Texas Time

Since it's been some time since I blogged, there have been a few things that have been missed. In November we went to visit John's family in Texas, and we had a great time. We were running all over the county visiting family, but it was still great fun.

We were in Texas just prior to Thanksgiving, and we wouldn't be back for the holidays, we had a Thanksgiving-style meal with John's dad, brothers and their familes. It was delicious and a lot of fun. We did manage to get a few shots of the family. Thanks for a wonderful time!

The Matthews' Men

Kevin (brother), Rick (dad), John and Van (brother)

The entire family

The entire family acting like a bunch of goof balls. You can see why I love these people!

Van's Family: Van, his wife Carla, Coley, Morgan and Evy

Kevin's Family: Kevin, his wife Kim and Kate

And you know these beautiful people, and if you don't, you wish you did.

For the men in my friends' lives ...

Space pictures along with ... drum roll, please ... photos of the Star Wars script and Indiana Jones stuff. I don't even know what they all are, but John sure did like them.

We went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, which has some great displays once you get past the kids play area. The one thing that creeped me out was costumed characters of Darth Vader and one of his white soldier guys. I steered clear ...

First, the Lucas Films display - George Lucas's handwritten Star Wars script. Oooo, Ahhhh

The typed script of Adventures of the Starkiller

Indiana Jones's motorcycle and the outfit worn by Harrison Ford.

At the Space Center they do have displays related to NASA. We took the tram tour over to Johnson Space Center and sat in Mission Control. It's much smaller than it seems on television.

We also stopped at Rocket Park. These rockets are massive. This is me at the bottom of the largest portion of the Saturn V. Can you imagine?

You can see how long the rocket is here. Horribly massive to get the small Apollo spacecrafts in orbit.

And finally we got to tour where the astronauts train for their missions. Our guide was the son of the upcoming International Space Station (ISS) Commander and knew that the facility was being used for training the day we were there.

Here's the 2010 ISS Commander Mike Fossum in the Soyuz portion of the ISS. It was pretty cool seeing the astronauts using the equipment, getting ready for their next mission.

Greetings from Galveston

OK, so we're not in Galveston anymore, but I sure do love alliteration.

John and I took a week and spent our time near the beach. It was a lot of fun. I had never been to Galveston, but I sure do love the water. You could go out in the ocean and get knocked around a bit by the waves. Fantastic for a land-locked girl.

I had to include this picture to demonstrate (1) the wind and (2) the messy state my hair remained in the second we stepped foot in Texas. (I'm lovin' the dry heat of Colorado!)

When exploring Galveston, we toured the Lone Star Air Museum. John was in seventh heaven. Because Hurricane Ike had hit the previous September, only one hangar was open. But still, John loved it; just look at his smile.

And as in previous posts, I just have to share again that I would be a great airplane model ...

From air to water we then went to tour the Elissa, Texas' tall ship with a sorted past. It hauled cotton, illegal products and many other things that I can't remember, but I'm sure you can find out here. It's unbelievable the number of people that got behind this ship to restore it to it's now fit condition. It makes me happy to know that there are still folks out there that have a passion to preserve our past.

John decided to tap into his inner pirate while on board.

And since I already posted the crazy hair picture, I'll post my picture not acting foolish in the Captain's saloon below deck.

The water levels of hurricane Ike are as much a tourist attraction as anything else. Here I am near the Elissa and you can see the piece of blue tape above my head. That's the 2008 water level. The white plaque above that is the 1901 hurricane that nearly wiped out the entire city.

We then ventured over to the Historic Strand District, which is the old downtown shopping area. They had a lot of cute shops, but there were still a lot of the shops that either were closed for good or were still being worked on due to Ike's wrath. Here's where the water stood in the downtown area.

To top off our hot day, we went out and bought Blue Bell ice cream. We barely got it back to the condo before it melted, but it was deliciously cold. Well, one more foolish picture won't hurt ... and from the looks of this picture my airplane modeling days are numbered ...

A Texas Toast

John and I ventured to Texas because we missed the heat. (Right ...) And my new brothers- and sisters-in-law threw us a newlywed BBQ celebration Texas style. It was too cute and I got to meet all the aunts, uncles and cousins that I missed during my last visit.

It was complete with Western decor ...

Personalized cups

A rifle demonstration from John's nephew, Coley.

A dance routine from nieces Kate and Evy along with cousin Anyssa to Hannah Montana music.

Is there any other kind of music for a tween? I think not.

Then it was time for family and friends to leave and Coley helped blow out the candles. It was the sign that the party was over. Thanks so much for the warm welcome and marriage wishes!