Family Vacation

For our annual summer family vacation, we decided to explore east Texas and into Louisiana.  Since my friend Katie and her daughter Ashlyn live in Houston, we picked them up on the way and did a joint trip!  It was packed with adventure.  The kids were so excited when we left for Houston...

...and Mom was excited we made it there without killing each other:

After staying the night at Katie & Ashlyn's we squeezed all the booster seats into Katie's car and hit the road!

First stop: Beaumont.  Day 1 was pretty chill....  Picnic lunch, sprinkler pad, hotel check-in, and POOL TIME!

I should mention we also had dinner at a fantastic seafood place that was recommended to Katie, and the kids thought we had completely lost our minds:

I thought all I would be able to get the kids to do was take pictures with the crabs...

...but all three kids actually tried it!  We couldn't believe it.  Here are the results of the taste test:

Chase's "half-way" thumb rotated to a "thumb's up" only after Ashlyn gave it an enthusiastic thumbs up.  Chloe's vote was a hard thumbs down.  She did not give in to peer pressure!

The next morning we headed to Port Arthur and walked the boardwalk:

And then after lunch we headed to Orange to check out the Shangri La Botanical Gardens.  It was hot:

We interrupt this post for an obligatory crazy family selfie:

We all felt much cooler when we got on the boat for the swamp tour (as long as the boat was moving)!

We were looking really hard for gators but we didn't see any.

We did, however, see some amazing trees and other wildlife.

After the gardens we headed into Louisiana to check out a horse race.  Chloe loves horses, so she definitely inspired this part of the trip (and she was so excited)!

There were storms in the area so the races were delayed.  The kids waited pretty patiently:

Ice cream helped:

And suckers (which they got from a nice man on one of the horses they got to pet):

While we waited we also checked out the area (stalls? stables?) where the horses and riders waited for the storm to pass:

Chloe picked out her favorite horse (of course she picked the purple one!)...

I totally should have bet on it, too, because it WON the first race!  She thought that was so cool. 

We got up close and personal to watch the last race (well, it wasn't the last race of the night, but it was the last one for us because it was getting late):

The next day we headed back to Houston to check out the Barnum & Bailey circus!

We saw tigers...

...and high wire acts...

...and a woman shot out of a cannon...

...and of course the elephants!

It was a slightly crazy weekend but the kids had a blast and the moms had fun, too (though we are definitely ready for a little R&R)!

The kids took a ton of pictures with their camera and tablet, too.  I created a Shutterfly site for all kid pics from here on out, but you have to have permission to view it.  Contact me if you want to see them and I'll add you to the site!