Sparkles and Boots

Cowboy hats. Cowboy boots. Sparkly jeans and huge belt buckles.
We finally arrived in Texas. Stereotypical Texas where the smokers were going...smoke pouring out spreading the aroma of delicious smoked brisket or ribs or turkey legs...
 We had entered the Galveston County Fair...so so different than any county fair I have ever been to.
First off, it is only April. It must be to dang hot for the fair in August. Next, beer. They have beer for sale and you can just drink it all over the fair, just like a lemonade. And next... that delicious smell of smoked foods... We went to track it down, only to find that there are private parties set up at the fair. Parties with big smokers going. There were quite a few of these parties, surrounded by fencing with fancy entrances, complete with a cop to keep you out, if you weren't invited. What??
  No smoked goodness for us. I  settled for a deep fried Twinkie...ok, Cloud Cake since there are no more Twinkies. Yes, Gross. I knew it would be, but, it was the spirit of the fair...I was so  filled with the Spirit...and then the twinkie.
  The Galveston County Fair does not have a demolition derby like most of the other county fairs I've been to. Here, they have a rodeo. A real rodeo complete with bull riding, barrel racing, bronco riding, and even a rodeo clown. The crowd was just as entertaining as the actual rodeo. Everyone was out dressed in their finest.  It was a people watching dream...
 Then there was the skill. It was a junior rodeo, so the contestants were all young, teenagers mostly. I love to watch kids with skill. These kids could ride, and they could ride well. and you could see the pride they felt. That was what I loved about the rodeo.

Get a Turkey leg on the way to fair. We should have.

What we didn't win in the raffle. Oh we wanted to bring this home badly.

Not the yummiest beer.

private party

Boots and a forsaken cookie.

Bubbles.

Well Hello,
As always, not getting on here as much as I was dreaming to. I just get caught up in not wanting to be boring. or putting off a post until I figure out how to use the scanner so I can show you something really cool...
 So, that will just have to wait while I tell you about The Galveston Grand Children's' Festival. It turns out to be the most fun event yet in this town. It was a festival of real fun stuff. All geared towards entertaining kids, which is probably why we liked it so much.
 There were acrobats, stunt bike riders, marionettes, a wall to climb..stories to hear,,dancers to watch...and even a mechanical bull for kids. I guess it's to train them early for the the real bull riding they do in the rodeo. This is Texas, and here, unlike Ohio, they don't have a demolition derby at the county fair, it's a rodeo. We'll be going next week!
 I think my favorite attraction at the kids' festival was the trio of aerial acrobats. We were particularly interested in these guys not only because they had a silks act, which is something Izzie has been interested in, but because back in the day when I met Aaron, it was his dream to have his own small circus. Finally I saw the possibilities in that. I feel sad for not helping to realize that so long ago. Maybe it's not too late.
 These guys were pretty fun. I wouldn't say they were the best acrobats I've ever seen, but they were a traveling little circus, and, they were quite amazing. They had some ground acts too, one of which I will share in pictures. I chose this to share because it seemed to be sort of a theme at this festival. People getting inside of balloons. I'd never seen it before.

    ...and then the weirdest thing. Let a guy close your kid up in a plastic ball and push it into a swimming pool.

More Spring Break

So Spring Break started with the surprise, and then moved on to the visiting, the showing, the sharing.
  We woke up on Sunday ready to go have breakfast at our favorite spot to eat breakfast. It's called The Sunflower Cafe and it is pretty yummy! It's a very pleasant walk too.

We stopped to look at all the pretty things... like this car.

and these papaya

and these pretty flowers...

even picked some of them.

The live oak tress here are amazing!! Unfortunately most of them on one side of the island died in Hurricane Ike.

.

 We did eventually make it to the cafe where we decided to sit outside. It was so nice out. We didn't get a sunny spot though and it turned out to be pretty chilly. We ordered tea and coffees to warm up with.

The waiter in the background gave Izzie his phone number. "call me if you get bored" he said.

   

                                              Izzie only threatened to call him once.

 We ate a delicious breakfast. The girls ordered waffles with berries. I was torn between the salmon with hollandaise sauce and that waffle. The salmon is so yummy... But I too got the waffle... with strawberry butter. Mmmm...
  I learned the different sizes of poodle while I was munching that waffle.Trying hard not to laugh too obviously...probably without much success, I overheard some very serious ladies discussing the different sizes of poodle. It goes like this if you didn't know. Teacup,Toy, Miniature and Standard.     

This is a toy.

                                                                              who knew?
                                                                            Isabel...of course.

Next we trekked on down to the Elissa. That's the ship that Aaron and Andros and Brian and Mark are mending. It's a pretty neat boat all made of steel, except for the wooden stuff that those guys are fixing.
  On the way we found my wall.

izzie took this nice picture of it.

The girls found some more flowers.

 And we checked out that giant cruise ship, just from this parking lot though. I think it looks like an office building. These ships are so big that when you look down the road when they are in port, it looks like the road dead ends into them. One of these cruise ships is so long that you can look down a few different roads to see it! They're like three blocks long!!!

That orange tube is a water slide.

We checked out the Elissa.

 That is the part of  the deck that is taken off.  It's just one end, the aft deck I guess they call it. You'd think by now I'd know the names for the parts of these boats. Aron just put the first new plank on this a couple of days ago! Yay!! new wood going back on!!!!

There is that cruise ship again.

That was it for day one. 

The next day we we went to the beach. It was just girls as Big Aaron had to work.

So, we headed for the CVS and bought some sun screen so we wouldn't burn to crisps, gathered all of our other gear, which seemed like a ton considering we just live down the street.

That's kristin's metal detector...she's a treasure hunter.

Made it!!

Kristin did not find any treasures today.

But she did talk on the phone for a very long time.

some rest

some toes

contemplating further adventures

   It was a beachy day. Too cold for my body to get in the water, but not too cold to enjoy a day with the girls. Relaxing, playing and visiting. It was a fun time. And so close we could go home for lunch.