Houston Rodeo

Every year Houston puts on a huge month long rodeo. We have gone every year and it's always lots of fun. This year we went with our good friends the Tracy's who have a little girl Kate's age. We had so much fun petting goats, eating fried alligator, seeing prize winning livestock, eating yummy burritos, gathering (fake) eggs from (fake) chickens and eating fried snickers bars. Do you sense a theme? The Houston Rodeo is definitely a highlight of living in Texas! It kind of cracks me up how seriously people take it. The first day it opens is called "Go Texan" day and people take work off and dress all cowboyish. I didn't know what "Go Texan" day was and thought maybe it had something to do with Texas history, you know, like Pioneer day in Utah. When I asked someone what significance it had they looked at me like I was stupid and said "It's the first day of the rodeo". Of course! How could I be so silly? Go Texan!

Easter

Pictures from Easter. We went on an Easter egg hunt Saturday, found baskets Sunday (with a small meltdown from Kate when we found Jason's basket first and would not let her eat the candy in it) and got a sandbox thanks to great-grandma Richardson.

April Fool's

I'm not usually into tricking people on April Fool's day, but this year my Food Network magazine had some cute ideas for desserts that looked like "real" food so I decided to trick Jason. It would have worked too if I could have kept the silly grin off my face when he went to take his first bite! I think this looks a lot like lasagna, don't you? It's actually vanilla pudding, pound cake, raspberry jam with crushed oreos, and shaved white chocolate on top.

Kate Talk

Just some funny things Kate has been saying lately that I don't want to forget:

Bye, see ya, have a nice day!

There, much better or there, much worse (used interchangeably)

Cars eat grass

Yeah, he's a dog (she says this when I tell her our dog doesn't need shoes)

Will you play soccer with me? (this basically involves me kicking a ball in her general direction and her running after it)

Whatcha doin' here?

Ta da! (she said this after extracting a booger from her nose)

Blech

Need I say more?

Christmas (better late than never)

We had such a fun Christmas this year! Jason and I had thought about staying in Houston this year because we have to buy Kate an airplane ticket now and we didn't really feel like spending the money. But I was really sad at the thought of not seeing my family. Luckily, some of them came to see me! My dad came in a couple nights before Christmas and my sisters came in a couple days after. It was really fun to have my dad here on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. On Christmas Eve we went to the Downtown Aquarium. I haven't been to it before and it was fun despite not being much of an aquarium (the actual fish viewing was pretty minimal). But they had a train, a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel so it was definitely worth the trip. That night I had it in my head that I wanted to walk around the block and look at all the lights and then go home and sit in front of the fire and have hot chocolate. Well, it actually got pretty cold and with the humidity and the wind it made for a somewhat miserable walk. Oh well, it made the fire and hot chocolate extra nice! Then I attempted to teach Kate about the true reason we celebrate Christmas by reading her a very toddler friendly version of the birth of Jesus. I don't know how much she grasped; maybe next year! Christmas morning was spent opening presents and eating cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs topped with truffle salt, which was pungent to say the least (the truffle salt currently resides in Portland with Janelle who has a greater appreciation for it).
The next day we fed the ducks and rode the train at Hermann Park and visited the Children's museum. My sisters came in the next day so we had a big Christmas dinner and opened more presents that night. On Monday my dad gave a lecture on occular ultrasound (he is an opthamologist and specializes in ultrasound of the eye) at the hospital where I work part time. We rarely do eye ultrasounds but I still thought it would be fun to learn. My dad left that night, so the next day I dropped Kate at the sitters and my sisters and I did what we do best: went shopping! Houston has a ridiculous mall called the Galleria that has every store you can think of. We spent about 7 hours there and the time flew!
The rest of their trip was spent making and eating food (we made pumpkin soup, butternut squash risotto, sweet potato gnocchi, grasshopper tarts and yummy bread maker rolls just to name a few things) and getting them hooked on Vampire Diaries (sorry Alicia!) and Gossip Girls (sorry Janelle!). On New Year's Eve we stayed in and had fondue and played Clue. I let Kate stay up until about 10 and she loved every minute of it. We toasted in the New Year with sparkling cider. We also took lots of walks to the park, and had one unfortunate walk minus Kate where we got drenched in the rain about 2 miles from the house and almost froze to death trying to get home. One night just my sisters and I went to a really nice French restaurant nearby called Chez Nous. It is a really cute little place that used to be a church and where the servers wear tuxedos. The goat cheese was wonderful and so were the desserts of course! Another night we dropped Kate at the sitters and went and saw Sherlock Holmes. I LOVED it! I would see it again in a second!
I had SO much fun with my family here and I was in such a bad mood the whole rest of the week after they left but I think I have adjusted to normal life again. Love you guys!! Thanks so much for coming!

San Diego

Jason had to go to San Diego to a conference for work and his firm pays for the spouses to go (thanks Jason's firm!) so we just had to buy Kate a ticket. The conference was at a really nice resort in Carlsbad and I honestly think it was one of the nicest hotel rooms I have ever stayed in! Kate is old enough to need her own seat on the plane now which is good and bad. Bad because we have to pay more to fly but good because I don't have to fight to keep her on my lap. Jason spent most of his days in meetings so Kate and I got to have lots of alone time. I really enjoyed just being able to hang out with her and not have to worry about running errands or cleaning the house. Our first day we went to the San Diego zoo. It's a huge zoo and we probably only saw about half of it. I think my favorite part was seeing the dingo puppies. They were so cute! Most of the animals were very active because it was close to feeding time. That night we ate at a restaurant right on the beach. I had lobster which was pretty good but reaffirmed to me that I just don't really like lobster that much, even covered in butter and truffle oil!
The next day Jason only had a half day of meetings so we had thought about going to Disneyland. Unfortunately, Jason woke up around 4 AM puking his guts out so that nixed that plan. Instead I took Kate to Legoland where I spent a small fortune just to get through the gate. I still feel bad for the poor guy at the ticket window. It's not his fault the prices are ridiculous! Anyway, we did have fun there. Kate was just tall enough to be able to ride most of the rides. And it was so cool to see all the things made out of legos!
On Saturday (Halloween) Kate and I went to Sea World. I decided to not get her a costume since we weren't home and I don't think she cares too much about dressing up yet. We went on more rides in the Sesame Street section where Kate proceeded to throw a fit every time we had to get off a ride and get back in line. Do the terrible twos really last a whole year? Then we saw the manatees and the sharks and a really cute pet show. The last thing we did there was see Shamu. I figured I couldn't go all that way and not see that, right? Kate played with some bubbles I bought the whole time but it was an awesome (if somewhat cheesy) show. We flew home the next day. It was a really fun trip and even though we didn't get to hang out with Jason that much, I am so glad we tagged along.