Happy Halloween!

I still remember this terrible joke that my choir teacher told me in 3rd grade...

Want to hear it?

Don't say I didn't warn you- 

my 3rd grade ears were definitely traumatized.

Q- Why can't ghosts have babies?

A- Because they have "halloweenies..."

Still have remembered it all through the years- what I quality education I had...

ANYWAY!

Halloween was fabulous.

We love Halloween around here.

My parents were still in town, so of course we took them down to the Alligator Park aka Brazos Bend State Park (we've been making the trek down there a lot lately haven't we?)

We didn't see too many alligators...

but saw lots of cute turtles...

 and Spanish Moss on trees.

But I think we succeeded in convincing my parents Dad that Texas isn't so bad after all :)

We ended our Halloween day with an annual "punkin" carving...

 

Hard at work.

My very own Jack Skellington...

AND the finished product-

BOO-tiful

Bahaha...

And no Halloween night is complete without a little "Hocus Pocus"...

(in VHS no less, oh yeah)

Sunday Evening with the Fam

A nice stroll around Rice University to show the parents where Jon spends his days...

Have I mentioned that the weather has been beautiful?

Oh it has...

(I missed the memo on this one to look)

 Rice only has 5,000 students...

 and they take pride in the fact that they have more trees on their campus than students.

 

I'd take pride in that, too.

Can't Get Enough of those BYU Cougars....

Which is sometimes to our detriment.

The past three games we've been to, they've lost. 

Unfortunately- I have a husband who is NO fair-weather fan.

I told him if we buy tickets to the bowl game, and they lose...

he has to go see four ballets with me next year :)

Fair trade, right?

Anyway- we drove up to Dallas with parents AND cousins in tow...

 Walked over to the Dallas Cowboys Stadium...

 And watched those Cougars play!

 THE Jumbo-tron

 

Watching THE Jumbo-tron...

  

More Cougars...

 We cheered as HARD as we could for BYU...

but they couldn't quite pull it off.

Dang.

 The next morning before we headed back to Houston- we stopped off at the Fort Worth Stockyards... which used to host the largest horse and mule market in the world.

Now it's just a tourist stop.

But it was fun to walk around the old cattle pens...

 

get thrown in jail...

walk around overpriced shops...

 

try on $900 cowboy hats...

 

 and KIND of feel like a cowboy.

 

But I hafta say-

this guy takes the cake for "Coolest Cowboy EVER".

And last but not least- a great sign.

First of all- who would eat at a place with "Booger" in the name?

SECOND of all- they're advertising "Buffalo BUTT beer"....

Anyone else concerned?

Oh well...

That's Texas.

Good Times in Galveston

We had Mom and Dad Stone with us this past week and had ourselves a grand ol' time.

We prayed for great weather- and Houston even cooperated.

I think we succeeded in convincing them that Texas isn't all that bad ;)

We headed down to Galveston Thursday afternoon and rode the ferry...

and saw boats on our way.

Some were afloat...

 

and others were not...

The dolphins of course did NOT disappoint!

We got off the ferry and took a stroll on Bolivar Island...

where we saw a lighthouse,

took a walk down the jetty,

took some jumping pics,

and observed the remains of Hurricane Ike.

We rode back on the ferry...

(P.S. it's free, isn't that wonderful?)

and took a tour of the "Moody Mansion"...

the richest family on Galveston.

The house had 31 bedrooms... no big deal.

Good times in Galveston.