Mayhem at the Milnes': Livin' Large in Texas!!

Vacation! Yea! Vacation with a chance to see one of your BF's, even better! And the chance to see family too, yea! We packed up our bags to head to Houston, TX a week ago to see one of my oldest and best friends, Liz Brewer, and her adorable family. They moved to Katy about 2 1/2 years ago and my goodness do we miss them in KC!! Liz and I met our first day of high school and have been able to share so many big events since then.

Joshua was so excited to see Jack (4 yrs.), Molly (just 6 weeks older then him), and Will (1 year)! As with so many of our vacations though, he decided it was a prime time to get sick...yea! When we left town, he was a bit grumpy, but on the second leg of an insanely turbulent plane ride, he gave us a nice surprise. He was sleeping on my lap, woke up and said his throat hurt. About ten seconds passed and then the vomiting started. It was the first time in our parenting that neither of us moved, we were shocked, and that is by far the WORST thing you could do in this situation, let me tell you! Vomit all over Joshua, all over Mommy's jeans, and Daddy's shirt. Not to mention the nice cloth air plane seat. We managed to pull ourselves together for the third wave to catch some of it. Sorry for the lovely details. Poor kid though! Southwest was pretty nice about it, but it sure made me think even more about what kind of things lurk on airplanes!! The flight attendant asked if he could grab us any bags to get a change of clothes for at least Joshua.....Ahhhh...Ummmm.... Nope. We forgot to pack that. Seriously, it was only a few hours on a plane and the kid was wearing a pull up! We really looked like quite the train wreck walking through the Houston Hobby Airport, Art and I nicely decorated and Joshua wearing Art's t-shirt rolled up. Yep, he inherited the Kilgore motion sickness we found as the week continued.

Anyway, Houston! Katy! Long story, long! We had so, so much fun seeing the Brewers! Although we learned that part of Joshua's problem beyond motion sickness was that he had a double ear infection (LOVELY!), we still enjoyed every second! He had a great time with his buddies...and so did Mommy! We went to the Houston Arboretum, dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant, Lupes, and took a walk at an adorable little shopping area. We were so sad when we left Houston and knew we did not spend near enough time with our friends!

Tuesday we headed see Grandpa Cal, Grandma Katy, Uncle Mike, and Aunt Krista in Dallas- filled with Dramamine for the car ride which made the trip go so fast:)! Dallas is always super relaxing and Joshua loved catching up with his family members on the road. We played outside in the nice weather, read some books...several times since J was picking them...., watched some games, and he got to see the biggest Christmas tree of his few short years at the Galleria.

Ready for the trip with Tigger....prior to "the incident"

Checking out the Arboretum

At the Arboretum with Molly and Jack

Dinner at Lupes...the kids found the water fountain and penny that was dropped over the porch by our table area way more interesting than our table conversation! They were so cute that night together!!

Oh, Christmas Tree!! Molly, Joshua, and Jack

Joshua with his buddy Kimmy before she left to see her family for Thanksgiving

Watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade with Uncle Mike

He was so excited to see Santa at the end of the parade that he could not help snuggling into Mommy, something that is common when he gets a little shy with excitement:)