Galveston beach and Moody Garden

I went to bed way too early last night out of exhaustion (earlier than my kids), so I was up since 4am, and now I'm even starting to write our blog :) Thanks to my wonderful husband who took care of the dishes and kids last night!

Last Sat we went to Galveston beach and Moody Garden. We have Moody Garden membership that is supposed to expire this month. We felt like we owe it as least one last visit before life gets crazy AGAIN!

We got to Galveston beach around 9:30am. It was a little windy but that didn't bother us. Enoch was still a little scared of waves. He just finished his preschool swim lessons but that didn't prepare him for the waves for sure. Especially that he got knocked over by a big wave at the very beginning, so he was a little reserved the whole time there. But he loved playing with sand and making sand castles with daddy. Michael is at the age where he has no fear of anything what so ever. He had a blast "pre-body surfing". I can see him becoming a body surf pro when he grows up. He loved the waves, loved to jump when waves are coming, loved going into deep water and getting knocked over and over again. Once he was in the water, it was hard to get him to leave. So he always got so cold after playing in the water we worried that he would pass out.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Rogers for the cute swim suits!! They both look adorable!

 Enoch testing out water with daddy!

Michael loves going solo. 

I'm a proud mama of two brave boys! And another one on the way... :)

The next collage of photos are a series of captions. Michael got wiped out and then got up to go back in again. It happened many times. He was not scared nor tired. 

Sand castle is fun too!

Michael was so cold that he was shaking a little! 

Snack time! 

We then went to Moody Garden for a few hours. We checked out the aquarium, rain forest and even watched two 3D movies. Last time when we went a few months ago, Enoch was too scared of the 3D movies and Michael was too little to sit still so we never got to watch one as a family. It was either me or Sam going solo while the other watched the kids outside. So this time we were all so happy! Enoch loved seeing insects and sea creatures in 3D. I think he will never forget how a Caterpillar becomes a butterfly. 

 It's fun that they let you touch the water. Just be careful not to pick up anything and get bitten.

Dragon fish

The rain forest pyramid is always fun

Over 1,000 species of plants/animals in the rainforest pyramid. Lots of pretty flowers

After Moody Garden it was around 3:30 in the afternoon, Sam convinced me to go back to the beach again. Michael got to take a nap earlier so he was full of energy again to play in the water. But Enoch was really tired and he insisted he wanted to take a nap. 

 That's Enoch trying to sleep. 

But eventually Enoch went in the water and got knocked over by a wave. Too bad we didn't catch it. 

In the end we exhausted our kids. Yep that's what we do. Ha :) 

The trampoline

A while back Sharon mentioned that she wanted to get a trampoline for the kids. I mentioned that I thought it sounds like a fun idea to get one once I start making money and we buy a house somewhere. I thought I had successfully brushed her off. A year or so later Sharon visits a friend's house and all the kids are going crazy on their trampoline. Sharon's trampoline bug had bit again, and all my efforts to brush her off weren't nearly as successful as last time.

We did some looking around, and I realized trampoline's aren't nearly as expensive as I thought they were. We found a 12 footer for $200, which we covered with the kids birthday money from Sharon's mom as well as some red envelope money they received during Chinese New Year.

So far, the kids have loved it. I think we will get our money's worth out of it. It was a huge pain to set up and I'm not sure what we're going to do with it once we move, but I guess I'll deal with that later.

Enoch getting some massive air time

One of the goals, of course, of having a trampoline is to have a place where the kids can get their wiggles out. Mission accomplished. You can even snap the door closed and lock your kids inside as you go in the house and ignore them, which is a nice feature.

The next 4 shots show a nice succession of a typical kiddy brawl. These usually happen once or twice a day accompanied by some high pitched screaming. In the 3rd shot Mom is telling them to be nice to each other, and then they promptly go at it again.

Easter

We had a good Easter, starting with an egg hunt, going to church, dying eggs, eating a great dinner, then watching Finding Faith in Christ. Enoch was pretty nervous for Jesus, but luckily he got resurrected.

I can't remember why he made this face

Michael's muscles and Enoch's biking skills

One of my favorite parts of being a parent is seeing Enoch and Michael succeed. Their accomplishments probably mean as much to me as they do to them. I can tell how proud they are of themselves and how much they want to show off to me and to feel validated.

Enoch has been getting a lot better at his glider bike recently, and it's been a lot of fun to see him improve.

The next 2 shots are great because they show off Michael's muscles. He loves to do anything he sees his brother doing. If Enoch makes an obnoxious noise, Michael thinks he's the coolest kid around if he can do it too. If Enoch is mean and tells Mom or Dad to stop talking / singing, then Michael chips right in and tells us to stop talking too. Michael follows Enoch around on the playground, and we thought this ladder would be too advanced for him. He eventually got really good at it, but I like the following 2 pictures because it shows how strong his arms are. At one point he was doing a dip.

We rode to a park near our house, and I found it remarkable that there were no other kids playing. We drove by today, and there were also no kids playing. How are there no kids playing at a park on a nice Saturday and Sunday morning? It reminded me that there really aren't many young families who live around us. 

This isn't the best picture, but it's off a fire ant hill. Houston is swarming with these things, and their bite is nasty. 

Also a few pictures from a trip to the park: