights of the zoo included the petting zoo, feeding the giraffe, watching an elephant bath, and going through a fish tunnel.

After the Zoo we headed to the Museum of Natural Science. I would really have enjoyed it sans Cami. It was very interesting, but not so much for toddlers. Highlights included seeing lots of large sweet dinosaur fossils, an awesome Egypt exhibit with mummies and other artifacts, a really cool gem and minerals exhibit, and some really big shells.

After that we went to a Chinese buffet for dinner and back to the hotel for a swim and quiet relax time.

Saturday we went to the Children's Museum. That was pretty neat, but super crowded and mostly geared to a slightly older crowd. We had fun, but I would have enjoyed it more if Cami was 5 or 6 and there had been about 1/3 of the people there. Highlights included a massive Kidtropolis where the kids get to run everything and have debit cards and a grocery store that Cami really liked and police departments, an ambulance, a vet, a cafe, a bank, and yeah pretty awesome. Other highlights was a wind room where kids put scraps of fabric in front of fans and watch the wind blow it. Cami loved that. They also had some water works stuff outside that Cami enjoyed.

After the Museum we went to the Space Center. Cami crashed in the car despite my efforts to keep her awake, but was bouncing around at the space center. Highlights included seeing area that real astronauts train before they go to the international space station and seeing real rockets and astronaut suits. Cami really liked the super long slide and some of the activities in the space center, especially the one about friction where they have different materials attached to wooden blocks and the kids slide them down different surfaces. Also a paper airplane center where they try to see how far a plane they make will go through hoops.

After that we headed home. Tons packed into 2 1/2 days. We were all pretty tired out after that, but really Cami was a great sport and it was fun to get a taste of all of those things. I was able to see what I would really like to spend time and money on without having to spend too much.

At the zoo, of course :)

I tried to only put my favorite animal pictures in here. I took a ton because I was trying out my new to me zoom lens and I loved it!

Sadly the temple was closed for maintenance so we just got to get pictures from the outside.

At the Children's museum. Cami was building a lego car (with help).

Racing the lego car down the ramp...JD looks worried. :)

Cami being a police dispatcher.

Our little EMT

Cami loved the little grocery store...she wanted to buy everything. It was awesome they had debit cards so the kids could learn that they could only buy what they had money for and had to "work" to get paychecks to deposit in their account. Pretty neat, although it was a little above Cami's comprehension level.

Cami practicing her veterinary skills.

An artist in the making, actually Cami has a very short attention span for art which is rather sad, but we do try to encourage her creativity.

Water works, in the which Cami got drenched and had to have a complete wardrobe change when we left.

The wind room... I think I might need to recreate this at home. Cami loved it!

Playhouse building, Cami thought this was pretty awesome, although it was a little tricky for her level of motor skills, lucky Dad helped. She wanted a tower.

Learning about pulleys.

Just for fun!

Space Center tram ride. There is a real rocket in there!

This is the space vehicle mock-up center, they have models of the international space center down there and real astronauts train there in preparation for going to into space.

Tram ride!

See how bitsy she is? Those engines at the base of the rocket were huge!

playing with paper airplanes

Our Fortunes... I included this because I thought they were actually pretty good, at least the top one, which is JD's.

We have found that buffets are the way to go with this picky eater.

On the tram ride at the space center.... The reason these pictures are out of order is because some are from the camera, some from my phone and some from JD's phone and it would take too much work to reorganize them...

A Mummy from the Egypt Exhibit.

A sweet necklace from the gems exhibit.. poor picture I know, I still thought it was cool though.

Dinosaurs!!!!!!!

Cami has this thing about sleeping on the floor...also beneath tables that I think came from spring break last year where we worked really had to convince her that sleeping under the table with her cousins was a cool thing in our crowded hotel room... she had a couch but she voted to put the cushions under the table and sleep there.