4th of July and our Trip to Washington

No, we didn't go to Washington, D.C. for the 4th of July, although that would have been awesome.  We did, however, fly to the state of Washington to visit Josh's family for a week.  We didn't leave until the afternoon, so we went to our annual 4th of July ward breakfast first.  It's always bright and early so that people can still make it to the parade.  We have a flag ceremony and sing some patriotic songs.  This year for the family home evening before the 4th we talked about our country's flag and what it symbolizes.  Then we decorated flag cookies.  Eli likes to point out the American flag whenever he sees it, so he was excited to hang up our flag with his dad.

For FHE we just used butter knives to decorate our cookies, but I used cake decorating tools to finish frosting the rest of the cookies, which is why there is such a difference in look.

 We touched down in Seattle on the evening of the 4th, so we were there just in time for the fireworks.  Josh's parents have a great view from their home, so we didn't have to go far for a great fireworks show.  Of course, with the two hour time zone difference, we stayed up way past our bedtime, and we never caught up on sleep for our entire stay.  We crashed big time when we came back to Houston.

This is the view from Josh's parents' deck, but I guess we were too mesmerized by the fireworks to actually get a picture of them.

But at least we had a great time!  One of our main reasons for the trip was to celebrate Grandma Rosie's 90th birthday.  We enjoyed a fun day at the park with family (Josh's mom's side).  Many of the family members I had never met before, so it was fun chatting and playing.  The weather was perfect that day and was great the entire time we were up there, so we loved the break from our usual summer weather in Houston.

Family and friends that came to Grandma Rosie's birthday celebration

Blowing out the candles on her cake

Nana and Bampa let us go out in their boat on the Puget Sound.  Eli was a little hesitant because he doesn't care for water and was afraid he was going to fall off the boat.  Once we were on the water though, he loved it!

Eli with Uncle Matt and Aunt Megan

 Eli also loved being with his cousins--swimming at the pool, playing with toys, and going to the zoo.  He was very sad the day we came back to Houston.  He told me it just wasn't as much fun here (and he doesn't get to be with Nana, whom he absolutely adores).  Of course, home is never as much fun, but it would be nice if home were a little closer to family. 

Playing with cousins

Feeding the birds at the zoo

Camping at Huntsville State Park

Josh is already taking advantage of having more free time.  On Thursday night we went camping at Huntsville State Park, which is about an hour north of Houston.  Though I loved camping when I was younger, I'm afraid it's not my favorite thing anymore, but I am outnumbered.  When put to a family vote, I will be outnumbered every time because Josh and Eli enjoy camping very much.  I want to enjoy it as much as I did when I was younger, but so much has changed.  First, I don't remember the work part of camping when I was young.  I'm sure my mother did because now I realize that it is hard work to plan and pack everything, set everything up, and then take it all down.  I also didn't wear contacts and have frizzy hair back then.  I am much more aware of my daily need for a shower than I was when I was young.  The other part is that it is hot and humid here in Houston, and it doesn't cool down enough at night.  But like I said, my boys like it, and they didn't want a father/son outing (they had that at the beginning of May), they wanted Mom/Wife to come along.

We had a camping spot near a lake, so it was beautiful scenery.  We had the typical foil dinners, except Eli wanted hot dogs (he doesn't like potatoes, which are usually a main component in foil dinners).  We roasted marshmallows, which is Eli's favorite part and probably the main reason he likes camping so much.  Maybe if we started roasting marshmallows over the stove, Eli wouldn't feel the need to go camping and Josh would be outnumbered. ;-) 

When night fell, the lake turned into a cacophony of frog and bug noises--not the typical nighttime noises, this was LOUD.  Combine that with the heat, and I am amazed I got any sleep at all.  That is another reason why camping is not my favorite thing anymore.  I remember sleeping when I was young.  I do not sleep very well at all now when we go camping.  There seems to always be something on our camping trips.  This time it was the heat and bugs.  I didn't know that our tent door zipper was stuck ever since our trip to Corpus Christi in August 2010.  Apparently the salt in the air near the beach caused some tent damage that Josh didn't tell me about (he had gone camping since then; I hadn't).  Anyway, our tent door zipper broke, so anything that wanted to come into the tent had free passage.  I was both sweating to death and being bitten alive.  The good thing is that mosquitoes have never really liked my blood, so they do very minimal damage even when they do bite, but I can still feel when something is crawling on my skin.  I was torn between sleeping on top of the sleeping bag rather than sweating to death or sleeping in the sleeping bag rather than being bitten.  In the end, I did manage to switch between the two and get some sleep.

On Friday morning, we went on a small hike before leaving Huntsville State Park.  Then we went to Mooreheads Farm to pick blueberries.  We've been wanting to go blueberry picking for a while but had to wait until Josh finished his dissertation.  Blueberries just taste so much better when picked fresh.  Okay, pretty much anything tastes better when picked fresh.  I sure wish I could pick some fresh peaches.  Nothing I get from the store compares to the peaches I used to get from my Grandpa Hinton's orchard.  Anyway, the blueberries were tasty and are almost gone already.  We managed to pick about two and half pounds before Eli insisted on going home.  He was having some tummy troubles, and since it was VERY HUMID, we obliged.

Though camping isn't my favorite, it was fun to spend time together.  We had missed being with Josh these past couple of months while he was working really hard on his dissertation.  We're glad to have him back.

Enjoying dinner

Showing off sticky marshmallow fingers

Eli helped clean up by stuffing his own sleeping bag.

On our hike

Eli is forcing a smile since he doesn't feel well.

HE DID IT!!!

THIS MORNING I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO HEAR JOSH DEFEND HIS DISSERTATION, AND HE DID AWESOME!  I DIDN'T HAVE ANY DOUBTS, BUT HE CALLED ME AT LUNCH TO CONFIRM HE HAD PASSED. (Big Round of Applause and Standing Ovation)  CONGRATULATIONS, DR. PRATT!  WE LOVE YOU AND ARE SO PROUD OF YOUR HARD WORK AND GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT!

Josh's Graduation Ceremony and Other Happenings

Josh's parents came for a visit and stayed with us for a week.  The main event was Josh's graduation ceremony.  I would probably be posting this in all caps, but unfortunately, the ceremony was sort of anti-climactic.  He's not technically finished yet.  He's scheduled to defend his dissertation on June 19th, so that's the post you don't want to miss.  However, the ceremony was nice (Eli even fell asleep through all of the talks and woke up just in time to see his daddy walk up to get his diploma), and since Josh didn't get to attend the ceremony when he received his optometry degree (we were in Albuquerque), it was good to have him walk.  It was a proud moment for us all, though my eyes are looking forward to June.  We've all been a little stressed around here.  Poor Josh is very sleep deprived, and I think he might go into hibernation on June 20th.

Still, we enjoyed Nana and Bampa's visit.  Eli especially loves for them to come and is always sad to see them go.  We celebrated Nana's birthday with her since she turned 60 (shh...don't tell) the day before they came.  Later we also got to celebrate Mother's Day with her. 

We (all except Josh; he had to stay and work) went out to Brenham, TX (about an hour and twenty minute drive northwest of Houston), to the Blue Bell ice cream factory.  For those of you who don't get Blue Bell in your state, you are missing out.  It's delicious, and the tour of the factory was fun.  At the end of the tour, we got a cup of ice cream, so it was fun and yummy.

Not far from the Blue Bell ice cream factory is Washington-on-the-Brazos, the birthplace of Texas in Washington, TX.  It's the place where a formal Declaration of Independence from Mexico was signed.  Texas became an independent nation (the Republic of Texas) for about 10 years before being annexed to the United States as the 28th state.  We got to see Independence Hall and the Brazos River and read about Texas history.  We also got to tour a living history farm, the home and farm of Anson Jones, the last president of Texas.  

We had lots of good food while Josh's parents were here.  This is a picture of Eli at Five Guys.  He loves that place, mostly because of the peanuts.  Every time we go, he's more excited about the peanuts than the burgers.  It's funny to watch.