Tooth #6 gone!

And haha I was home for this one. She pulled it herself 😁

First grade

Lovely and she likes her teacher! Sweetness!

Wicked!

The day I landed back in Houston from NYC, we headed downtown for a free night's stay at the Hyatt (frequent stay points!) and the next day attended the musical Wicked. We had dinner at the rotating restaurant called Spindletop, with views of the city:


The menu wasn't kid friendly so she filled up on bread and butter. Oh well, fancy dinner for Paul and I :)








And of course there was swimming to be had.


The next day, WICKED! She was so entranced we didn't hear a single peep out of her the entire show, other than her fear that it was over during intermission. She never wanted it to end! It is a pretty amazing show!! 💛💙💜💚











Autograph from the Wizard himself!




Another fun family summer weekend. We think this kid doesn't know how good she has it, so we will have to appropriately mix in some unexpected bearings or something.

Rock on! Matchbox Twenty

The Tues night after Wicked, Paul and I got to see the flawless talent of Matchbox Twenty at the Woodlands. Nice seats, thank you Paul!!

















Fun night with just my sweetie :)
And Paul. LMAO!

A quick trip to NYC for work

Two days after landing from Hawaii, I was sent to NYC to support Space Fest at the most awesome Intrepid museum. Before i hopped on the plane, I got to see Anna present the flowers to some returning space station astronauts and cosmonauts at their Welcome Home ceremony. It's a tradition. Midway through the ceremony, Anna came over to tell me she was so tired, trying to stay awake, me Realizing her body still on Hawaiian time two days after she landed! But she made it through, THANKFULLY.









I made it to the plane to NYC in time. And while I was gone, tooth #4 happened. Of course it did.


That's right, I'm pretty sure she holds onto these until I have to take a trip. I've only been home to witness the loss of ONE tooth!

Meanwhile in NYC, I met up with friend L for an interesting dinner :)





















I love NY.

Hawaii: come and gone

I'm so delinquent in posting possibly the coolest little family vacation we have taken yet! Oh man, I can only rush through this in pictures, but I hope Anna remembers all the fun experiences, from the long airplane rides to and from the Big Island, to the museum treasures she had to stop and check out along the hallways of the resort. The collections of rubber bracelets she gained from each restaurant, in a rainbow of colors, that led to a free ice cream cone. The swimming pools and the snorkeling in the salt water lagoon at the resort, the volcano hikes (We had no idea Anna would love hiking so much) and helicopter ride, and the submarine dive down to 107 feet where we saw fish galore and shipwrecks. She snorkeled like a little careful pro with sea turtles and arrays of fish (the salt water burned her eyes (yes it does!)) and she got used to it. She hated the windy convertible but tolerated it as much as she could stand :)

I should have documented it all daily here but the best I could do was Facebook posts daily. We'd go to bed late and sleep late, as our bodies were on no real clocks. Our balcony faced 2 volcanoes, with a view of the ocean and the beautiful grounds of the resort (Hilton Waikoloa Village). I got to spend the whole week in a fun paradise with my two favorite people!!! Life is good!









































Dolphins!











The boat shuttle transportation all around site.


















Submarine in Kona





























Finding a black pearl in an oyster game :)





















































Steam coming up as the lava pushes into the ocean. Anna pushes her headphone button to tell us "this is fun!!"




Right about now she pushes her headphone button to ask "can we go swimming?!" WTH girl? That's a volcano! From a helicopter! But have you seen those pools...?














































Sea turtle right at the resort's lagoon shore with the kids!































Petroglyph fields



























Headed home!




The long journey home and a noon landing in Houston had me trying to keep her awake until bedtime. 6:30pm came and she was down for the next 13 hours. Fine by us! And that same day, this in my fortune cookie:




Ok then! Let's do another!

Super fun 7 days with my two peeps, total bliss. 2013 has been good to us. I'm already aware of how much I will miss these days.