FRODO SEVEN : The Lauderdales Come to Houston

Mia and friend

I got up early this morning to put Tara and Lawrence and family on a plane back to Virginia. I was sad to see them go but felt very good about two things--first, I was definitely left wanting more. They were great guests and I'd be happy to host them longer (or to keep their kids forever). Second, we will be seeing them again in just two months when we'll be in Virginia for a very extended vacation.

Since I've been too busy playing tour guide to blog about what we've been doing, I'll be spending the next week doing a day-by-day summary of the visit. I took about six hundred photos and all of the posts will be very picture heavy. So, if you don't enjoy seeing photos of other people's vacations, you may want to stay away from frodo seven for the next week!

DAY ONE of

THE LAUDERDALES COME TO HOUSTON

Saturday April 4

We all got up at 5:30 A.M. to head downtown to Bellaire for their annual Trolley Run. This was the Lauderdales' second day in a row getting up at the crack of dawn so the kids were a little bleary-eyed. Brendan started the morning off with a bang, placing fourth in the mile. Chris, Tara and I ran the 5K. Chris beat his goal time by about 15 seconds and Tara placed second in her age group. All I'll say about my run is that I ran behind the Chik-Fil-A cow for the first half mile with her "clop, clop, clop" sounding in my ears.

I learned something new about my little sis'. Her favorite thing about races is the free food afterward. Chris and I rushed her through that part (sorry, T), getting us all showered and ready to drop Madeleine off at Rice for her track meet.

The Chik-Fil-A cow.

Little did I know she'd be my running mate less than 30 minutes later.

Mr. B is in the center. The boy to his right came in first.

No competition!

Why are we up so early Mama?

I made Madeleine official photographer for the 5K and ended up with about twenty photos of dogs at the race (along with some very good ones of the runners).

T, Chris wants to know what's so funny and why you weren't pushing yourself a little harder :)

A strong finish

Chris ran in with me. My cool shirt was a gift from Tara and Lawrence.

Another race dog

We went to Memorial Hermann Park for a picnic lunch. It took us half an hour to find a parking space because Chevron was having their company family day at the zoo and all of the zoo parking was full.

It was a beautiful day and the kids wanted to play in all of the sprinklers and fountains at the park. We managed to keep them mostly dry though--except for Grace who took an extended run through the fountain.

Sweet sisters

They're hard to see but they're there.

Lauderdales and Doyles under a big Houston palm tree.

They've got the whole world in their hands.

(Tara could've played with this all day)

After feeding the ducks, we made it to the zoo. I love the Houston Zoo. I've heard great things about some other zoos like the San Diego Zoo but the only zoo I've been to that I've liked as well as the Houston Zoo is the zoo in Madrid, Spain. The one drawback to the Houston Zoo is that it is huge and we've never seen everything in one day. Chris and Lawrence would have liked to have seen the big cats but after about two and a half hours, the kids were falling apart, the runners were tired and it was time to go. Chris and I bought a zoo membership and I already have a return visit scheduled for May.