The rest of Amanda's stay & a little of my creative side...

Here are some of the other things that we did while Amanda was here...

We went to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center.  I wish we would have had more time for some of the tours like mission control, but it was raining so hard they had to cancel a lot of them and then as you can imagine, the wait time was crazy!  But, we got to learn more about the space program, NASA, and even got to see what it's like inside the space shuttles!

We ate at "Whataburger."  It's a popular hamburger joint in this part of the country.  I just had to get a picture of the "fancy" ketchup. : )

We made some patriotic rice krispy treats!

And we got to watch the fireworks in Houston along with what seemed to be at least half of the city!  It was SO hot.  We probably drank six or seven bottles of water between the three of us within about a three hour stretch! 

Amanda trying to keep the sun off!  That afternoon I really 

understood why I see people using umbrellas for the shade!

The last few days I've been busy decorating a bulletin board for Amanda's dorm room in the fall.  I have loved doing it!  Here's what it looks like.  It's hard to see some of the details (all I have to take pictures with right now is my phone!), especially the "POKES" letters to the right of the schedule section on the left side of the board.

The Latest Happenings...

We've been pretty busy here these last few weeks.  We've had the opportunity to "discover" Houston and what it has to offer. 

Mark and I went to a Houston Astros baseball game.  For me, it wasn't quite the same experience I have at the Rockies games... They close the dome on top of the stadium because it's so hot outside, but even with the AC inside it's still muggy and smells like sweat... I was not that impressed.  I'd much rather go see the Rockies play and catch a little sun at the same time : )

My sister, Amanda, came down to stay with us for a week!  We loved the time she was able to spend with us!  The first day she was here, she and I toured an ice cream factory!  Blue Bell Creameries has some of the best ice cream I have ever had and it's sold all over Texas (and some other states close by).  The tour was very interesting and informative.  We got to see how they mix up the ice cream and put it into the tubs, how they make ice cream bars and popsicles and how they add the different ingredients to the ice cream like fresh strawberries and nuts.  The tour even included a free dish of ice cream at the end!  It was one of the best places we went. 

We also got to go to the Health Museum and the Downtown Aquarium.  Both were fun but I left them wanting to see MORE!  Amanda and I had fun taking pictures inside the big mouth at the Health Museum and a favorite at the Downtown Aquarium were the spotted sting rays and the octopus (sorry the picture is not very good).

More adventures to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!