Thanksgiving Week 2014

In other years I haven't been a huge fan of Thanksgiving.  I tend to think of it as a buffer between Christmas and the rest of the year.  But there was something special about Thanksgiving this year.  Maybe it's because we hosted it at our house this year.  Maybe because Brandon was home. Maybe because my two best friends came with their husbands.  Maybe because I didn't have a newborn.  I don't know why exactly, but Thanksgiving was great this year.   

My friend Julie taught Sharing Time in Primary last Sunday.  Later she told me that they asked all the kids what they were thankful for.  Lydia said that she was thankful for her Dad.  Charlotte said she was thankful for Hundley.  Charlotte loves Hundley so much.  She is always playing with him.  She took this picture of him in his "birthday clothes" with all his family.  

   

Even if we didn't have Thanksgiving, this week would have been a very social week for us.  We had one of Brandon's co-workers and his wife over for dinner on Sunday night.  They had fun playing with our kids and completely wore them out. Charlotte even put Lydia to bed while we were still talking.

On Monday night we went to Brandon's BBF (Battle Buddy Forever) Jacob's house for a baby blessing.  Jacob was Brandon's buddy in Korea.  His wife was pregnant and living in Utah the whole time the guys were in Korea.  Jacob made it home in time to make it to the baby's birth, but his wife wasn't ready to travel back to Texas until last weekend.  Their parents helped her move back and they blessed the baby while everyone was in town.  We were honored to be part of that event.

My besty Ashley and her husband and baby joined us for dinner on Tuesday night.  Ashley actually was over all day on Tuesday.  We'd planned a playdate for that morning with some of our friends.  She called me up that morning with bad news and I thought she was going to have to cancel.  Her power was out.  But instead of cancelling she was just asking if it was okay if she came early to use my shower.  That was fine with me and I told her to stay as long as she wanted - which turned out to be 11 hours.  It was great.  I got nothing done all day, but I probably wouldn't have accomplished much anyway.

While Ashley and Seth were hanging out, Brandon decided to put on a little cooking show and teach us all how to make pies.  He made a pecan pie and a pumpkin pie.

Several times during the past week people have asked me questions about how to cook Thanksgiving foods.  I just kind of giggle and direct them to Brandon.  I honestly have no idea how Thanksgiving food works.  Like, I could cook it all separately, but I don't understand how it is possible to have so many foods all cooking simultaneously and ready at the same time.  It boggles my mind.

I guess I could learn all about it if I had to, but I have Brandon, so I don't. Everything balances out in our marriage though.  Brandon says the same thing about managing our finances. He could learn about it if he needed to, but he has me so he doesn't have to.

Brandon learned everything he knows about Thanksgiving from helping his mom. And he's already passing on he knowledge to the next generation. Here are the girls helping Brandon put pumpkin shaped pieces of dough on the pie.

 Charlotte took this picture of her barn. She and Lydia are always putting the animals into this barn.

We spent most of Wednesday getting the house ready for us to host Thanksgiving. I had a whole to do list of things that we slowly checked off.  I cleaned up all the bedrooms and did ALL the laundry.  Brandon cleaned up the kitchen which doesn't sound like it equals all the work I did, but believe me it was equal.

We woke up pretty early on Thursday and got to work on more things.  Brandon put the turkey in the oven with the help of Tinkerbell.

Brandon's family always has the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV on Thanksgiving morning.  So much so that I don't feel like it's Thanksgiving without the parade.  I wasn't sure if we would watch it this year though.  The only network TV channel we get is CBS and I wasn't sure if that was the one the parade was one.  But it was, so Thanksgiving was saved!  What's funny is that we are such a DVD and Netflix family that this was the first time we've even watched broadcast TV in like a year and a half.

 My sister Lindsey and her family showed up around 10:30.  I'd made pasta for all the kids to have for lunch so her boys joined my kids.

 Lindsey brought her dog Gretta along too.  Charlotte was so happy to see Gretta.  She spent a lot of time playing with her in the back yard.  She'd lead her around with the leash and pet her.

If you ask Charlotte what she wants for Christmas she will tell you she wants a puppy.  I keep trying to explain to her that Santa knows that Veronica and Derrick aren't potty trained yet and so he knows not to bring her a dog this year.

 Ashley, Seth, and Oakley came over around 1:30.  They brought rolls.  Soon after that it was time to put all the food on the table.  Everything looked and smelled great.

 At first I planned on putting the kids at a little table outside, but Gretta and the cool weather changed that plan.  I'd cleaned up the laundry room and set up a table there.  But about an hour before we were ready to eat Charlotte and Lydia started telling me they wanted to eat at the table with the adults.  So I pulled in the round table from the living room and the piano beach and we all fit around the table.

I have to add that I checked my weight on Monday and I'd already lost 7 lbs in the week and a half since I started eating better and exercising.  That was really encouraging.  I still ate all the Thanksgiving foods at dinner, but I don't think that I ate as much as I would have before I decided to change my bad habits.

 Dinner was great.  Brandon is an amazing chef and everything tasted great.  We all said what we were thankful for.  Brandon said he was thankful for an oven, because he had to live without one for 9 months.  I was thankful that Brandon was home from Korea and that he was going to flight school.

We ate and talked for a long time.  Then we moved into the living room and played Apples to Apples.  That lasted until the kids realized how much fun we were having and wanted to play too.  Then it was time to take the kids to the park.

 Later, after we'd digested a bit, we had pie.  Brandon was very proud of his pecan pie.

 The pumpkin pie was great too.  Most of us agreed that it was the best pumpkin pie we'd ever tasted.

 In addition to the homemade pies we also had a store bought berry pie and a turtle (the candy not the animal) pie.  That turtle pie was so rich.  Since I'm more careful with what I eat these days I only ate about a half slice of each pie.  I wasn't used to all the sugar in the turtle pie and it almost made me sick.

 Then we just sat around and talked for a long time.  Brandon, Seth, and John all talked about the military.  It was fun to hear their different perspectives.  I think Ashley and co didn't leave until around 8:00.  We got all the kids in bed after that.

I cleaned up the kitchen while Lindsey fell asleep listening to John and Brandon compare military stories.  Eventually we inflated the air mattress for Lindsey and John and everyone went to sleep.

In the morning all of my kids, except Charlotte slept in.  Lindsey kept her boys and Charlotte occupied and made breakfast.  Brandon and I were able to sleep in until Veronica and Derrick woke up around 8:00.  It was so nice to sleep in.

Lindsey and her family stayed until after lunch.  We had left over food.  Then they went back home.

Then it was time for us to start getting ready for the next big event  . . . no not Christmas - Brandon's birthday!

A calm week

I'm trying to think of a good way to describe this week.  It wasn't really a "normal" week, but it wasn't terrible or spectacular either.  I guess you could say that it was just a regular week. I'm not sure if regular is the right word though.  Brandon still had lots of free time so he was home a lot more than normal.  It was also a lot colder outside than usual so we were stuck inside more than any of us would have liked.  We all took turns with colds too.  I guess it was just a calm week.  

Brandon was home in the afternoon on Monday and so he helped the girls and me make a paper turkey.  

We made it so we could take count down to Thanksgiving by taking a feather out every day. Brandon asked me why I like count down things so much.  I told him it must be because I'm a visual person.  Count downs also help the kids understand the concept of time.  

 We put the turkey up on the wall along with some other turkeys we've made in years past.  We added to the wall the next day when we made more turkeys at library story time.

 Charlotte lined up all her Barbies and wanted to take a picture.

 Our turkey project went so well that I decided to let Charlotte and Lydis help me with one of my crafts.  One afternoon they helped me paint a picture frame blue.

The next day they helped me glue sea shells on to the frame.  The shells are from South Padre Island. Soon I'll make a vacation montage picture and put it in this frame.

The girls were begging me for a project on another day so I made them "sewing boxes" that I saw on pinterest a while ago.  Basically I just punched a bunch of holes in a box and then gave the girls yarn to thread through the holes.  

 This kept them occupied for a long time.

A few days later the boxes had turned into wagons and the girls had their horses pulling all the other farm animals around. 

 We did our first Bountiful Basket on Saturday.  This is what we got for $15 plus a $3 credit card processing fee.  I think it was worth it.

 We had to make room for all the fresh food so we cleaned out the fridge Charlotte and Veronica were really excited to help.  Veronica was so cute. She'd wipe everything with a rag.

A week or so ago I was watching Brandon play with the kids.  Veronica was right in the thick of things running and screaming with all the other kids.  I realized that we don't have a house full of babies any more.  In fact, we don't technically don't have any babies any more.  Instead we have a house of little kids.  And I am perfectly happy with that fact.

Here's a little video of Brandon and all the kids playing together.  Have I mentioned how nice it is to have him home again?  (Derrick watched me edit this movie and he laughed when Veronica comes up to the camera. I replayed it for him several times and he gut laughed every time.)

Well that's basically it for the last week.  It was nice to have a rather uneventful week. Thanksgiving fun starts this week and goes all the way until Brandon's birthday on Sunday.   And then Christmas gets going. So yes, I'm very glad we had a nice calm week. A ca

Weight loss goals

A few weeks ago, when the weather turned colder, I put on my favorite jacket and was surprised when it didn't fit well enough for me to zip it up.

Back when my jacket still fit.
This was in June of 2010 when I was (unknowingly)
about 15 weeks pregnant with the twins

I knew I'd gained weight during my pregnancies, but as far as I could remember this jacket had always fit within a few months of giving birth.  The fact that it didn't zip up now was proof of something I'd suspected for a while - I'd put on weight while Brandon was gone.

Last Wednesday I went to the doctor and received even more proof.  I weighed 10 lbs more than I had when I was 9 months pregnant with Veronica.  Not exactly something I wanted to find out.  

It made sense though.  One of the ways I coped with Brandon being gone was to eat candy and snack.  I didn't eat the healthiest meals either. I can't tell you how many times we had just pasta or tatter-tots for dinner.

All things considered, gaining a few pounds during a deployment wasn't that bad.  I'd stayed faithful to my husband, my kids were well adjusted, and our finances were in control.  But now that Brandon was home I didn't want being overweight to become a normal thing for me.  I wanted to lose that deployment weight, plus lose the extra weight I'd put on during each pregnancy.

I figured I'd need to loose around 40 lbs.  I came up with that number because I'd put on about 10 lbs per pregnancy and 10 more during the deployment.  I asked my doctor how much weight she recommended that I lose.  She looked up my target BMI and told me that I should weigh 145 lbs to be at a 25% BMI.  I laughed at that number.  I don't think I've been 145 since I was 15 years old.  I don't put a lot of stock in the BMI for a lot reasons - mainly I just don't think its an accurate way off assessing health.

 I tried to get my doctor's personal opinion on the BMI, but she wouldn't give me a straight answer.  She did suggest that I could do a target weight of 165 lbs.  That sounded a lot more doable.  I was 165 lbs when I was 21 and worked on the Snow College Ropes Course.  It was the best summer of my life and I was in the best shape too.  I would love to be that healthy again.

To get to 165 lb I'd have to lose 68 lbs.  (I'll save you the trouble of doing the math and just tell you that I weighted 233 lbs at the doctors appointment.)  That's kind of a daunting number so I've split it into two goals.

My first goal is to get down to 200 lbs by my 30th birthday on February 7, 2015.

My second goal is to weigh 165 by my 8th wedding anniversary on May 17, 2015.

That gives me 6 months to lose weight and fit back into my wedding dress.

I came home from the doctors appointment and started planning out the changes to my lifestyle.  I'd been thinking about doing several of these things for a while, but now the timing was finally right to implement them.    

The first big change I made was to start eating better - a whole lot better.  Nine months of cooking exclusively for toddlers had made me into a pretty bad eater.  I snacked way too often, drank too much juice, and didn't have enough foods that weren't carbohydrates in my diet. Sure I ate salad pretty often, but other than that I wasn't eating healthy.

So I made a commitment to eat a lot more protein, more fruits and vegetables, and more complex carbohydrates. I decided to pretty much stop eating sugar. Drinking juice also went onto the no list.  I also gave up snacking between meals.

I thought there would be a hard adjustment period where I would be hungry and cranky.  But instead the opposite happened.  From day one I felt so much better.  For the first time in a long time I felt full.  And I stayed full until the next meal.  That right there was enough to motivate me to keep eating healthy.  From now on eating junk is synonymous with being hungry.  And I hate being hungry.

My other big change was to start exercising.  This is a habit that I've needed to get back into for a long time.  Before I had kids I would walk 4 miles every day.  Even after I was pregnant I still would walk 2 miles every other day.  After the twins were born I'd take them on long walks.  But then I got pregnant with Derrick and it was all I could do to get the kids to the park every day.  After we moved here and I found out I was pregnant with Veronica my exercising really took a nose dive.  For almost the past two years my "work out" has been to take the kids to the park - which is across the street.

I've wanted to work out more, but I've been in survival mode for so long that I didn't know if I could physically afford the energy.  People would say things like, "you'll have so much more energy" or "it will help you feel better."  On some level I knew they were right, but mostly I just thought about how tired I already was.  I was always afraid that I'd do a big workout, and be exhausted on a day (or night) when all heck would break loose at home.    

When Brandon came home I decided I could start working out.  First I started doing a little routine in the morning.  It was nothing special, just some planking, and then some stretches that I could do while laying on my back.  I liked that I could do it even if I was sleepy.

After I committed to losing weight I decided to start jogging on our neighborhood bike trail every night.  That first night I tried to make excuses not to go, it was too dark, too cold, blah blah blah, but Brandon made sure I went.  I could tell how out of shape I was, I couldn't jog very far and walked most of the way.  But I really liked it.  After that first loop I was hooked.

I forgot how much I liked being by myself.  I've always thought that I would need a partner or group to keep me motivated to exercise, but I love the chance to be by myself and just think.  I like doing lots of other things by myself and at my own pace so it makes sense that I like exercising on my own. All day long I look forward to that moment when the kids are in bed and I can go run.  I also like that  it's just outside my door.  I don't have to schedule extra time to commute to the gym.  I can just leave my house.    

Its only been 9 days since I made these changes in my life, but I already feel so good.  And I've learned so much about myself too.  I'll talk more about the things I've learned later.

And guess what?  On the third day after I started eating better and exercising I was able to zip my jacket closed again.  I still have a ways to go before it fits me like it should, but I'm very happy about this little success.

Charlotte took this picture while sitting on the floor.

The rest of block leave

The Army handles vacation time in an interesting way.  The higher up people decide what weeks everyone in the Battalion will go on vacation.  It's called Block leave. Then members of the battalion decide how many days they will take off during block leave.  They can do anything between not taking time off or taking the whole two weeks. 

Soldiers accrue a lot of vacation days (like 3 a month) and Brandon hasn't taken any leave since Christmas so he could have taken the full two weeks off.  But we wanted to save most of his vacation days for a trip to Utah.  So he only took a week off.  He was off from Friday October 31 to Friday November 7.  We planned on spending Saturday and Sunday recovering from our road trip.  

When Brandon requested his leave time he didn't realize that Veterans Day was the Tuesday after we got home.  He pretty much always gets a four day weekend for every Federal Holiday.  So that meant that not only did he have Saturday and Sunday off, but he also had Monday and Tuesday off as well.  And none of those days were taken away from his leave time.  We couldn't have planned it any better.  

And after he did go back to work on Wednesday it was a pretty easy week.  Most of the battalion was still on block leave so there wasn't much to do. I knew that would be the case so I scheduled several doctors appointments for this week.  Brandon was easily able to leave work and watch the kids. And then he usually didn't have to be back at work until final formation in the afternoon. 

So basically that's a long way of saying that this week was really relaxing.  It was the perfect followup to our busy vacation.  

We spent all of Saturday cleaning up from our trip.  I did load after load of laundry.  Here is what our laundry room looked like.  (If I remember right, I'd already done a few loads when I took this picture.)       

Brandon set up the tent so it could dry out in the back yard.  After it was dried and put back in the bag, Brandon said it weighed about 20 lbs less.  

Brandon also vacuumed out the Honda.  It looked so good when he was done.  On Monday he took it to a car wash with the kids so the outside could be as clean as the inside. 

 Veronica found some of Brandon's screws and stuff and made a giant mess.

She also was really happy to see her slide again.  She loves to stand at the back door and yell, "si-DAh" for "outside."

 The girls were happy to be back home with all their toys.

 The weather was slightly cool all weekend,  On Monday the kids decided that it was warm enough to play with water in the back yard.  I agreed with them and even let the twins get into their swimming suits.

 I'm glad I let them play outside because after that things got COLD.  We've had freeze warnings and overnight temps have been in the low 30s.  It's been kind of depressing.  Veronica has been going crazy to be cooped up inside all day. We also have been battling colds.

We're still doing our "Little School" every day.  The kids have been learning about numbers.  They color a worksheet about a different number every day.  We made it to 14 this week.

 I put Veronica into a tutu one day.  I said, "You're wearing a tutu."  And she could mimic "Tu tu" right back at me.  She also can say "Up" when she wants up into my lap. She also likes to yell, "Zah" all the time.  We have no idea what it means, but it's super cute.

 Here is another picture of our "Little School."  Veronica is more interested in participating than Derrick is.  She's really just interested in trying to eat the markers though.  She loves to do things that her older siblings are doing.  She's started running with them as they race through the house.  The other day she stood up against the wall and I'd say "Ready Set Go" and then she'd run around and then come back.  That's a game that the older kids have played since I was pregnant with Veronica.  I can't believe she is old enough to play it now.  

 Derrick made progress with his own language ability this week.  He's started saying "Daddy" every time he sees Brandon.  That alone is amazing!  He also started saying, "Ready Set Go!" and "Here you go"this week. I'm so excited that he's starting to say three word phases.

We got out some of our dress ups and Charlotte wanted to dress up like Santa and have me take her picture.

 And then Lydia (who was dressed up like Cinderella) wanted to be in the picture.

 And then Veronica backed up against the wall too.

 And then Derrick joined in as well.  I don't know why they don't do this when I want them to pose for pictures.

I took Charlotte and Lydia into the doctors for their 4 year old check up and shots.  They did really well up until it was time to get their shots.  Lydia went first and as soon as she started crying Charlotte joined in.  It was pretty sad.  I'm glad we are all done with shots for a while.

They girls totally milked the fact that they'd had shots.  I told them the best way to make their legs feel better would be to walk on them, but they didn't believe me.  Lydia kept pulling herself around the livingroom with just her arms.

I went to the doctor as well this week.  After Veronica was born I vowed that I wouldn't go to the doctor for a year.  With all the other kids I was pregnant again before I made it to a year postpartum.  I was sooooooo sick of going to the doctor.  Well my year is up so it was time to start scheduling appointments again.  First up was a dentist appointment.  I hadn't been since I was pregnant with Derrick.  I was shocked to find out that I don't have any cavities.

Then I had the doctor's appointment.  It was a good appointment, and my doctor said I was healthy, but I was concerned about my weight. I weighed about 10 lbs more than I did when I was pregnant with Veronica.  That's understandable considering I just went through a stressful deployment, but I still wasn't happy about it.

Worrying about my weight was another thing that I vowed not to do for the past year.  But now that Brandon is home it's time to get serious about losing weight.  I came home from the doctor and set some weight-loss goals and talked to Brandon about how I'm going to accomplish those goals.  I've already made a lot of changes.  In the future I'll do a post with all the details.  But in the meantime I just want  to say that I already feel so much better.

Anyway, block leave ends tonight so tomorrow things will be back to normal at Brandon's work.  We don't really know what normal is though, so this should be interesting.

2014 Beach Vacation: Day 7 - A Perfect Finish

I was actually pretty impressed with the Motel 6 that we stayed at in Baytown.  There were about 4 different wings that surrounded the pool. The weather was clearer than the day before, but it was still cold so we didn't even think about swimming.  The kids liked looking at it though.  

About my only complaint with the motel was that it didn't have a continental breakfast.  So after we got everything packed up we went off in search of a grocery store where we could buy donuts.  We put everyone in one cart and went inside.

Every time we go to the store the girls have asked me if we could buy donuts.  I kept telling them we'd buy donuts when Daddy came home.  Then he came home and I told them we'd get donuts on our vacation.  So we bought a dozen doughnuts to make good on all my promises.

We bought some chocolate milk too and then went out to the car to eat our breakfast.  It was a fun way to start the morning.  We all were in such good moods and all the kids were grinning as we walked through the store.

Brandon and I also polished off the last of the trail mix.  The mix this time had candy corn in it so it would be seasonally appropriate.  

We wiped off the kids sticky hands and faces and then put them in their car seats and started driving.  This was the last day of our vacation, but that didn't mean we were done quite yet.  We still had some things left the list of things I wanted to see.

First up was the Baytown Bridge.  This bridge was most of the reason I'd picked Baytown as the city to stay in that night.  (That and that's where the cheapest hotel rates were.)

The bridge was the first suspension bridge that we'd crossed on this trip.  As with all the other bridges the kids screamed with joy when we crossed this one.  It was fun to look back and see Veronica screaming along with her older siblings.

Then we drove to The San Jacinto Battleground State Park which is home to the Battleship Texas.  The Texas is a Dreadnought Style ship.  As soon as I read the word "Dreadnought" in the State of Texas Guidebook I knew I HAD to see this ship.  Years ago I read a book called Navy and Empire which was all about how England's Navy helped shape the Empire.  The whole book was fascinating, but I remember being super impressed by the chapters about the dreadnoughs.  I don't remember the specifics, but I loved reading about those ships.  I couldn't believe there was a similar one in Houston. 

The ship is docked right next to the Houston Channel so there were lots of barges floating by.

Tickets for a tour of the ship are $12 for adults.  This is where our $70 annual park pass really paid off - because with the pass we could visit the ship for free.  Yay.  So all we had to do was check in with the office and then we could walk onto the ship.

  It was so neat to be on the ship.  It was the most advanced weapon in the world when it was commissioned in 1914.  It served in both World War I and World War II.  I liked imagining what it would have been like to work on this ship.

There were some guns that we could sit on.  Charlotte wanted to climb up in the seat right away.

And Lydia hurried and got in the other one.

The girls were so funny.  They kept saying things like "I just shot a tree." or "I shot a boat."

The ship is undergoing some structural improvements, but we were pretty much able to walk where ever we wanted on the main deck.

There were so many guns along the sides of the ship.

After exploring the main deck it was time to do some climbing and see the upper decks.

All the kids did a great job at climbing the steep staircases.

It was only after we'd climbed up several flights of stairs that I realized it would be a lot harder to get down.

Here's the view from the top.  You can see the San Jacinto Battleground Monument (our next stop) in the distance, and even farther from that you can see the Baytown Bridge.

We weren't able to climb to the very top of the ship, but that's okay because I was kind of concerned about how we'd get down from where we were.

Derrick was starting to concern me too.  He insisted on carrying one of his blankets with him and I was worried he'd trip on it and fall off the high decks.  He actually did trip and fall down a some stairs, but luckily there were only two.  After that I carried him until we were back off the high decks.  Brandon carried Veronica down, and the girls were really safe, so we all made it down safely.  But my legs hurt for two days after carrying Derrick while navigating those steep stairs.

We went below deck after we got down off the high decks.  The first thing we saw was the sleeping quarters for the sailors.  Brandon said that he was so grateful he only had to share his barracks room with one other soldier while he was in Korea.

The size of the lockers also made Brandon appreciate his barracks room.

Even more beds.  Can you imagine being the guy on the bottom bunk.

There were lots of signs that explained what each room was for.  This one made me laugh.

Here's the laundry room.

Back up top the kids had fun playing on some large shells.  Oh you know, just another normal family outing here.

This three inch gun was really fun.  Lydia's side controlled the side to side motion for the gun. Charlotte's took care of the up and down.

I think this picture is going to go down as one of my favorite ones of Lydia.  Zebra print jacket paired with artillery power? Of course those go together.

I had to take a turn playing with the weapon too.

And then Brandon had to join in.

What a good looking guy.  Let's all take a moment to appreciate his vacation beard.

Well obviously we had a lot of fun with that gun.  The whole ship was great to explore and I'm so glad we got to see it.

Here's one more view of the ship.  I think I need to go dust off Navy and Empire again and re-read the Dreadnought chapters.

We put the kids back into the car which was must easier said than done.  Since this was the last day of our vacation we hadn't done a very careful pack job.  There were blankets and pillows everywhere.  Also I'm surprised we looked as good as we did. All our clothes were either damp or smells like the ocean.  I thought I'd put Veronica into clean pants, but when I'd lifted her off the bed she'd left a pile of sand behind her.  Yes, we were getting ready to be home soon.

But we still had one more thing to see.  The San Jacinto Battleground Monument is pretty much right next to the Battleship Texas.  I'd even asked if there was a way to walk to it rather than try to get the kids back in their carseats for such a short drive.  However, they lady at the visitor center advised against it due to mosquitoes.  

So we drove over there.  I wasn't prepared for how massive the monument was.  I couldn't get a picture of the whole thing.

Looking up at it made Brandon and I dizzy.

There is a museum inside the monument.  The girls liked these little dioramas.

There were also lots of paintings.  We also could have taken an elevator to the top of the monument, but that cost money.  I wasn't that interested and didn't even bother finding out how much it cost.

There were lots of displays about important people from Texas history.  I would have liked to look at them for at least a minute, but the kids ran past them all.

So we went back outside and walked around the monument.

I think my only regret about this vacation was that I didn't know a lot about Texas History or the history of the US-Mexican War.  We kept running into important battlegrounds and I didn't know the context. Reading the panels on the monument helped fill in a lot of pieces for me.  The San Jacinto Battleground is where the final battle of the US-Mexican War was fought.  The first battle was fought at Palo Alto near Brownsville where we visited on Sunday.  Between those battles were other ones like the Alamo.   The war lasted from 1846 to 1848.  This was the war that the Mormon Battalion was formed to flight in - even though they didn't see battle.  

We could have gone for a walk around the battle ground, but those donuts were coming back to haunt us.  Everyone was hungry and cranky so it was time to get going.  

There was another small ferry a short distance to the north of the Battleground.  Taking that ferry was the easiest way to get back to the I-10 so that's the way we went.  (We probably would have done it anyway, because ferries are fun.)

The ferry ride was really short.  The kids all had fun.  Derrick liked seeing all the water.

We had one last view of the monument and then we were on our way.

I navigated as Brandon drove through Houston.  Together we made a pretty good team.  We even made the tricky left lane exchange from the 610 to 290 without any problems.

We drove a little bit longer and then we were at my sister Lindsey's house.  She had chips and cheese waiting for us for lunch.   We were going to only stay an hour or two at her house, but we had so much fun that we stayed for dinner too.  She and John invited us to stay the night, and we would have, but Brandon had to sign back into his unit by midnight.

As always I liked talking to Lindsey.  This was the first time we'd seen each other since Brandon got back.  It had only been about 5 weeks since the last time I was at her house, but wow, I was doing so much better.  Last time the kids were still getting over hand foot and mouth disease and I'd hardly been able to make it to her house without a nervous breakdown.  This time I was finishing up the one of the best family vacations of my life.    

We left after dinner.  Brandon wasn't feeling too well so I drove the last 3 hours home.  I know that drive so well that it was easier for me to drive instead of navigate.  Brandon was supposed to sleep, but instead he stayed up and we talked about how much we love being married to each other.  We really are each other's best friends.

We got back to Fort Hood around 9:00.  I drove straight to Brandon's unit so he could sign in. After that his leave was over - but our vacation was still going.  Thanks to Veterans' Day Brandon had a four day weekend.  That meant we still had Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to spend together as a family relaxing in our own home.