Cousins!

At the very last minute (like Friday morning), my big brother, Chris emailed me that his family was coming down to Houston for the weekend. They were going to stop by Homecoming at Rice and just generally get away from the craziness at Fort Hood right now. I second that, whenever we had anything "huge" happen to us, we'd go somewhere afterwards. You know, the coup d' etat in Manila - Hong Kong once the airport was open and we had passports. The earthquake in Kobe - back to Manila.

Anyway, Saturday morning, while Shane slept, the kiddos and I met up with the Callicott clan at Hermann Park. We had a great time! We hung out by the reflecting pool (both Lottie and Logan wanted to get in, but Lottie was a little quicker about getting on the ledge than Logan).

Then we went to the Japanese garden. Bapa has created a monster - whenever Logan sees a body of water, he MUST throw rocks in it. So what if all he could find was gravel? He had to throw something rock-like into the water.

While hanging out by the pond, we saw a wood duck. Lottie wanted to pet it, which the duck was not happy about, and then the boys thought that would be super fun too! So off they went, the duck waddling away as fast as it's little webbed feet would go, with two little boys and a girl chasing after it. Sorry the picture is blurry, they were all just moving too fast!

We rounded the kids up for a photo op in front of another little pond. Okay, so getting three kids three and under to look at the same camera, much less smile at the same camera, is a miracle. No miracles were worked today, but the cousins are still super cute together.

Logan and Adam had a super fun time looking at the koi. They must be fisherboys at heart - it's in the blood.

After running around, some kiddos were getting tired. So they all got in the Callicott stroller, and Logan did pretty well for a guy who likes his space.

After walking all over Hermann Park, we finally found the main train station for the little train that goes around the park. Adam thought it was great, Lottie wanted to sit on the seat, not on Mommy's lap, so we took up three benches. Logan was tired and hot, which translates into fussy and whiny. At one point he laid down under the benches on his tummy. As Amy said, "He has is arms and legs inside the train, so I guess it's okay."

It was a really fun morning, and it was great to see Chris and Amy and kids. I also enjoyed getting to see how the area around Rice has been built up. It's completely different from when I graduated, and that was only 8 years ago! There's a light rail, a new hospital, a reflection pool, etc. At least I could still find my way to the highway! The kids fell asleep on the way home, after Logan had an apple, a peanut butter sandwich, and two cups full of Tang.