As I type this I have visions of sleep in my near future. I got about 5 hours of sleep last night and woke up at 5:30 AM to get ready for our 12 PM flight to Orlando.

Eric and I opened our bedroom door to get the boys up with the camera in hand. The joke was on us; all three boys were bright eyed and bushy tailed on the living room couch anticipating our arrival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlD-_1LghyU

At the airport, the boys chatted up with the pilot and even took a tour of the cockpit.
Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because I was busy having a meltdown because I thought I lost our bag with my wallet and other personal information. Thankfully the bag was recovered. : -)

Alvin and my sister before take off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvgT_YFV6Z4

Footage of the boys "1st time" airplane experience

After stopping at Publix for food and unpacking some of our clothes, we took Alvin and Simon out to the tiny pool on the condo's property.

Overall we had a great day. I'm trying so hard not to be negative about the condo but it isn't what I expected. The owner stated it was "brand new" with "plush carpet". In my opinion, the place is awful. I feel so uncomfortable here. The carpet is dirty, the fridge doesn't get cold (on it's coldest setting), the bathroom and kitchen are dated, it's very dusty, the building doesn't look like anyone has taken time to care for it, etc. I could go on and on...I admit that I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to rentals/hotels, but I'm upset the owner misrepresented the property. The irony is, I felt most comfortable with my interactions with him opposed to the other people who responded. I feel so bad because I don't want to ruin everyone else's vacation but.... *sigh*. I plan to drink plenty of beer (rarely drink beer) to fall asleep tonight. Hopefully when I wake up I will realize that the house isn't so bad and will spend some time cleaning it to my standards. *wishful thinking*

I just returned from a relaxing weekend visiting family in Houston, TX. I enjoyed great food, went to a few parks and also attended an awesome art car parade.

Houston is the 4th largest city and my cousin Keith made sure I saw a lot of it.

View of downtown Houston while coming from the airport

After having dinner at Luby's, we headed back to the house where I crashed on the couch like an old woman. There was no night life for me and I was sleep by 11.

Saturday afternoon we did some sightseeing in the Sugarland section of town

There were a lot of horizontal street lights in Houston, opposed to the vertical ones I see in VA. I have a feeling I would have went through a few of those because I barely saw them.

On Saturday we visited a vegan restaurant for dinner.

Golden Rolls-carrots, cabbage, taro, onion, mushroom

Silken Midnight-rice noodles, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bokchoy, ginger root, mushroom, tofu

I appreciated Aunt Dot and cousin Keith allowing me to drag them to a vegan restaurant. They were so open-minded about the food and we had a great conversation.

We went back to the house for margaritas.

I showered and fell asleep soon after this drink. lol

Sunday morning we took Aunt Dot to work and headed to downtown Houston for breakfast and sightseeing.

First stop The Breakfast Klub. We stood in line for 30 minutes to eat here.

Fresh Fruit! Yummy!

My favorite part about The Breakfast Klub is that it's a black owned business and the owner, Marcus Davis was there to greet us.

After breakfast we headed over to Discovery Green-a sustainable park in downtown Houston

We also stumbled onto an art car parade

I had a great weekend! Can't wait for my next vacation