Recap.

We went to see the bats under the bridge. Somehow bat poop got wedged between my foot and the top of my flip flop. That was disgusting. Dan got majorly bitten by mosquitoes. There were tons of bats. Here's a video.

Rating of that outing: 6.5/10. I would go again if we had a visitor who was bat-crazed or if I wore a giant mosquito net. A flashlight would have been nice, too.

Saturday morning we went to the temple. It was really nice and peaceful.



Now to what you really want to hear about: The TEXAS RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL.

It was pretty amazing. Before we got there, I pictured a fairground with old canvas tents and oddly dressed people. The only thing I was right about was the oddly dressed people. As far as the land, it's like a huge 30 acre wooded area with permanent buildings. PERMANENT buildings! Permanent shops that look old timin' like "Krazy Karl's Used Swords" and "Cosita's Corsets." Nuts-o. So this place is there all the time even though the fair only lasts for like 6 weeks out of the year. I'll now post some random pictures that I took.

It was very interesting to see what people wore. I mean, when I picture "Renaissance" I picture puffy sleeved silky jacket things for men with big bloomer things and tights. And for ladies, big fancy dresses. Some people were like that, but we saw people who looked like Peter Pan, pirates, goths, executioners, fairies, gypsies, and men who wanted to wear as little as possible so they wore fur loincloths and furry boots. That's it. YIKES! And lots of larger ladies liked showing the skin. I tried not to get any pictures of that.

In this one and the one above, look at the creepy skull master in the background! Look at the girl in all white. If I had taken her picture up close, she would have charged me a dollar.
At the fair they had a wedding chapel where a couple was actually getting married. There were also elephant, camel, and llama rides, belly dancers, jousting, falcon shows, etc. I'll just let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves. Sam liked mingling with the fair maidens.

And the Iron Maidens.

The end.

Rating for this outing: 7.5/10. There wasn't much to do that didn't cost additional money other than people watch. But the people watching was out of this world.

Moving to Houston, we were pretty sad that there aren't too many outdoor things to do here - there aren't any mountains and it's stinkin' hot. So, we've had to come up with some activities of our own and I'm pretty excited about them.


First - Tomorrow we're planning on going to see a bat colony emerge from its home underneath a busy bridge. I've never seen anything like that and it's free, so I thought it would be fun.


Saturday we're headed to the temple bright and early and then.......................................................

TEXRENFEST

(That's hip person slang for Texas Renaissance Festival.) Hear ye, hear ye!! Try not to be jealous. I've never been to a Renaissance festival before and I think it'd be a trip. Hopefully I can get some pictures of Sam with some really intense people. My cup runneth over with exceeding anticipation. This is opening weekend so tickets are cheaper. There's a bratwurst eating contest at 4. We'll see if I can talk Dan into it. Good day, fair sires and maidens. Again I leave you from within the shadow of the everlasting hills. May peace be with you this day, and always. (I got that from Music and the Spoken Word.)

P.S. I just googled images under "Texas Renaissance Festival" and I saw far too much chainmail and leather. Oh, dear.

This morning, Dan and I, along with 30,000 other people, participated in the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure in Houston. It was incredibly crowded. We felt like a herd of cattle. But it was touching to me to see all of the people walking and running for friends and loved ones affected by breast cancer. Since we couldn't very well run with Sam, we did the 5K walk. Sam screamed basically the entire time but no one seemed to notice because it was so loud. When we got home he took a 3-hour nap. Awesome.

Some facts on breast cancer:

1 out of 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.

Every 3 minutes a woman is told she has breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women after skin cancer.

We got home right in time to watch General Conference. It was wonderful! I especially liked Elder Perry's talk about living simply and within our means. The Church has been counseling us to do that for years and with everything going on in our economy today, it makes perfect sense. I also loved Elder Wirthlin's talk about dealing with adversity. That man is so amazing. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we get to hear more. I love our church.

In other news, Christmas is coming up... This is my dream car (but in light blue) in case you're feeling generous.

Well, my mom wanted new pictures of Sam so here you go! These are from another tummy time episode. He did pretty well this time and just drooled a lot. In fact, in this sequence of pictures, you can see the evolution of his spit strand. Enjoy.

Also, I made him this mobile during the hurricane and Dan helped me put it together. I just bought cheap wood airplanes and helicopters at Michaels, painted them, and hung them from dowels. I think it turned out pretty good! (Other than being a little bit lopsided.)

Uneventful

Not much is going on around here lately... Sam turned 4 months old on Thursday so to celebrate I took him to the doctor and he got 5 shots. What a lucky kid. He loved them and showed this love by screaming his head off.

To reinforce my hatred for doctors' offices, I waited for an HOUR before the doctor saw him. Sam was getting pretty tired and a little fussy and I was pretty annoyed, but I tried not to show it. I figured that wouldn't have done any good. Sam weighed in at 17 pounds, 6 ounces and is 26.25 inches long. His head is still in the "orange-on-a-toothpick" range. Gotta love it! Hopefully he'll grow into it one day. He's the best.

Here's a picture. I know it's all you care about.

One more - Sam in 1978

Man, I wish I really went to high school in the 80s. I've got perfect hair for that. I have a feeling it would have been something like the above picture. Dan's picture is supposed to be from 1974. Try it for yourself here and let's see the results!

My trip to Jack-in-the-Box.

Background #1: In my childhood, we NEVER went to Jack-in-the-Box. I think it's because they had some e-coli or salmonella scare or something so my parents just decided that we would never eat there again. When we got to Houston, Dan convinced me to give it a try and I actually liked it. Their chocolate milkshake is off the charts.

Background #2: In our apartment's mailroom, there's a big bin where people can throw any junk mail they don't want. About a month ago, we got a Jack-in-the-Box ad that had a coupon for a FREE smoothie. No catch. Just a free smoothie. So instead of being satisfied with my one coupon, I dug through that junk bin and got 10 more coupons. ROCK ON! People had just thrown them away without reading them. So we've used a few, but they don't expire until January. It's awesome.

Back to the story: So the week after the hurricane, a lot of stores were closed and we didn't have power so I was craving a nice cool beverage. Around 7 in the evening, Dan offered to watch Sam while I went to JITB and got a shake for me and a free smoothie for him. So I went there and there was a sign on the door that said the dining room is closed for the time being and the drive-thru is only open from 10-6. Bumma. No shake for me.

So the next day, I decided to go on a nice long walk with Sam to JITB to get a free smoothie. It's quite a walk - probably .75 miles and that's pushing Sam and dodging all the debris on the sidewalk from Ike. So I huff and puff and finally get there. There were two ladies who drove up at the same time so instead of me just going straight for the drive-thru with my stroller, I pretended to look at the sign on the building first so they knew that the dining room was closed and that I HAD to go through the drive-thru. So I get in line for the drive-thru with a stroller. I'm already looking so cool. Two cars in front of me, three cars behind me. Breathing in toxic fumes. A woman with a stroller.

So finally it's my turn to talk to the dude through the speaker thing but nothing happened b/c the sensor didn't detect me. I think the others were getting impatient. So the ladies, who had gotten back in their car to also go through the drive-thru, drove up a little bit so that the guy knew someone was there. So then I ran up to the speaker, just feet away from these ladies, and told him I just wanted my free smoothie. He says, "Sorry. The smoothie machine isn't working." Man, I looked like a doofus. To make things worse, I had pulled out the coupon and at the same time, dropped the only money I had - a measley quarter - and couldn't find it. So I didn't get a smoothie and I'm out a quarter.

Then I walked home.

...and we're back!

We survived! We got power back early this morning and were beyond excited. We had heard one person say we might get it back on Friday, but on the power company's website, they were saying it could be after Monday that we got it back. Sam was crying so I got up to get him and I looked over at the clock and it was flashing! I woke Dan up and we were both so happy. Six days without power wasn't too bad. Other people have it a lot worse, but I couldn't wait to take a hot shower. My legs hadn't been that hairy since I was 11!

The hurricane sounded to us like a heavy rainstorm or windstorm. Just a lot of wind and rain. When we woke up, though, trees and powerlines were down all over the place. Gutters and siding had fallen off of a building and a few windows in the complex had blown out. But for the most part, we were fine. Heavenly Father really blessed us these last few days with some gorgeous weather. It's been in the high 70s/low 80s and low humidity so life w/o a/c wasn't very oppresive. Lots of stores are just beginning to open and you had to wait in line at Kroger and only had 10 minutes to shop. The lines were madness.

Here are some pictures and videos that I took:

This first one is of the "bayou" (read: canal) behind our apartment complex the day before Ike.

This is the afternoon of the day Ike hit.

IKE! YIKES!

Hurricane Ike is headed right for us. Luckily, we're about 40 or so miles from the coast so we're hoping it will die down a little bit before it reaches us. Still, we're thinking we may not have power for a week or two. We plan on keeping our phones off unless we're calling someone. If you call, feel free to leave a message and we'll call you back. We'll see how this goes! Welcome to Houston, right?

Tummy Time

Whoever said babies love tummy time was severely mistaken. Not once has Sam gotten through 15 minutes of tummy time without screaming bloody murder.

In other news, Sam's got some crazy long hairs that reach down PAST the bottom of his earlobes. but we can't bring ourselves to cut his hair. That's about it for now! I just hang out with Sam and get lost when I try to go and do things. I've got the drive to Target down, but that's about it!

My Getaway to San Antonio

Hey folks, Sam here. I decided that my parents needed a little time alone together before Dad starts work on Tuesday, so I took a nice little trip down to San Antonio, Texas.

The first day, I drove down and checked in to my swanky hotel. My Grandpa Cheney would have loved it! It had free popcorn and two free alcoholic drinks every day. (He would have loved the popcorn, not the alcohol!) Don't worry. I'm on an all-milk diet. Gotta look good for the ladies, you know. The hotel's breakfast was off the charts, too. But again... milk does this body good.

After checking in, I strolled along the famous Riverwalk. There were lots of overpriced restaurants and lots of tourists, but it was really pretty and fun to see. I got pooped out pretty early so I hit the sack.

The second day, I went to two of San Antonio's five missions - Mission San Jose and Mission Concepcion.

At the first mission, I took a moment to reflect on the impact of the Spanish mission life on the culture of the indigenous people of southern Texas.

Then I lightened things up a bit and stuck my head out of a hole in the wall they used to stick cannons through.



Later I took a siesta and then went back to the Riverwalk to take a tour on one of their boats. As you can tell, the tourguide was a snoozer!

On my last day in San Antonio, I went to the Alamo. I saw a knife that belonged to one of my ancestors who fought at the Alamo, but I wasn't allowed to take a picture.


It was a pretty fun trip and I think my parents enjoyed their time together alone. Until my next trip, adios, amigos!

Our Houston DMV Experience

This basically sums it up.

So, on Friday we decided to go get our Texas driver's licenses at the Texas DMV. Kristen asked me beforehand if I thought it would be as bad as the Virginia DMV. I basically said that all DMVs were bad. We figured that getting there at 11am would be good for missing crowds: not before work, not after work, not during lunch. Boy were we wrong. And boy was I right, at least about Houston's DMV being bad. There were more people in that office than in the Olympic's opening ceremony.

We got there at 11am. Then, we stood in a winding line for about 30 minutes, to get to a desk where a woman checked to make sure we had all the right documents. Then, she gave me a number to wait in another group to actually get my information processed and get my picture taken. Kristen forgot a document, so she was out of the running already. My number was 93. When I got my number, they were on 35.

So, we waited, with Sam in his carseat. Luckily, a couple chairs became available, and we got to sit right in front of the TV showing "All My Children," while probably at least 30 others still were crammed into a 12'x12' standing space. Here, we waited for my number to come up, so that I could stand in another line along the wall underneath the TV. In the meantime, a trooper yelled at folks, including me, to get out of the way because we were blocking their view of the line. (He said, "you've got to move out of the way." I replied, "I'm waiting here with my wife and baby." He said, "no, you've got to move out of this line." I said, "I'm not in this line, I'm waiting." He said, "you are in this line, you're standing there." I said, "don't taze me, bro." Just kidding. But I should have. He was a very pleasant guy. Troopers tend to be, after all.) Apparently, they need to know just how long the line is, so that they can precisely create a critical mass of seething, frustrated, tired tax payers.

After about an hour and forty-five minutes from the time we got there, my number was called, and I got to stand in line again, get my picture taken, and get a temporary license good for 8 weeks, since my real license might take that long to get here. At 1:20pm, after a total of two hours and twenty minutes, I was done. And Kristen gets to go back again. Fortunately, Sam was really good the whole time. It's only a twenty minute drive each way too.

I guess I had it easy. One woman told me that she came with her daughter at 7:30am. They were sent back home 40 minutes away to get another document that they didn't bring. Then, when they returned, they were told that they needed another document that the DMV employee forgot to tell them about, so they went back home for that too. She finished about 5 or 10 minutes before me, so their ordeal lasted over 5.5 hours. Aren't DMVs the greatest?

We're Here!

We have been in Houston for a little over a week. Crazy! Dan made it down w/ the Penske in one piece. Sam and I flew down and met him here. Sam did surprisingly well on the flights. Just a few short outbursts... And I sat next to ladies with children so they were pretty understanding. One lady even gave Sam a NASA sticker. He didn't know what to do with it so I put it on his PJs. During the flight I got to see a lightning storm below us. That was pretty awesome.

Our apartment is a step up from family housing and it's great to have the extra space.

Here's just a quick overview of the ups and downs of our move and the past few weeks:

PROS:

TWO bedrooms!

TWO bathrooms!

Diswasher

Washer and dryer

Dan never has school again

We've had lots of time to spend together

CONS:

Mouse droppings in the kitchen

A new bug bite every day

Having our credit card number stolen and someone trying to buy things on match.com and other random sites

Someone scratching up our back bumper and not leaving a note

Everyone telling us we're in a drought but it's rained at least once a day

Oh, well. What are you gonna do? I think we'll like it here. Especially during the winter when it's cooler out. And it's been really great to have Dan around to do things with - otherwise I'd get lost.

In other news, Dan took Sam swimming for the first time. You can tell Sam really loved it!