Last Weekend in Town

We have the house back to ourselves - my family has gone back to Illinois. I miss them already, but it is nice to have our private space again. We had a great final weekend with my dad and Alex. Thursday night we went to the dog track. My sister made a couple bets for my brother (illegal, I know) and now I think he may be addicted. LOL!

Making out with the glass

It took me a long time to get myself to this track. I worry about the dogs being mistreated, although there is no way to prove that. I only hope that this track is too small for there to be a lot of pressure on the dogs. I finally started going ONLY because of 50 cent night. Beer, hot dogs and popcorn are all 50 cents! Margaritas are only $1! I bought nine hot dogs, three beers and a bag of popcorn for only $6.50. Holy cow! We got quite the group together to go to the races this past week: Sara, JR, Logan, Shannon, Chris, Ariel, Robert, Travis, Alex, my dad and of course, me. Logan was so funny. He was testing out the waters with this other little girl who was in the stands with her dad, when she leaned in to give him a hug. We couldn't see his reaction immediately since he was facing the other way, but he soon put his forehead down on the bench and we could hear him crying. Too funny.

My dad and Chris, jabbering away
Ariel, Shannon and I

Friday, my dad and Alex picked me up for lunch. I took them to this awesome Mexican restaurant where you pretty much have to speak Spanish to pick your meal off the menu. My dad likes original places and this was one near my work. I ended up getting out of work early, so we went to the beach for a little while. Travis is back to his regular schedule so he had all day Friday off. In the morning he went wake boarding with a friend from work. Between that and the beach he went to the chiropractor for a massage and adjustment. He pretty much slept the whole time we were out on the beach. Ariel came over for dinner and I made Alex's favorite - BBQ stuffed baked potatoes. YUMMY.

Saturday we got up bright and early to go to the tire shop for my dad's car. I just sold him my Neon and it already got a punctured tire! Thankfully I still had the warranty on that tire, so the replacement was free. We paid for the other one so that there were two new front tires at the same time. Afterwards we ran back home to pick up Travis and Alex and we rode around Houston for a while. There really isn't much to do in the city except for bar hop or go to the theater, but my dad wanted Alex to see it before they went home. We made a quick detour to Kemah for dinner at this awesome barbeque place. They had live music outside, so we sat in the "backyard".

On the way back we drove through the oil refineries so they could see where Travis worked. After that meal and a few beers, we HAD to take a nap. We slept for a couple hours and then got up to watch a movie. We eventually ordered pizza and Ariel hung out with us for a few hours before she had to be at work. We called it an early night since they left early on Sunday. I guess that's how we roll - lotsa food, drink, friends and family. =)

It was an awesomely full visit with my family!