Race track

The weekend before Jason and his family left, all of us went to Houston Motorsports Park to see some racing.

Dan had come before to see the drag racing, but this was the first time any of us had come to see some oval-track racing.  They started off with the kid cars, one of which was driven by one of my neighbors across the street.

Then they moved on to junker cars, and these cool little cars.

Olivia and Carmen seemed to really enjoy it.  They have since asked a few times if they can go back.

Damon was surprisingly content the whole time, despite the loud noise.  Amber eventually took him out once the really loud cars came, but I'm sure it won't take him long to start liking that too.

They had a really long intermission where people could go on the track to see the cars, then they brought out the real race cars for some longer races.

Our family didn't stay to see all of the last race, which Olivia was not happy about, but we saw lots of good racing and a few exciting spin-outs and even a small fire.  It was a fun night.

Jason and the Astronauts

As I mentioned earlier, Jason and his family came to visit for about a week and a half.  We had lots of fun just hanging out at Dan's house and here, but apparently not enough fun to remember to take many pictures of them.

One thing I did take my camera to was Space Center Houston.  We went there the Monday after Damon's blessing, so we had the whole crowd with Dan's and Jason's families, our family, and Amber's dad and Niya.  The first thing we did was take the tour.  They have a little train that drives you around the site.

Fortunately, we didn't have a problem at Historic Mission Control.

And this is probably the coolest thing there, a Saturn V rocket.

The kids of course, being kids, were more impressed with the wall around it.

Or maybe their parents just take so long to look at stuff.  In any case, that's about it for the tour of the Johnson Space Center.  The actual Space Center Houston tourist bit is a weird mix of space museum and amusement park.  They have a mock-up of the inside of a space shuttle, carnival games, climbing walls, historic space suits, human foosball, space movies, a giant multi-story playhouse (can you spot Olivia?) -- you know, exactly what you'd expect.

I lost track of pretty much everybody as soon as we got in there (including some of my own family), but it seemed like everybody had a good time.

New kitchen sink

While Amber's dad was here, I had him "help me" install a new kitchen sink.  Our old one was looking kind of ratty and we thought a nice stainless steel one that matched our fridge would look nice.

We found a suitable replacement at Lowe's and soon we were ripping out the old one.

As it turns out, skinny people fit better under cupboards, so I actually did have to help a little bit after all.

In the end we got it all hooked up, with a new garbage disposal, and it got the thumbs up from the boss.

Damon's blessing

About a week into Niya's visit Amber's dad flew in for a couple of days to be here for Damon's baby blessing.  Jason and his family, who stayed at Dan's house for a week and a half, also arrived that weekend, so Damon was able to have two uncles and a grandpa participate in his blessing.  Dan had to get back to his ward, but here's a picture of those of us at our house.

And for you fashionistas, here's a close-up of the outfit Amber made for Damon.

Niya

We had less than a week after my mom left until our next house guest arrived.  We thought it would be fun to bring my niece Niya here for a while so she could escape the summer doldrums at home.  She stayed for two weeks and overlapped several other events coming in future blog posts and I think she had a fun time.

She of course spent lots of time playing with Olivia and Carmen, and reading them lots of books.  They really liked having her here, as you can see by her hair (I love that their legs are all different shades).

We went over to Dan's place a couple times, and Shayna and Niya had fun dressing up our girls.

I think she had the most fun taking care of Damon.  It was nice having someone that wanted to dress him and hold him and give him baths and she even volunteered to change a few diapers.

Amber took her around to a few places, including the beer can house above, but being as it was July in Houston, it was too hot to be outside except for a few trips to the pool.  Amber showed her how to sew a few things, and she made some impressive clothing, including a skirt for church.

She also had a lot of fun hanging out with her cousin Savannah and they had a sleepover at our place one night.  They must have played the game of Life at least 20 times.

It was sad to see her go, but I don't think her dad is ready to let us keep her (yet).  Maybe next summer.

Work stuff

I was in a meeting today with six other people today when I realized I was the only one who grew up speaking only English. The others learned, either originally or bilingually, Spanish, Spanish, Chinese, German, Polish, and... some Indian language. At least I didn't embarrass myself by only being monolingual.

Today was also the second day in a row (the last being 4 days ago on Friday) that I've had a cricket crawl on me in my office. The first one tried to crawl up my pant leg, so it was buried at sea in the bathroom. The second one tried crawling on my arm and met a similar fate. It makes me feel not so bad when I find the occasional bug in my house.

Grandma

I got home from my business trip in time to spend some time with my mom.  We went over to visit at Dan's house, where she was already on the first leg of her tour.

We got our turn a few days later and I think the girls had fun having Grandma around, and she had fun having a cute baby to hold.

She had attended the Houston Symphony's free outdoor concert the last time she was here, and when she found out there was another one while she was here, she cajoled me into a late night downtown.  It was the local young artist competition winners and we got to see some interesting performances, in addition to some great music by the orchestra.

On the other nights we all tried our hands at winning a few rounds of Canasta and Rummikub, or watching some shows.  Dan and Hyde's family came over for one last night together before she left, then before we knew it we were dropping her off at the airport.  Thanks for coming Mom!  We enjoyed having you.

Atlanta

I had about a week at home after our reunion trip, and then I was off to Atlanta for five days to attend a conference for work.  I stayed in the Hyatt Regency downtown, which was quite nice.  This is the lobby.

And this was the view from my room, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The conference was not much to write home about (I learned stuff, etc.), but I stayed another day and was able to do a little bit of sightseeing while I was there.  Since I was already downtown, I was able to walk to Centennial Olympic Park and take a look around.

From there I walked over to CNN headquarters and took their studio tour.  It was a really interesting tour.  We got to see the real anchors broadcasting live, and take a peek into the newsroom.

After that I walked over to the World of Coca-Cola, which is basically the Coca-Cola museum.  The place is full of historic Coke products, advertisements, and pop culture references.

But the highlight is the end, where they have a free tasting room where you can taste Coca-Cola products from all over the world.  They also have a working small-scale bottler, and since I was there during the 125th anniversary, I got one of these commemorative bottles.

Thanks to the TSA, I wasn't able to take it home full, but I guess an empty bottle is kind of cool too.

And to round out my trip, Atlanta gave me something Houston won't - a torrential rainstorm, producing this sunset on my last night there.

One Year Older and Wiser Too

The day after we got home from the reunion trip it was my 31st birthday.

I got some books, including the complete Harry Potter series, and a nice umbrella, which despite the fact that it hasn't rained here in what seems like months, was a thoughtful gift by Amber to replace the one she lost (rather, had stolen).

My big present, however, was an iPad 2.  I finally bit the bullet and decided to get my first Apple product.  I didn't really need it for anything, already having a netbook, but I thought it would be a fun toy and I've been very pleased so far.  There are a few things that annoy me about it (like being forced into iTunes), but overall it is better than I anticipated and I use it all the time.  It's also perfect for kids, and Olivia really likes some of the coloring apps and games I found for her.

Family Reunion Addendum

As I was looking through the portrait shots from the reunion, I couldn't help but notice that some of them looked pretty funny when played through quickly like a movie.  So for your entertainment, here are two as animated gifs.  (They may take a few seconds to load.)

Family Reunion Part 4

Since we had already bought a day pass to the state parks, we decided to drive to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, which I think was my favorite part of the trip.

Grandma and Grandpa decided to follow us there, as did a few others, so several of us took the easy trail together.  Carmen opted for the riding tour.

Grandpa had gotten his hands on the trail guide, so he took on the role of narrator, teaching us about the redwoods at each numbered stop.  Olivia loved finding the numbers with Aunt Coral and talked about it for days afterward.

The trees were very impressive.  It was amazing to think of how long they had been there to get so big.

Even Damon was impressed.

It's hard to capture the size and majesty of the trees in photographs, but anyone who shared pictures with me knows I tried.

I think everyone found something to like there.

And that wraps up my reunion coverage.  Despite vowing never to take another trip again upon my arrival home, it was a fun trip, it was great to see everyone in Amber's family again, and we made lots of happy memories.

Family Reunion Part 3

On one of the days we all decided to go to Natural Bridges State Beach to look around.  Apparently the name is a misnomer now, since all but one of the bridges has collapsed, but the remaining bridge is still impressive.

It was still too cold for the water, but sand is always fun.

But the real fun part was climbing up on the rocks to see the the wildlife in the tide pools.

If you go at low tide you can climb up on the rocks to see all sorts of creatures like sea stars, mussels, crabs, and anemones.  (If you go at high tide, you get swept out to sea, not nearly as fun.)