Cousin Camp

After Regan's big Girl Scout weekend in Houston, I traded kids with my cousin Christina. Regan stayed in Houston for the week and Jeremiah came to Austin with me. We had a good time with him. He and Riley get along so well, and they played Xbox and computer games most of the week. When they weren't killing something, I took them to Jump Street (a new indoor trampoline place) where Jeremiah got to ride the mechanical bull! They spent one whole day at Austin's Park and Pizza (and I mean, the WHOLE day! Open to close, they were exhausted after that). We saw Cowboys & Aliens at the new dinner theater in Round Rock, and went swimming to beat the heat.

Then we went to Houston to switch back and spent the night down there. I sure missed Regan, the house was much quieter with her gone! But she had a great time too, and she wasn't even really ready to come home. I hope we can continue Cousin Camp every summer, the kids had such a great time. I know some of my fondest memories growing up were summers spent with my cousins!!

Girl Scout Trip

Time for our end of year, cookie reward trip! We had a nice, big trip planned since our troop was the highest cookie seller in our service unit! Riley had gone to church camp at the beginning of the week, and then on Wednesday, Rgan switched and went to church camp, so on Friday morning, I had to drive out to Burnet to pick her up from church camp and meet at our Girl Scout Leaders house by 10am! It was a busy morning!

We loaded up the cars and headed to Brenham, for a picnic lunch and a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. The girls loved it, and we got some good group pictures and all got a free scoop of yummy ice cream!


Then we loaded back up for the rest of the way to Houston. We checked into our hotel, and then went down the street to Prince's Hamburgers for dinner. They had the best root beer, which of course, when you have 12 nine year old girls, root beer is a must! Then we headed back to the hotel for a swim at the pool.




The girls all wanted to sleep in the same bed, so they looked so cute laying longways with their little blankets!!

Then we got up, had breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then headed out to the Children's Museum. We split into our groups of one adult/three kids to make life more manageable and had a great day exploring the museum. I had Regan, Hailey and Azure, and we had a great time. We played in the Kidtropolis, played on the giant indoor playscape, and then braved the outdoors to play in the water area a little while.

Children's Museum

Then after the museum, we loaded up and headed to NASA. We got there and unloaded our bags, and went to dinner, and then after dinner, we spent the next 4 hours or so doing badgework for the girls to earn a cool badge for their new Junior vest! They were so tired but we were up till after midnight working on badges. Then we got our assigned sleeping area and it was in the spaceship gallery. It was very cool, we got to sleep right underneath models of the spaceships and an astronaut walking in space, but they don't turn all the lights off, so it was very hard sleeping in the super bright room, and it got VERY cold overnight there!

So the next morning, we got up (no showers, grumble) and loaded our vehicles, had breakfast, and then took the tram tour to see mission control and an Apollo rocket. Then we spent some time back at the space center, letting the girls play on the giant playscape and then touching an actual moon rock. Then it was time to make the long, traffic filled drive back to Austin!

NASA

But first, I met up with my cousin Christina and traded kids. Regan stayed in Houston for the week with her cousin Joy, and Jeremiah got to come home with me in a truck filled with Girl Scouts. I don't think he appreciated being the only boy on the ride home, the girls were really giving him a run for his money! It was cute though.

So, the trip was a success, no typical girl fights, or frumpy moods, even with so little sleep! But, I vote for next years trip to be somewhere where we have a shower every morning, at least!