From sauna to snow
As you may have seen on Steve's blog, we were just in Texas for a long weekend visiting two sets of friends. First we went to Houston to visit my high school friend Katherine and her husband Mark. And then we drove to Austin to visit our friends from CO, Craig, Hilary, and Kate. We had a great time in both places. Our friends were all great hosts, providing comfortable homes, showing us the sights, and finding us incredibly tasty places to eat. However, they couldn't do much about the weather. We did have a bit more sunshine in Houston than in Austin, but overall, as a current Coloradoan, I was suffocating in the humidity. I realize I am seriously a wimp when it comes to humidity, but it just felt like we were living in a sauna. I grew up in the Midwest and it still hits me every time we go back there how humid it is there too. We are so spoiled in Colorado with our 300+ days of sun and our dry conditions. Of course, today it decided to snow, but it's great. I am not sweating.
Now all our friends assured us that Texas wasn't normally this wet and although it is more humid than CO, it isn't usually that muggy. I believed them, of course, but wow...
If I were to ever move to Texas, I would definitely benefit from the closeness of two great sets of friends, but I would also gain a ton of weight. The food was amazing!!!
We also got to do some fun things in both cities, including Anya's favorite - a trip to both the Austin AND Houston Children's Museums. If we lived in either place, it would be great to get a membership. I could see us going back all the time and having a membership would be great because you could go a lot for a short amount of time. At both museums, Anya learned some valuable lessons about sharing, (un)fairness, bullies and getting tackled. Most of these she has experienced before, but this was quite a concentrated learning environment. Steve and I were a little overwhelmed ourselves by some of the interactions, but I think we learned some things too.
It was also fun to spend four days with Steve. Anya LOVED it and was sad when he had to go back to work this morning. She was very affectionate on the trip and would make sure she knew where we were at all times. She did a lot of snuggling, too. She would come up and pat us and give us hugs and sweetly say "mama" or "daddy." She said it so lovingly, it was like she hadn't seen us for days, not just five seconds. We loved every second of it and hope it continues now that we're home and in a more familiar environment.
Anya did really well being away from home. It took her a little while to warm up when we first got to both houses, but she quickly adapted and was soon comfortable with everyone and her environment. There was one person in each house who Anya particularly enjoyed. At K&M's, it was their dog Will. She loved to find him wherever he was and point and say, "doggy!" And at C&H's, it was their daughter Kate. Anya actually remembers Kate from when they lived in Fort Collins and she likes looking at pictures of her, so she was really happy to see her in person again. Kate has just recently learned to crawl and she would follow Anya around the house. It was really quite cute. Since we had to ride in separate cars, it was comforting to Anya to be told that Kate was just in the car in front of us. She must have said her name hundreds of times while we were there. She was always so excited whenever she saw her. When I went to get her out of the car at the airport, she said, "Kate!" But Kate was back at home and Anya was sad.
We did have one kind of freaky moment with Anya. She was sleeping on the floor next to our bed the last night we were in Texas and she somehow scooted herself more than halfway under our bed. Needless to say, she woke up terrified. I woke up to a thumping under the bed and then heard Anya crying and saying, "stuck! stuck!" It was so heartbreaking. It was so dark that Steve switched on his reading light and I dove off the bed to get Anya. There really wasn't much room under there and I can't imagine how scary that was to wake up and feel completely trapped. We immediately put her in our bed and she slept that way for the rest of the night. I don't think any of us slept that well. She woke up scared several more times in the night and the three of us were pretty well squeezed in the double bed together. But we would never have dreamed of putting her back on the floor. So, I guess we learned out lesson on that one.
Thanks to all our friends in Texas. It was a lot of fun to spend time with you and we can't wait until we see you again! It will probably be snowing and miserable when you come to visit us in Colorado and then you will be glad to get back to your warm Texas.
Now all our friends assured us that Texas wasn't normally this wet and although it is more humid than CO, it isn't usually that muggy. I believed them, of course, but wow...
If I were to ever move to Texas, I would definitely benefit from the closeness of two great sets of friends, but I would also gain a ton of weight. The food was amazing!!!
We also got to do some fun things in both cities, including Anya's favorite - a trip to both the Austin AND Houston Children's Museums. If we lived in either place, it would be great to get a membership. I could see us going back all the time and having a membership would be great because you could go a lot for a short amount of time. At both museums, Anya learned some valuable lessons about sharing, (un)fairness, bullies and getting tackled. Most of these she has experienced before, but this was quite a concentrated learning environment. Steve and I were a little overwhelmed ourselves by some of the interactions, but I think we learned some things too.
It was also fun to spend four days with Steve. Anya LOVED it and was sad when he had to go back to work this morning. She was very affectionate on the trip and would make sure she knew where we were at all times. She did a lot of snuggling, too. She would come up and pat us and give us hugs and sweetly say "mama" or "daddy." She said it so lovingly, it was like she hadn't seen us for days, not just five seconds. We loved every second of it and hope it continues now that we're home and in a more familiar environment.
Anya did really well being away from home. It took her a little while to warm up when we first got to both houses, but she quickly adapted and was soon comfortable with everyone and her environment. There was one person in each house who Anya particularly enjoyed. At K&M's, it was their dog Will. She loved to find him wherever he was and point and say, "doggy!" And at C&H's, it was their daughter Kate. Anya actually remembers Kate from when they lived in Fort Collins and she likes looking at pictures of her, so she was really happy to see her in person again. Kate has just recently learned to crawl and she would follow Anya around the house. It was really quite cute. Since we had to ride in separate cars, it was comforting to Anya to be told that Kate was just in the car in front of us. She must have said her name hundreds of times while we were there. She was always so excited whenever she saw her. When I went to get her out of the car at the airport, she said, "Kate!" But Kate was back at home and Anya was sad.
We did have one kind of freaky moment with Anya. She was sleeping on the floor next to our bed the last night we were in Texas and she somehow scooted herself more than halfway under our bed. Needless to say, she woke up terrified. I woke up to a thumping under the bed and then heard Anya crying and saying, "stuck! stuck!" It was so heartbreaking. It was so dark that Steve switched on his reading light and I dove off the bed to get Anya. There really wasn't much room under there and I can't imagine how scary that was to wake up and feel completely trapped. We immediately put her in our bed and she slept that way for the rest of the night. I don't think any of us slept that well. She woke up scared several more times in the night and the three of us were pretty well squeezed in the double bed together. But we would never have dreamed of putting her back on the floor. So, I guess we learned out lesson on that one.
Thanks to all our friends in Texas. It was a lot of fun to spend time with you and we can't wait until we see you again! It will probably be snowing and miserable when you come to visit us in Colorado and then you will be glad to get back to your warm Texas.
posted by Lara at 5:34 PM
2 Comments:
I loved hearing more about your trip here. So cute that Anya was so into Kate! That's cool and probably a good omen for a babe.
Miss you guys!
It was so fun reading your thoughts on the trip! We're glad you had fun - we had so much fun hosting you! But I admit I was a little lonely Saturday afternoon. I went from a house with four adults, 1 child and 1 dog to a houseful of just me and Will. And Will had pretty much expended all of his energy during your visit (I know - you are thinking that was high energy for a dog?!) and spent the rest of Saturday sleeping in our bedroom.
Sigh. At least Mark is back now.
We did never get to take you to the world's largest Dim Sum - so you'll have to come back to experience that! :)
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