We brought in the new year in McAllen, Texas with the Christians there. We played games, ate delicious food, and shot off a whole bunch of fireworks.

On Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to the Woodfords. We had been traveling with them for about two and a half weeks, at their house, at Seed Sowers, and then in McAllen. We enjoyed them SO much, and they were sad goodbyes -but I must say that I did not envy their 21 hour drive back to Hermosillo!

The beach on South Padre Island was lovely!!! We drove a hour and a half to get to the beach, and it was great! The water was warm, and the sand was soft. And I even managed to use Lanaya’s skim board -without breaking anything!

Not the best explained picture… But it still helps me get my point across. In McAllen my dad had meetings on Monday through Wednesday, and on Tuesday and Wednesday Ross Vanstone(a missionary) kindly had us over for supper!

We spent the day at the Children’s Museum of Houston, and had a blast! We played games that stimulated the heart…

…and engineered things that were supposed to work! My airplanes did, but my lego race car broke into pieces on its way down the track.?

And for supper we went to MOD pizza!!! We were introduced to this restaurant in Seattle, and fell in love. And just because it was my birthday I got to get a peppermint milk shake!!!?

My face of the night, as I realized I had gotten Beats (earbuds) for my birthday! Thanks Grampa& Grandma!!

The next morning we woke up to no water; our water hose had froze.? But once we thawed the hose, it still worked just fine!!!?

On Saturday it was the Houston Space Museum. We went on a tram ride- and it was SO cold!!! We were there for what were the coldest two days of the year. I must say, it certainly made you appreciate the rays of sun that warmed you through!

The toilets on a spaceship; it works with suction. Then you peed into a tube, and had to use great precision to… yeah, you get it I’m sure.

A day late, but we had my planned birthday supper and cake, and it was amazing!

On Monday we did the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the zoo, and the aquarium! The museum had some pretty cool gems, and hyptonizing clock thing. There were pegs set up in a big circle, and a huge pendulum swinging back and forth. Every five minutes it would knock a peg down and you just had to watch it knock one down. So you’d sit there staring for, what seemed like forever waiting for the pendulum to knock one down, and then cheer when the long awaited moment finally occurred. The  zoo had some pretty cool animals, and not to brag, but when you finally capture a picture that actually worked through the fence, it’s pretty elating!! So here’s the one photo that actually worked.?

In the aquarium they had a sting ray feeding tank. It was a pretty small aquarium but they had some really funky exhibits. If you climbed the stairs to the restaurant above there was a glass cylinder shaped tank that the stairs wrapped around, and it had different types of fish swimming all the way up it.