Finally...more of the story. :)

The day after we got home from Houston, we had to repack for SOAR in Grapevine at the Gaylord Texan. Eli loves going to SOAR, and he really loved the hotel this year. We had such a great group go, and we had such a good time. Eli was especially glad that Abi, Zack, and Jordan got to go.

We went a day early to go to the Ranger's game. Eli was in a rare picture taking mood. I'm going to have to post most of them, because they all make me laugh.

LOL!!! I had never seen Michael pose silly before. If I ever need a laugh, I can just go look through these pics.

The next morning, we went to the mall for shopping and lunch before SOAR began. Zack took Eli on the carousal.

In between sessions we got to play some Wii at the SOAR villages big screens.

The second day of SOAR, there was a long break, so we went to Six Flags. Eli had fun riding all the rides for his age, and Ethan even got to ride some too.

I couldn't believe that Ethan got to ride these airplanes, but he had so much fun. He thought he was a big boy.

Ethan enjoyed Eli's popcorn chicken while Eli was riding the rollercoaster.

That day was also July 2nd, Uncle Zack's birthday, so when they got back from Six Flags (Mommy, Abi, Eli, and Ethan left early). We have Zack his cookie cake. I think that Eli looks so much like Zack in this picture.

I only had one picture from the actual SOAR conference. We really did go, and we heard some wonderful messages about fellowship along with this fun.

We had so much fun on our vacation to Houston. It was so good to spend that time together. For those of you who don't know, we chose Houston because Eli is into "rocket ships" this year. He has been looking forward to his "rocket ship" birthday party, that since the trip has turned into a "space shuttle" party. We left early on a Thursday morning to be at the Houston aquarium when it opened. Eli was scared to death at first and wouldn't even walk. Ethan wanted to touch the fish.

Our favorite part inside the aquarium was the white tiger oddly enough. We watched him play with his ball for a while.


Eli also got to ride the carousal.

After the aquarium and lunch, we went over to the Science Museum. Again, Eli was scared to death of the huge dinosaurs in the museum, but he wasn't too afraid to act like a dinosaur in the gift shop.

That night we went to the Galleria for some shopping and to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. The next morning we headed to NASA. Guess what...Eli was scared. He wouldn't even walk in at first. We finally got him in and got him to start participating in some pictures.

After NASA we headed to Galveston to the beach. I didn't even change the boys into their swimsuits, because I really thought that there was no way Eli would get in the water. I was wrong. They both loved it. Eli's favorite part was jumping the waves, and Ethan would take off crawling into the water and not stop until we stopped him.

To get back to our hotel, we took the very long way around to go let Eli ride the ferry. He will tell you that it was one of his favorite parts. We drove along Crystal Beach and through High Island, which I have heard so much about in my life. Michael also got to eat at Cracker Barrel, his favorite, on the way back. We ate at the Cracker Barrel in Baytown, which turns out to be right next to Zack's new apartment.

The next day we took a very quick trip to the Houston Zoo. We watched a Sea Lion show first, and then went on to see the other animals. Eli pulled up and said, "Yep. There are the giraffes. Let's go to the next animal." Michael and I were fine with that though. It was extremely hot.

Since the boys liked the beach so much, we decided to go back the next day for a longer amount of time and more prepared. They loved it again. Ethan loved the water and getting dirty. At one point he had picked a handful of sand and put it right on top of his head.

The funniest part of the whole trip was Ethan's new friend that he met on the beach. LOL He saw this man with his wife and two teenage daughters who had been eyeing him and smiling at him but did not speak English. Ethan began smiling back at him and then started holding his arms up to him. They were still a little ways away though. The man would just raise his arms too. Then Ethan started crawling towards him. He stopped, raised his arms, and the man raised his arms back. So Ethan kept crawling until he got to the man, who picked him up. Ethan just looked at him and played with his face. All the man kept saying was, "Beautiful baby." He tried to put Ethan down once, and Ethan clung onto him. It was so funny, but I was wishing that Michael would come back to the beach from out in the water. Ethan enjoyed making a "nuevo amigo."

The boys slept so well the last night of our Houston vacation.