Jon-Carlo and Alex's visit to Houston-July 2011

For Jon-Carlo's birthday in May, my parents gave him a flight down here to visit.  Since work was a little slower for 4th of July, he made a plan to come here with his girlfriend, Alex for 6 days.   It was their first visit to Texas so we showed them as much as we could.  We had an absolutely wonderful time.   After looking at all of these photos again, I realize how much we actually did while they were here.  

First things first,....hang in the pool on the roof top.

BBQ on the roof the first night

 Why not use a box as a table? 

 Eric, JC and Alex

 Now that's a burger

 Alex and the mega burger

The next day we were off to Schlitterbahn...an awesome water park in Galveston (about an hour away)

 Not the greatest, but hanging in the lazy river. 

 I'm sorry if this offends you, this was just too funny not to include. 

 Alex and Jon-Carlo racing down the slide....sorry Alex, JC won. 

 Jon-Carlo on the surfing simulator 

 Then we went to a night Astros game....Red Sox vs. Astros.  You better believe we we rocked our Yankee gear!

Cute pic

 The next day we went to St. Arnold's Brewery-about 5 minutes from our house.  It's basically an indoor picnic.  They are open from 11am to 3pm.  The seats fill up really quickly so unfortunately our seat was on the floor.  It's definitely an "event", and we love it.  

 The crowd

Sitting in the corner with our Central Market food. 

 Eric, Alex, Jon-Carlo and Terrence (Jon-Carlo's friend from HS who happened to move to Houston a few months ago)

After the picnic, we went out to celebrate Jon-Carlo's birthday (be-lated) at a "Taste of Texas" restaurant.  We heard great things but unfortunately, we were disappointed with the food.  The ambience was typical Texas steakhouse so Jon-Carlo and Alex really loved it.  

 Sweetest couple

 Me and my "little brother" as I still call him.  

The next day was July 4.  We heard the fireworks would be great from our roof so we decided to give it a try.   Everyone prepared a delicious meal with all the fixings and cupcakes for dessert...my fave!

 I, unfortunately had to work on July 4, but made it home just in time for the fireworks display

 The next day, Jon-Carlo and Alex decided to head out on their own to see a bit of Houston.  They headed to the Health Museum

 I need to go here, love this type of stuff!

We were sorry to see Jon-Carlo and Alex go.  We had a chance to get to know Alex better and them as a couple.  You guys are the best and welcome any time in Houston...deep in the the hearrrrrt of Texas :)

Mom and Dad's visit to Texas-June 2011

The plan was to have my parents be in Houston when our sea shipment was set to arrive...June 1.  It is always stressful when the movers come so it would have been a great help to have an extra set of hands.  Unfortunately, it was delayed-a month.  So, they were still here helping us out as much as possible.  One day I had to work and I came home to beautiful flowers planted in the front, flower boxes and they installed lights over the bar in our kitchen.  It was such a great surprise.  Thank you so much!!

We went out again, to celebrate, this time to Brenner's steakhouse on the Bayou.  It was pretty modern with a country twist.  

I wish we'd taken more photos this weekend but we really had a great time.  We all got to spend a really nice weekend with each other exploring Houston.  My dad loved Central Market and is considering a move here, just for the HEB :)

Moving into our first house!

We officially closed on our mortgage on May 24, 2011.  For first time home owners, this was such a proud moment signing the paperwork and getting the keys for the very first time.   We finally found a bed-Hello Temp-urpedic (seriously the most comfortable bed you'll ever sleep in) and arranged it have it arrive that evening.  We got our keys at 6pm and the guys with the bed came at 6:45!  Yea, we like to cut it close apparently!  We spent the next few days slowly moving our things over and getting things set up in our house.  

Eric worked so hard sealing all the granite. 

Since our sea-shipment wasn't due to arrive from Qatar until July, we arranged to have rental furniture which helped a ton.  

Wacky Car Show and Strawberry Festival

Our temporary living apartment happened to be on a street that is very busy in Houston.  They constantly have events going on right out side of our door.  One weekend, it was the Wacky Car Show.  We'd planned to head to the Strawberry Festival-hello Strawberry Shortcake, but we took in a bit of the celebration of the Car Show first.

We'd had enough of the cars so headed to Pasadena (about 30 minutes from down town) to the Strawberry Festival.  I thought it was going to be awesome..unfortunately, we were disappointed.  Not only was it extremely difficult to find strawberries at the strawberry festival (um, really?!) but they were also Driscoll strawberries....yea, the kind you get at the store (again, really!?).  When I asked the woman who was selling them if they were specially grown for the festival, she replied, "umm, I wouldn't call them special, but they give us the juiciest ones"....again, really?!  really!?! 

We decided to make the best of it and walk around a bit more 

 This wasn't ice, it was some sort of material not conducive to "ice" skating...again, this strawberry fest failed us :( 

 And on to the Texas-sized food.  They had everything..and lots of it!  Except for, of course, strawberry shortcake :(  Seriously!? 

 The most gigantic turkey legs I've ever seen.  

 This was a size small...sweet tea minus the sweet.  Should've gone for the sweet.  

Oh wow.  

All in all, the Strawberry Festival was educational but a bit of a disappointment.  We saw all sorts of Texas specialty foods but the lack of strawberry themed foods was a bit misleading.