Picketts come to Houston

Johns parents and his two sisiters came to visit at the end of July. we did a lot of the same activities that I had done with Hillary but we added a few also .

First we went and picked up John from his Annual training with the National Guard. they had a family day with food and some games and stuff. it was miserably hot, but it was July in Houston so what do you expect.  

Rocklond was so happy to have his daddy back. the next day was Sunday and we all enjoyed going to church together and having relaxing. we would need it because the next few days were busy. 

the next morning we went down to Schliderbaun water park.  We had so much fun going on everything there. including this very steep waterslide that you can see me going down in the video. They let Rockloond go on a lot of the slides too. (not ones like in the video) He would scream and yell the whole way down and then when we splashed into the water at the end he would say "more, more, more"

towards the end of the day we took him in a tide pool that we had been in about three other times that day. this time a wave caught us just right and catapulted him out of the double tube that we were in.  I jumped out to grab him he was still under the water and I couldn't find him. I had to push someone elses tube aside and he was under there. I grabbed onto his life jacket and pulled him up out of the waves. He coughed twice and was just fine.  he kept telling the story over and over again about how he went under the water and held his nose.  I was so thankful that I had taught him to hold his breath while we were in the calm water of our community pool. 

We stayed overnight in Texas City and then the next morning JOhn and his parents went Deep sea fishing. Rocklond, Shari, Maria, and I all went to the beach. we rode the ferry to the other side of the beach. while in line we had the windows rolled down and a seagull pooped on Maria's arm. it was surprising how much that little bit stunk.  

here we are on the Ferry 

we all built sandcastles and had a competition to see who's would stay up the longest. 

then we went back to the little shops on Galveston and  played around.

meamwhile john and his parents were having a great time fishing. they caught about 30 spade fish. you can see how much john loves them in the pic.

kari caught a shark. that night we all stayed in Texas City again and in the morning we went to Bayou wildlife park.  (the same place Hillary and I went too.)

again it did not disappoint and we got to see and feed amazing animals. 

We came back to my house and slept a lot. we went swimming a few times and shopping and other fun stuff. 

the girls and Rocky all went to Brazos bend state park and saw the alligators. there was a bunch of algae on the lakes but we still saw about 30 alligators. most of them were smaller ones. some were only a foot long. they were cute but they were still mean.  

can you see him hidding?

when the week was done we were all worn out, but we had had such a fun time. can't wait till next time.