Memaw and Pappaw's Visit - Take 8

My parents and I were talking about how tough it is to be nine hours apart and how at least we've seen each other about once a month since we've been down here, but it's still not enough. We figure, they've driven down here eight times, that's over 144 hours in the car, 9,472 miles on their car. Yuck! We've gotta do something about this. (They can't fly - my mom would get charged hundreds in overages for her grandson goody bags).

We had such a fun week while they were here. Monday they accompanied me to HEB to stock up for the week (hey, that's a tourist destination in itself, right?).

Tuesday, we went to the Children's Museum, or as Noah says, mu-se-UM.
There was so much to do, but Noah's favorite was, of course, the FlowWorks exhibit and especially this fountain. Spraying the water wheels with memaw:
Constructing pipes with pappaw:
Noah's version of a puppet show:
Outside in the EcoStation. Noah's not too sure about the stranger taking our picture.
A tunnel!!
There was a little art studio in Kidtropolis where kid's could unleash their inner artist. I don't know if you can see it in this picture, but some poor child wrote "Go Longhorns". My smart boy promptly scribbled right over it. His daddy was so proud that he chose red.
Wednesday we went to the "big pool" so Noah could show off his inner tube swimming skillz. That evening was our first trip to IKEA.


Noah shopping at "the ickea store":
Thursday we went shopping. When we got home, Noah helped memaw make oatmeal cookies. Yum!!
Brandon and I got to go on a date that night! It's such a rare occurance that we had to commemorate it with a picture. We honestly didn't plan our matching colors. That's what Brandon wore to work and I was ready to go when he got home.
Here's pappaw getting some good cuddle time. They were watching the U.S. Open or the College World Series, I'm sure. I think that's all that was on TV that week *wink wink*.
Reading one of the classic books in memaw's arsenal of books she brought along:Friday night we ate at Carino's. Noah LOVES noodles!! He ate some of his pasta and marinara, but he has quite the refined palate and preferred daddy's Spicy Romano Chicken pasta, pappaw's cheese sticks and chicken parmigiana (thus, the three-plate smorgasbord). We celebrated Father's Day a day early since they had to drive home on Saturday. Noah was SO sad to see them go, the look on his face broke my heart.

Pappaw, Memaw, Noah, and the famous beads. Thank you so much for driving down to see us. We had SO much fun!! We miss you.