Living the Aunt and Uncle Life

Continuing in my efforts to catch up:

The next weekend Michael and I were off to California for a wedding,

but we made it into a little vacation, and its going to take much more than one post.

So, I will move on to the next weekend when we had family come and visit.

It means so much to us anytime that friends and family come and stay with us,

but this visit was extra special because it was the first time Josh and Krista purposely came to visit us.

They arrived late Thursday evening, and we started the visit off with ice cream sundaes and games.

^^Kayley was most excited for the ice cream

 The next day as soon as every one woke up, we packed lunches and hit the road to Galveston.

The girls were so excited to be going to the beach. 

They talked about seashells, and Ariel, and all things ocean the entire way.

We also sang Disney songs during the drive.

It took a little longer than expected to find a good beach where we could eat, so by the time we got there we were all starving.

It didn't matter how hungry the girls were though, because as soon as we got there, 

they were in the water!

^^Kayley was covered in sand the minute she got out of the car.

They had such a blast, and I had so much fun watching them run and play in the water.

After lunch we let the girls play and search for seashells a little longer.

Well, except for Kayley, we were just trying to keep her warm.

Baby girl made a beeline for the water anytime we put her down, and with the water being so cold, she was freezing!

I love this picture of her and her uncle Michael though.

I also love this video of the older running through the water.

I might have told them to do it.

And then they both fell in, and then they got in trouble.

Oops.

Ash and Em at Beach from Brittany Johns on Vimeo.

After the beach, we had to make a quick Walmart run to get the girls some dry clothes, 

and then we went to ride the Bolivar ferry.

I brought the bread that was left over after making sandwiches so the girls could feed the seagulls.

 ^^They loved it!

They thought it was especially when one of the birds pooped right on the back of Michael's neck.

We ended the day with dinner at one of our Galveston favorites, the Spot.

Saturday, Michael started the day by making pancakes for everyone,

then we went to a trampoline/inflatable place called Cosmic Jump.

The girls had so much fun jumping, and sliding, and before long they were worn out.

We came back to the house to cook out hamburgers and hotdogs,

and then while Kayley slept, Michael and I took Ashley and Emily out to walk Buster.

They said it was the first time they have ever walked a dog.

The rest of the day was spent at the outlet mall, and then the drive-in to see the new Muppet movie.

We did squeeze in a short stop at Buc ee's though.

You can't come to Houston and not go to Buc ee's.

At least according to my family.

Michael and I decided to get the girls a little souvenir to remember there trip, 

and they were so happy with their little Buc ee dolls.

We had so much fun with these girls, and we were sad to see them go.

I just can't believe how quickly the time goes and how fast they have grown.

One thing is for sure though, they know their aunt and uncle love them SO much!

Youth Group Christmas

Last weekend we had the Christmas party for the youth group. 

We did it a little different than last year, and went with the idea of simplicity.

We started the night by caroling at the nursing home.

It was so sweet to see the faces of the residents, and watch them sing along with us.

Some of them even did a few "dance moves".

I took a video of the group singing, but unfortunately, my microphone was turned off.

Awesome.

After caroling, we went to see the Houston Zoo Lights.

We might have underestimated the amount of people that would be there with us.

We finally got in though, and the kids loved it!

There weren't too many animals still out, but I did see the cougar, some giraffes, and a zebra.

This zebra was my favorite of the night, but the peacock was pretty too.

We finished the night back at the church with a Dirty Santa gift exchange.

One thing I learned is vast differences in people's idea of "white elephant"

All the kids had a great time though, and everyone was happy in the end.

I walked away with 3 pairs of socks (that I loved) and Michael ended the game with a DVD of 

The Land Before Time (which he bought himself)

He was so excited!

It was a great night, and I was SO happy to not have to set up or take down decorations!

Double Dates, Double Trouble

Last weekend Michael and I got to go on a double date with two of our favorites.

To make it even better, it was a Christmas date!

We started with some delicious Italian food followed by amazing lattes.

Well, Michael and I had some lattes.

We are currently obsessed.

After dinner we drove around River Oaks, on of Houston's wealthiest areas, 

to look at Christmas lights.

We had so much fun driving around with Trey and Claire, adding our own commentary to the lights.

Here are some of our favorites from the night:

^^ Prettiest street

This was the street leading to the country club.

The trees were beautiful!

^^ Claire and I had to have a picture together.

^^ Yes. Chevy Chase.

If only it were Clark Griswold St.

On this street we found the house with the worst decorations:

 That's right. Its a 10 foot angel.

This was on one side of the house, a string of lights hanging from a tree was on the other side.

Nothing was on the house.

Weird and weirder.

We also found the house with the best decorations on ole Christmas Vacation Ln.

^^ My favorite!

With trees like this, the house doesn't even need lights.

The rest of the car chose another house for the best lights award,

but Michael was busy yelling at the owner while his dog used the restroom,

so I got too distracted to take a picture.

We ended the night with a classic - House of Pies.

Unfortunately, are favorite location burned down.

Sadness.

And, they were out of every kind of pie that Claire wanted.

But, we still had a great time.

^^ Love these two so much!

Fall Festival

I was so happy for Halloween to get here,

and to pass out candy to all of our 9 trick-or-treaters,

but I was even happier to see October leave, and to welcome November.

For one thing, I already have two birthday coupons waiting in my inbox.

And for another, November means holidays with family!

 Before I get too carried away by the holidays though, I want to finish catching up on October.

Last weekend our church had its first Fall Festival in several years.

I'm not sure how many years, but this was the first time they've done it since we have been there.

Michael played a big part in putting the whole thing together, and I am so proud of him for all the work he put in to making it such a great day.

And it was a GREAT DAY!

A huge success!

We had at least 500 people show up during the 3 hour time period, and there were approximately 180 visitor families that came for the fun.

We had 4 inflatables, a kiddie ferris wheel, a petting zoo, a hay ride, a firetruck for the kids to climb inside, lots of carnival games and different booths organized by our church members, and free food for everyone.

^^ Obviously the cotton candy was my favorite

Originally I wanted to run a booth with Michael, but all the good ones were taken,

which turned out to be a good thing since he spent most of the afternoon in the dunk tank.

I forgot to mention we had a dunk tank!

The kids loved the dunk tank!

They had so much fun dunking the youth minister over and over.

IMG 4015 from Brittany Johns on Vimeo.

Since we didn't have a booth, I signed up to do registration.

It is actually my favorite thing to do because I love to see all the kids so excited to be at a carnival.

I love being the registration girl, it is completely exhausting for me.

No one believes me, but I am 100% an introvert.

I can make myself by extroverted, friendly, outgoing and all those other things required of registration, but it drains the energy right out of me.

So by the end of 3 hours, I could barely move.

And we still had an hour and a half of clean-up.

It was such a wonderful event for our church and for our community that it was completely worth it!

Events like this really show the strengths that Michael brings to ministry.

He is completely in his element, and does the most amazing job!

It is days like this that I am reminded just how blessed we are to be in the exact place that God put us!

In the words of my good friend Renee, God is doing immeasurably more in our lives!

Keeping Up With the Johns

Last weekend we were so happy to have Michael's parents in town for a visit.

It has been almost 2 years since they have been able to come to Houston, so we were pretty excited.

They arrived on Thursday, and as soon as I got off work we all went to dinner.

My mother-in-law waited a whole hour before asking when we were going to have babies,

so that was progress!

On Friday we got up and went to a Holiday Market at a church close to us.

After spending quite a bit of time...and money...there we headed down to the Galleria.

We had dinner reservations later in the evening, but decided to take Steve and Cheryl to the Houston Water Wall.

^^ Michael and Steve checking it out

^^ My guy and me

After killing some time at the Galleria mall, it was time for dinner.

Cheryl made reservations for us at Maggianos to celebrate my graduation, and I was super excited!

I have been wanting to try this place for a long time, and I've never eaten Italian food that I didn't like, so I knew it would be delicious!

They even give you a meal to take home with every entree that you buy.

It was awesome!

On Saturday we decided to go to the Woodlands to walk around down by the river. 

The weather was absolutely gorgeous which was a pleasant surprise!

*Last time Steve and Cheryl came during Fall Break, Steve packed for Oklahoma weather and was sweating it out in long sleeves and sweaters.

This time we needed the sweaters.

Kind of. ;)

^^ We spent time walking by the river, and looking in the shops.

We even found the perfect little English Bulldog for Cheryl.

We ended the day with a yummy dinner at Pappadeaux.

I even enjoyed my second lobster tail ever...and it was delicious!

We had such a great time spending the weekend with Michael's parents.

We are always so thankful when family and friends come to visit us,

because we know how long the trip can be, and we appreciate every minute that we have with them!

Houston is great for family visits because there is always something new to do!

Galveston Sand Castle Competition

This past Saturday was the Galveston Sand Castle Competition.

I didn't know much about it before we went, and to be honest I still don't know much about it.

A friend from church had heard great things about it, so a group of us loaded up and drove down to Galveston Saturday morning.

Well, we left in the morning, and 3 hours later we had a parking spot at the beach.

Yikes.

It was so packed.

I could not even believe it. 

As for the competition, businesses sign up to compete, and they have 4-5 hours finish.

The public can walk around and watch as they build, 

but at 3:00 the competition stops and the judges make their rounds.

Some of the "castles" were very creative, some were not so much.

We saw more than enough Carnival Cruise ships paired with a toilet somehow, 

several Wizard of Oz-es, and even a few Duck Dynasty castles.

The bummer was that I walked through while they were still building, so I mostly saw peoples' rear ends.

Luckily, my friend went through at the end and got some great pictures.

Wreck It Ralph - My Main Man!

Get it??

This competiton is something that Michael and I would probably never have done on our own.

I mean, I don't even think we would know it existed.

But we had a great time.

Aside from the crazy traffic, and the crazier people, it was a good day.

And Bonus: I only got sunburned in one small spot - my right shoulder.

Random, but better than being a lobster!

Weekend Getaway

Last year Michael and I started the tradition of getting away together for a weekend before the crazy of Summer starts.

Last year we went to Galveston, but we wanted to do something different this time.

The only requirements:

1) A good pool

2) A good price

I think you know which one of us chose each of those. 

Anyways, we hadn't officially decided to take a trip this year, 

but on Thursday it was hot, and I really needed some pool time - and I don't mean neighborhood pool.

So I did some searching online and found a nice hotel, in a good part of town,

for really cheap.

So I booked it, and we left that night.

Before we could go to our hotel, we had to take Buster to his (the Petsmart Pet Hotel) and then we hit the road...to the other side of Houston. Ha!

 We stayed at the hotel for 2 nights, and it was absolutely perfect.

Someone else cooked and cleaned for us.

We got to watch all the cable we wanted, which ended up being LOTS of HGTV, and Mean Girls.

*Random fact: Every time we are in a hotel we watch Mean Girls.

Its always on tv, and it never gets old.

And we spent almost all of Friday right here

The pool was small, and a little cold, but we were the only people out there the entire day!

 It was perfect.

After the day at the pool, and a nap, we went out to dinner.

Thanks to my handy Yelp! app, we found the most delicious restaurant.

 You know its fancy when you order diet coke, and they bring you a glass bottle of Coca Light!

And when I asked for flavored lemonade, the brought me lemonade mixed with pineapple juice

YUM!

The restaurant is called Houston's, and we are already planning to go back.

Both of our dinners were so big, and we couldn't take left overs since we were at a hotel,

we decided to go somewhere else for dessert.

We were close to Rice Village, which has a great shopping area, so we went there and found the cutest dessert place.

It is called Sweet Paris Creperie,

and Oh. My. GOODNESS!

 It got the Just Nutella Ala Mode, and Michael got the Smores Crepe.

They were fantastic!

Bonus, the entire restaurant was decorated with a Paris theme - which I loved!

We ended the weekend with the Houston Symphony Pops show.

For the 2nd year in a row, a sweet couple from church gave us tickets for Memorial Weekend.

They have season tickets, and have been out of town the past 2 years, and so we have really lucked out!

The Houston Symphony is outstanding, and this year they played with the group Pink Martini.

The best part of the show was when they brought out their special guests:

The Von Trapp Family!

 No joke!

These kids are grandchildren of Kurt, and great grandchildren of Captain and Maria Von Trapp!

I was beyond excited!

And then they started singing Sound of Music songs and I was in Heaven.

They sang Lonely Goatherd, and then Edelweiss as an encore.

 They were amazing!!

 

 It was a wonderful weekend full of fun and relaxation.

Now, I think I can honestly say I am ready for Summer and all its crazy!!

Fun with Oliver in Houston

Since we knew that the graduation ceremony was going to be pretty boring, 

and since almost all of the family was not able to be at Oliver's 5th birthday party in Oklahoma, 

we had a fun day + birthday party for him on Saturday. 

We started the day at the Houston Children's Museum,

We might have misread the opening time, which allowed us to have our own little photo shoot outside the museum.

Then, because of my Mom's connections, we got in to the museum completely free - including parking!

*She had only emailed to ask about a discount, or something like that and they rolled out the red carpet for us! We were so thankful, and had a blast!

This little guy was EXCITED!

 There was so much to see and do at the museum!

We were moving fast and having fun for a full 2 hours, and probably only saw about half of what they have to do there.

 As you can see, Oliver was definitely not the only one of us acting like a kid.

It was a lot of fun for all of us!

After the museum, we went to lunch and had a mini birthday party for Oliver.

There was no cake, no balloons, and no singing...

so we pretty much just had gifts and he was more than okay with that!

Michael and I love that little guy so much, and we are so glad that he got to come visit us in Texas!

He was pretty upset the morning that they all to go, 

and we were upset too!

Its just one of those times that we are reminded of why its not fun to live so far away from family.

Oliver says he is going to kindergarten in Texas though,

so I guess we will be seeing him again soon! ;)