a long post with lots of pictures. you've been warned.

So basically Houston rocks my socks off. Spending time with two people I love dearly and their three beautiful children was just exactly what I needed. And even though I didn't really want to leave Texas, I feel more rejuvenated to live life and make decisions. It was good for my soul.

Anyway, after we hit up Galveston we moved on to the zoo and spent the day taking a bazillion pictures of different animals. Lions, tigers, leopards, chimps, lemurs, jellyfish, sea turtles, giraffes, you know the drill. Sometimes I think I could go to the zoo every day.

After our crazy zoo adventures that involved terrorizing various wild animals and sketching giraffes while eating pepperoni pizza, we felt like we'd been run over by trucks. It was time for a nap. And also some Shipley's donuts.

On Thursday Joel and I hit up the Museum of Fine Arts. Holy buckets, you guys! I could have stayed there for days. Days I tell you! The Picasso Black and White exhibit was there and if it hadn't been 17 extra dollars I don't think we would have looked at anything else in the whole building.

But as it was, we walked around looking at all of this historical painting! Good gravy there were rooms upon rooms of all this amazing artwork. I almost couldn't handle it and I'm pretty sure I took pictures of almost everything just like an art crazed teenage girl. I mean, I got to look at pieces of art created by masters. Masters! People who lived in the 1700s and the 1800s and can you just imagine for a second what that is like? To stand in front of a painting that van Gogh himself created. Van Gogh is my BMW of the art world. It seriously doesn't really matter what it was that he painted and I will still love it just because it's van Gogh. For real. There wasn't much of his work though, so I took pictures of everything else. And then I collaged them on Instagram like a wannabe hipster. I'm the coolest.

there is a tunnel that takes you from one building of the museum to another and it is crazy awesome. it changes from red to violet lighting and it was probably one of my most favorite parts of my visit!

this is a detail shot of that awesome skull artwork. the whole thing was filled with all sorts of crazy awesome stuff. I think we stood in front of it for at least ten minutes finding different gems. It was fantastic!

i wanted to buy this mug so bad!!

Friday night was my last night in good old Texas, so we spent it watching Wreck-it Ralph, eating ice cream and soaking in the hot tub. Saturday morning came way too early and saying good bye to the Humans and Joel and Mandy was not something I really wanted to do. The week flew by too fast!

i had to take a picture of the stop lights. they are sideways! which is super weird!

7:00 in the morning came waaayyyy too early. But the sunrise was gorgeous.

Monday got here way too quickly bringing with it the start of the work week. But here we are, back to the daily grind. Basketball and library books, high school students and homework. Gearing up for the start of the 4th quarter and ultimately the end of the year. I can't believe how quickly time is flying.



So Monday, hit me with your best shot. Let's do this.

that one time i stayed on an island and went to two museums in one day

This weekend we drove out to the Seattle area to visit TheKeeper's lovely girlfriend and her family. We took Saturday and drove into Tacoma to bond over old cars, monster burgers, and blown glass. There was an incredible amount of laughter and lots of pictures. It was also TheMechanic's birthday (he turned 17!!) and the car exhibit at the Tacoma Tube was basically heaven on Earth for him.

There were four floors filled with all sorts of different cars, from the very first horseless carriages to the British invasion, modern race cars and everything in between. We spent two hours wandering around the different levels, gawking at the different models surrounding us in a sea of shiny paint and old rubber tires.

This is the Tube from the outside. The top is like a mirror, so you can really only see the reflection in this picture...which is trippy, to say the least.

Cruella DeVill, Cruella DeVill, if she doesn't scare you, no evil thing will!

The Flintmobile! It exists! I couldn't get over it, I was that excited. 

And then of course, we have everybody's favorite 1983 DeLorean. I want this car so bad!

These two cars were solar powered race cars. I have never seen anything like them before. Incredible stuff. 

After walking around all the automobiles for so long we started to get hungry. And by hungry I mean hangry, and by hangry I mean TheSeester was starting to grow horns if we didn't go find food rightnowthisveryminute. It was all very dramatic and we left in search of burgers. 

Dad took us to this sketchy looking red building - the kind of restaurant where the outside makes you think that if you enter, you might regret it a couple hours later when the toilet becomes your new bff for life. It really didn't help that upon exiting our vehicle there was a chain link fence separating us and a spikey collared german shepherd, but we shrugged our shoulders and marched right on in. 

Let me just tell you though, those were some good burgers. I had a teriyaki chicken burger and it was so juicy and delicious that it got all over my hands and I didn't even mind. Not to mention that the portions were gigantic. I couldn't finish. 

Waddling out of the burger joint, we hit up the Museum of Glass next. It was probably my favorite part of the day. I took picture after picture after picture and let me just tell you, it was awesome. 

This is the underside of the ceiling of part of the bridge you walk in order to reach the museum. The whole ceiling was filled with blown glass trinkets and shapes of all different sizes and colors. I couldn't get over it, it was so amazing!

Then we came upon a wall my brother has deemed the alien hatchery, as if all the blown glass items in the boxes were housing little baby aliens just waiting for their chance to take over the world. Honestly, I think he's lost his marbles - especially because he is pretending to eat my foot like a subway sandwich in this picture.

Inside of this odd shaped cone is a foundry where guest artists from all over the world come and work with the museum for a week to create their own blown glass artworks. There is a viewing area where you can go in and watch the artist and their team work on different projects and learn about the process. Prior to this visit I had no working knowledge of glass blowing except for the fact that I think it's ridiculously awesome, but having watched it happen before my eyes I have an even greater appreciation for the objects in the galleries.

These faces are oil painted onto glass. In all the times I've worked with oil paints, it's never been on a glass surface before. I found this all to be really freaking cool and it made me want to try that technique out.

We spent the evening eating cake and ice cream to celebrate TheMechanic entering into his 17th year of life. There was lots of horrible renditions of happy birthday, bad jokes, and good company.

Before we left today we went to the community church, where everybody knows everybody and new people are always noticed. It was very Stars Hollow. The sermon was fantastic and even though service went for almost two hours (which according to TheKeeper's girly-friend was out of the norm) it kept me interested and thinking about what was being said.

After the service ended we were properly introduced to what felt like the entire congregation and then we left for noms. TheKeeper's girlfriend and her wonderful family treated us to lunch at The Red Bicycle (what an awesome name for a restaurant, right?) and then we rolled out of town to start the six hour (give or take) trek back home.

Because we were staying on an island, we had to take the ferry back to Seattle. Let the record show that ferries are the coolest.

It was a great trip, but I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed tonight. Now I will just be happy once TheBoy is back from Puerto Rico on the 4th. Three weeks away is the pits. For real.