Desperate title? I know.

(Quick back story: I'm with the woman in Chad's family right now. We're spending the weekend together scrapbooking, shopping, eating, etc. My sister-in-law is filling out a baby book for her little boy and asked us, what we though when we first saw Kingston. I told her hold on a sec while I pulled up an old blog post because it meant a lot to me and I typed it up. I read it to her and we all teared up a little. And it hit me how important this blog is. Not that anyone is going to read it, but it's our families journal, and that is important enough. Although really, this paragraph is for people to read. Is anyone reading this? Hello? Is anyone out there?)

The week before Thanksgiving we took off on our trip to Houston that was in the works for a year. The trip there was far better than I was expecting. The kids were fantastic!

Once we got to Houston we enjoyed some alone time with my parents, Janeia, and Levi's family. A few days later, our fun group (may I add loud?) was joined by Michael's family. The day after they arrived the real fun broke out. The stomach flu went around taking new victims everyday. A cold front flew through the area too. Now it was still 50 degrees but it was raining, windy and not at all Houston weather.

Oh, before they came, Laura and I took the kids to the zoo. We got stuck in traffic for over 2 hours trying to get there and once we FINALLY pulled into the parking lot, poor Kathrine threw up. Turns out, she was the first of many victims. She then threw up at least 4 more times in the zoo. And then, a bird pooped on Laura. And yet, it was a good trip. Laura and I got to talk so much and laugh together. I got to help Kathrine which I don't get to very often. So it really was enjoyable, but not lucky.

We were having so much fun, we decided to go ahead and skip the battleship. (Can we say 10 kids 7 and under, a real battleship with step wet stairs, and throw up?) We also delayed the big trip to Sea World.

The first day we could see the sun and no one threw up, we went to the alligator park. We got to see about 10 sunning. It was really neat.

Chad and I also got to run away for a night to San Antonio. We enjoyed the Riverwalk and Alamo. We wanted to go to the temple but our planning put us there on Monday. Next time.

We had a beautiful Thanksgiving day full of everything that makes Thanksgiving Grandma Shirley's favorite holiday. Family and food. The woman slaved away in the kitchen, which is really just the meanest way to say that we got to talk and put the men in charge of the screaming kids. I loved all of it.

We finished the trip off with Sea World. And it was amazing! I'd like to tell about all the shows but really, it's just something you get to see, not tell. But I do want to tell one story. Six of the adults wanted to go on the roller-coasters. Janeia was quit nervous and for the last one we decided we would make antlers, like reindeer, for the picture at the end of the last drop. Janeia yelled, "Reindeer, reindeer!" The whole time. Ok, it was funny I promise. The kids were enthralled and Patrick can do a pretty good dolphin moving backwards on his tail thing. I'm so glad we did it!

Also, you might notice that all the kids have a minion shirt so we could find them easy. And Grandpa.