Moody Gardens - Ice Land Adventure

I have never been to Moody Gardens in Galveston so we added it to our mini-Dec vacation. I expected to see the pyramids but being December it was over run with Holiday fun. This day was really warm. We had to go inside to get cold!

To Ice Land - a Caribbean Christmas.

We were given parkas and explored the ice sculptures made by experts from China!

Ice chairs.

We all took a few turns down the ice slide.

We warmed up with a hot chocolate and then onto our next fun. 3D movie of Tiny Giants-a chipmunk and mouse in the wild.

Then to a paddle boat that slowly took us around the bay. The sun was beautiful and we ate our packed lunch.

Then into the being renovated Aquarium, though a lot was closed, it was still super neat with sharks and seals and lots of fish.

Rainforest pyramid.  This one was hot and humid and so much to see.

including butterfly area.

birds

and birds being fed.

The day before I was chatting with Gloria's super good friend's moms at their holiday party and we both mentioned we were going to Moody Gardens the next day!! So we got together in the Rainforest and our girls showed them again all the cool things including twin one day old Pygmy Slow Loris babies (tiny primates from Vietnam).

Our 4D movie was a short one of the Rudolph story with snow blown in our face. This began it being super crowded and we had to wait in line.

Discovery pyramid including a Sponge Bob interactive 4D movie and art dinos in motion.

We then had a nice buffet in the garden restaurant and headed out to the line of people walking through the Trail of Lights or Festival of lights or whatever they call it.

It was nice and we were so glad the weather was good.

On the drive home, I can't remember the last time they both fell asleep in the car!!

Lost Maples Backpacking Trip

Our first family backpacking camping trip to enjoy the fall leaves of Lost Maples State park. The girls get a week off of school for Thanksgiving so we got them an hour early on Friday and made the drive out. It turned cold this weekend but as we had reservations since March (when none were left in the regular campground) we kept them and hurried to get to our site before sun down. 

Aptly named Monkey rock.

It has been a warm fall and then there was a big storm so it was the least colorful Thanksgiving in a long time but the fall foliage report said you could still see some and that the fall leaves swirling at your feet were beautiful. 

We camped Friday night and then Saturday morning hiked back to our car to check in and have lunch at a table. 

Then we did half the loop including by the lake.

And up a super rough steep hill to the overlook (they mean it when they say rough, I should have had thicker soled shoes)

By our campsite was a nice field and the blondies looked like lions playing in it.

Mornings were cold but we layered up and drank hot drinks. 

Next morning we hiked back to our car and then did the other loop. Over the weekend we totaled 18 miles!

A spring.

Trail map.

Our dinner rock, both nights we took our meal to this great area over the creek. 

Last breakfast before breaking down the camp and hiking back out through the lovely fall leaves to our car and home. Our camp had a compost bathroom and was only a little over a mile in; twice Caleb made two trips and once I went out to get more water, so it was a great intro to primitive camping and backpacking. 

Hogwarts in our home!

Our family is enjoying entering the world of Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Lydia has read three, Gloria the first two and we've seen the first two movies. My mother who was Pinterest before it was a thing wanted to host a Harry Potter party and this the amazing result.

The whole house was amazing decorated with potions and pictures and more.

We invited a small group of friends who we know appreciate the world of Hogwarts enough to enjoy the activities. Including question games, making owls fly with their wands, magic drinks, Berties' Every Flavor Bean (yummy and yucky and I was afraid we were going to have some real vomit on our hands)

Potions class with Snape's female cousin.

Creative snacks-pretzel wands, pizza wands, pumpkin pasties, treacle tarts, chocolate frogs and a flying snitch!

They ended by playing Quidditch. It was such a lovely day with friends.

SpiritFest 2016

Just down the road at the Circuit of the Americas racetrack, our local Christian radio station hosted SpiritFest. We had never been (previously it has been in Round Rock) but this year TPWD has a booth with Faith Anglers so after church we headed to the festival, parked, walked and the girls really wanted to bungee jump!

The day was beautiful and there were lots of fun things to do including a petting zoo, which we went to 3 times!

Then we met a friend, Valerie and she had gotten fourth row seats for Hawk Nelson. It was so fun to be that close. We knew several of their songs from the radio-Diamonds, Drops in the Ocean, Words, and then they sang one I hadn't heard before (Lydia said she had but their live version was so fun and meaningful at the same time). It is my current favorite song. Listen here

The girls really got into clapping, dancing and singing along.

Mandatory festival food!!

Gloria stayed at Caleb's booth while Lydia and I saw Jordan Feliz at the main bigger stage, not quite as close this time. Lydia's first favorite song was his, the River, so it was cool to see him perform.

All of us then watched For King & Country, we know most of their songs from the radio and they are such amazing performers. A great band and two brothers running and singing with lights, coming through the crowds, climbing around, banging on drums and Australian accents. During one of the times they were talking about how we are priceless and should remember God made us that way, one handed a necklace (that you could buy at their booth) to someone in the crowd  and Lydia really liked that. They also talked about the importance of racial reconciliation and I liked that.

They also had us use our phones as flashlights as we sang Amazing Grace. The songs and words were all glorifying to Jesus. And I can't remember the last time I'd seen so many Christian T-shirts in one place.

Me and Valerie.  It was so great to finally make it out to COTA and enjoy a great festival and concerts. I told the girls they needed to remember these bands because when they will older they will be asked what their first concert was :)