The stars at night were big and bright.

It's become somewhat of a summertime family tradition. As soon as the the thermometer starts to consistently crack the 90s here in Kansas, we load up the car and head deep into the heart of Texas for a little R & R in the cool, Mediterranean climate of Houston.

So that's what we did for our Fourth of July weekend.

Refreshing temperatures aside, we love going down to Houston because it provides us with a great opportunity to spend some quality time with Curt and Cheryl. And with the baby on the way in September, it was kind of a last hurrah before we start a new chapter.

As usual we had a great time. We rolled into town a little after seven on Thursday, delayed by an impromptu visit to the vet (Zoe ripped a nail) and an incident at a Love's convenience store in Ardmore Oklahoma (Carrie's not talking about it). The next morning we headed down to Curt and Cheryl's boat to let the dogs play in the ocean and to hang out around the pool. Luckily we got to do a little of both before a monsoon left us huddling together under the roof of a pool-side Tiki bar and ultimately forced us to scramble back to the mainland. That night we treated ourselves to best fajitas known to man at El Tiempo. (Seriously, words can not describe how good these things are, if you ever find yourself in the area you owe it to your self to get a pound of chicken.)

The next morning I got up at five (what in the hell kind of vacation is that?) to join Curt for his Kenyan Way running club (seriously). It's this thing Curt and Cheryl have done for a couple of years that teaches you to train like the Kenyans do—which I was happy to find out just means putting in a lot of hill work instead of what I envisioned—running shoeless while been chased by rabid cheetahs. Seven miles later we were back home just as the girls were getting up for their day at the spa (somehow I drew the short stick). So, while they were off getting pampered Curt and I cruised around town, first to go and see his swanky new corner office then stopping off to take a look at these huge sculptures of each president's head which sat in rows outside the artist's studio. They were absolutely amazing.

From there, our weekend pretty much just consisted of hanging around and gorging ourselves, before we ultimately packed up and headed home around seven on Sunday night—driving as far as Gainesville before settling in for a couple hours of sleep (more on this in a later post).

By noon the next morning we were back at home—and for Carrie—back at work. No reason to get too down about it though, we'll be making the journey again in just a couple of short months to meet the newest member of the family.



Here are a couple of photos of the nursery-in-waiting.





Funky nightlights.







Zoe and Luka found the nursery very soothing.



*I've also added a few new shots to my flickr page if you want to check them out.