On the Sunday after the 4th, the kids and I started making our way back to Houston. However, we made a quick visit in Dallas first to see my brother and his family for a couple nights. We had lots of fun during our short visit. On Monday Traci and I loaded up the kids and went to Grapevine Mills mall for a visit to the aquarium and some shopping. The evenings we just spent hanging out at Chad and Traci's. Jacob loved playing with all of Coleton's toys and really loved "playing" Wii with Chad and Coleton.
Tuesday morning the kids and I were out of the house bright and early to get back to Houston. My friend Dawn and her baby Cora fly into Houston Tuesday morning. Dawn was gracious enough to let my Mom pick her up from the airport and not be upset that I wasn't there yet. Cora is the little girl that was born the same day as Hailey. They are only 6 hours apart. It was sort of entertaining since Cora is in the 90%'s for weight and Hailey is in the 3%! The girls had so much fun watching each other and playing around each other. I think they both learned something new just from being together. I really wish they could play more often and of course I wish I could see Dawn more too. We spent a couple of mornings at the pool, did some shopping, and going out to eat. Jacob was very interested in "baby Cora" and loved entertaining her. I'm not sure how much Cora appreciated the entertainment but she handled it well. I'm so grateful Dawn was willing to fly from Kansas City to see us! We attempted to get pictures of the girls together but it wasn't the easiest task.
I had a kind of "bucket list" of things I wanted to be sure Jacob did this summer. I know this mostly had to do with my own personal desires and that he honestly didn't care that much. My list included bike riding (in a kid seat behind me), playing outdoors as much as possible, going to his first movie, and getting his first sno-cone. We accomplished all my goals! We went on several bike rides. On one of them we stopped at a park to do one Jacob's favorite things, slide! And in typical Houston fashion it started raining on us. Jacob thought it was fun that we were all wet. We also took one ride to the sno-cone shop. He enjoyed his sno-cone but I think he got brain freeze early on and wouldn't take big bites after that. He was taking so long eating it that I decided to head home and let him eat while we road. Well of course that led to blue flavoring being all over him. It seemed like the best idea to just give him a bath in his little outside pool!
The movie theater close to my parents had a summer kids club where they showed an older kids movie on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for .50c. I figured this was a perfect time to take Jacob so that if we only lasted 30 minutes I wouldn't feel like I wasted my money. He wasn't too sure what to think of the big screen and at first seemed a little over-whelmed but I convinced him it was ok. He kept saying, "Mommy, look at all the people". We did only last about 1 hour and I don't think the movie "Rio 2" was holding his attention too well or mine so we decided to leave. To some it may seem like a waste but he still talks about "going to the movie with Mommy".
We also spent one day in Silsbee visiting my Grandma, Aunt Sue, and cousin Avery. Aunt Sue has a pool with a slide that Jacob loved. We had a nice day catching up.
My last weekend in the USA Bailey was able to make it to Houston. I was happy to have some time with just Bailey. She is such a help with the kids and I think she's using them as practice to start babysitting soon. We had fun walking the kids down to the neighborhood pond and throwing in gumballs. Also, Dad had a Mustang convertible as a rental car and I had fun reminiscing about my convertible days.
The in-between times of activities and visitors was filled with lots of play time at Nana and Papa's house. Jacob loved taking Papa's hat and playing Mr. Potato head with Nana. Hailey started exploring more and more and found her own favorite spots to play. So much fun!
We had a great time in the USA but it was at last time to head back to Qatar! Jacob was pretty happy to get on the airplane to see Daddy!
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