Texas

We flew to Texas Sunday night after a full day of driving from St. George to Salt Lake. We chose flights that were later in the day because we didn't want to have long layovers in Denver without realizing that we would be keeping Corby up way past his bedtime. Despite this fact, he was pretty good.

While we were waiting to board our first flight from Salt Lake to Denver, Corby made friends with a little boy who was about 6 months older than him. He shared his favorite ball with him and they played catch.

Corby fell asleep during takeoff - I was shocked. That made the first flight a breeze.

We practically had to run to make our next flight from Denver to Houston. That flight Corby just watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He wasn't very happy when we had to turn it off, but other than that, it was a good flight.

When we arrived in Houston, we got our bags, rented a car, and then had to drive 45 minutes to Galveston. It was about 12:30 am when we arrived at our hotel. Luckily Corby fell asleep on the drive and pretty much just stayed asleep as we changed his diaper and put him in his pajamas. The first thing we saw was a cockroach outside our hotel room. When we opened the door, it ran under one of the beds. AWESOME. There was also a dead cockroach and cricket in the bathroom. Welcome to the South!

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in Galveston. It was good to see where Diana and Jason have been living. They took us to all their favorite places to eat and showed us some of the sights. Tourist season is pretty much over for the year, so sometimes we would go to do something and find that it was closed which was a bummer.

The first day they took us to an authentic southern BBQ joint. Corby loved climbing on all the fun stools they had. And I very much enjoyed my pulled pork sandwich with coleslaw.

We took Corby's pumpkin costume from last Halloween for Blake to wear this year. We tried it on him one morning and he was NOT happy. Hopefully they'll have more luck on Halloween!

We took a Duck Tour around the island. Corby was very good. He just sat on my lap the whole time and enjoyed the tour.

Diana and Jason even saw a few things they'd never noticed before and learned some stuff about Galveston.

One night we walked around "Downtown" Galveston. Most of the shops were closed for the day, but Corby had fun playing in the telephone booth.

And playing with the life size chess pieces. Corby would move them and Jason would put them back.

One morning we went to the beach. We weren't planning on getting in the water, so we didn't wear our swimming suits, but Corby had other plans.

He had fun playing in the waves (except when a big one would push him over) and got completely soaked!

Cute sandy toddler toes!

One night we went to the Kemah Boardwalk which is about a 45 minute drive from Galveston. They had lots of restaurants, rides, a haunted house (for Halloween), and a splash pad. We spent most of our time trying to decide where to eat dinner, so we didn't get to do a whole lot.

Corby loved the splash pad. He loved watching the fountains and running around the outside. Luckily he didn't run in the fountains, so he didn't get wet. I'll be honest, this isn't the most exciting video, but it's a cute one that some of you might enjoy.

After we had dinner, Diana and Jason went through the haunted house really quickly and then my mom and Diana went on a roller coaster ride while Corby and I road the train.

Corby loved giving baby Blake hugs (nice gentle ones), but almost every time he did, Blake would get the saddest look on his face and then start to cry. This was one of the rare times he was ok with it.

On Thursday we drove to San Antonio. It was about a 5 hour drive and my mom (who hates driving) had to drive the whole way because she didn't want to pay to add extra drivers. Diana's sister-in-law works for Marriott, so we got to stay at a Marriott right on the River Walk for a super good deal. That night we only had enough time to eat dinner at Hard Rock Cafe and walk along the river a bit.

Then we put the little boys to bed and my mom got a piece of cheesecake because that's what they had at the hotel restaurant and she had to eat a piece of pie (or something like it) because it was "pie day". I know what you're thinking... Pie day is March 14th. Well not for my mom. See October 6th was the day Elder Ririe had been on his mission for 3 months and 3 months is 1/8 of 24 months. A piece of pie is normally 1/8 of the pie, so "pie day" was born.

The next morning we went on a boat tour of the River Walk. Again Corby was great. Just sat there and pointed out all of the ducks.

Then we took some pictures by the River Walk.

And Corby played in one of the fountains.

We finished packing and checked out of our hotel and made the long drive back to Houston to catch our plane home. Corby adopted this bag of my mom's and dragged it around everywhere. Such a big boy.

When we got to the airport we learned that our flight from Houston to Denver was delayed, so we wouldn't make our connection to Salt Lake. So they had us drive to the other airport in Houston and catch a nonstop flight from Houston to Salt Lake. There was a nice BYU couple that now live in Houston who were going to Salt Lake for the weekend that had the same thing happen to them, so they offered to drive us. The airline would have given us a voucher for a cab, but this seemed easier and they were so nice to offer. They did give us some vouchers for $40 work of airport food of which we made sure to spend practically every penny.

Corby was tired of his stroller and wanted to walk everywhere (with Bo Bo the monkey of course).

Corby was good for the first hour and a half of the flight, but then he decided he was tired and had had enough! He screamed his head off until I finally got him to sleep for the rest of the flight. He woke up when we landed and picked up right where he left off. In the midst of all that screaming, I accidentally left our DVD case with about 20 movies on the plane. I didn't realize until a few days later when we went to turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I reported the loss on Continental's website, but I don't have high hopes of them returning it to me. Of course they were all of Corby's favorite movies!

All in all, it was a fun trip! Although we wish Rog (and Grandpa Ririe) could have been with us.