Keman Boardwalk and Thanksgiving 2016 Cruise with the Footes

We got up early and headed to Galveston to go on a cruise over the Thanksgiving holiday to the Caribbean with the Foote Family!

The sun was in her eyes

Almost ready for a nap

Reading!  They were both really good travelers

We got to the Houston area a few hours before the cruise left so we met up with my Cousin Melissa and her family at a place called the "Keman Boardwalk".  We had lunch and enjoyed the boardwalk.  The kids had a great time together, the adults had fun visiting, and there was lots to do!

Emmalyn had Angelina and Vanessa wrapped around her little finger

Ready to go on a train ride!

Angelina, Maxwell, and David

Grumpy photobomb from the guy in the back

Emmalyn LOOOOOVED the train ride.  She thought it was so cool and kept making the whistle noise.

All of us!  (As the sun started going down, it got pretty cold quickly!)

We made it to the port!  Unfortunately the line to get through the check-in process was HORRENDOUS!  We have never had to sit through such an awful line.  And the kids were exhausted, bored, hungry...you name it.  ROUGH!

Finally getting on the boat!

Waiting during the muster drill.  Thank goodness we had jackets.

Because it took so long to get onto the boat, we all did dinner at the buffet and wandered around a little checking out the boat.  We got the kids all signed up for the kids club.  Unfortunately our rooms were not ready until after 7 so we were carrying a bunch of stuff around with us that whole time (stroller, backpacks, snacks, etc...you know everything but the suitcases).

When we finally got into the room, Emmalyn's crib wasn't delivered yet so I had her lay next to me in bed which made it really tough for her to go to bed because it wasn't what she was used to.  While I stayed in the room getting the kids to sleep, Peter went out exploring.  When he got back, I went out on my own and found the yummy Neapolitan style flat pizza which is sooooo delicious (Probably one of my top 3 favorite foods on a Carnival ship).  My suitcase didn't get delivered until 12:20 which was super annoying.

Emmalyn slept in a crib.  It was a little cramped but she managed.

Maxwell knocked out in his bed.

So excited to be on a cruise!!!

First visitor in October - Shannon!

October is going to be an amazing month!  We are either going to have visitors here with us or we are going to be going somewhere to visit someone else.

Our first visitor of October was my dear friend Shannon.  We all look forward to her fall visit as a highlight of the year.

She got here on Friday and we went to dinner and hung out.  We also went and got a reflexology foot massage but I don't remember whether we did that Friday or Saturday night.

Saturday morning I took Emmalyn to Kindermusik

Max did a 21 day fix workout video - he wanted to work out.

Shannon and I did some shopping, had some lunch and then it was family time (because all of us want time with Shannon!)

We were going to go downtown - it's a place we've never taken Shannon.  We were going to ride around on the McKinney street trolley.

While we waited for the trolley, we got some frozen yogurt

Riding the trolley.  Maxwell sat on Miss Shannon's lap the whole time.  Sorry it is such a dark picture.

We got to see parts of downtown and then got off the trolley at Klyde Warren Park.  The kids had fun playing in the kids area.

Here's what the trolley looked like (it passed us again as we walked to dinner)

Emmalyn enjoying the queso at the Mexican restaurant we went to.  She was happy when she was eating and was difficult to entertain after that.

The group at dinner - Emmalyn is out of the screen waiting in her stroller to leave

Maxwell and downtown Dallas

We had a fun time riding the trolley around Dallas

Morning with cereal and the ipad

Look!  Emmalyn let Shannon hold her!

For Shannon's last day in town we did another thing she's never done (or us).  We went to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth.

This old cowboy had some pretty cool lasso skills

Watching the cowboy

Shannon and Maxwell

Longhorns are pretty big!!

The kids and I went on a fun little train ride around part of the stockyard

They sat next to each other and at one point held hands.

Max thought it was pretty cool.

We had some time before the cattle drive down the main street so Peter and Maxwell went to go do this maze.

Unfortunately Peter and Maxwell didn't make it out in time to see the cattle drive.  I was expecting the cattle drive to be long with lots of cows.  Instead it was like 13 cows and over in a matter of seconds.

We finished off the day with some Texas Bar-B-Que.  Maxwell was so attached to Shannon.  He was very sad to see her go when we took her to the airport.  

Thanks for coming Shannon!  We always enjoyed your visits and can't wait for the next one!

Since we had a bunch of visitors coming, we decided to go ahead and get a full mattress which will eventually be used when we turn Emmalyn's crib into a full bed.  Butt for now, at least we can have a bed up in the bedroom upstairs and two different real beds for our guests.

Kids playing with legos while we bought the mattress.

Sleeping Kiddos