Robert's Owie

Yesterday, while cutting some cheese for his quesadilla, Robert managed to cut his finger with one of the knives my mom had just had sharpened. Mom looked at it and figured he might need some stitches. Robert turned so white and chalky that we made him sit down. Mom called Dad at the office and Dad told us to come right in and he'd take a look at Robert's finger.
Dad gave us a few options on treatment, but the one that seemed the best was stitches. Robert was not pleased. He gets really queasy around blood. He can't even watch doctor shows on TV cause they gross him out. Anyway, dad gave him a local anesthetic and after that took affect injected a little more anesthetic with a needle. Robert held my hand the whole time and that was when he squeezed. He didn't like the injection. I watched as Dad gave Robert two stitches. I have seen stitches done before and they haven't really gotten to me, but watching the tip of Robert's finger get stitched was a little different. More graphic, maybe? Anyway, I had to sit down after Dad finished. So, long story short almost and hour and a half after leaving the house for Dad's office Robert was stitched up good as new. Now I'm wondering how he's going to do all the typing that's involved with his work? He's already asked me to type while he dictates. I don't know why I am being punished in the midst of all of this! :)

Our Trip to Houston...finally posted

So, it has been awhile since we returned from our trip to Houston; it is only a few weeks away until we become residents of Houston. This is a monster post with many pictures of our adventures there. Unfortunately, Erin has dragged her feet with the post and has put me in charge. Which means, rather than Erin's clever wit, you will have to deal with Bob's incessant rambling for the narrative. Here we go. (PS, some of the pictures are out of order, I don't blog. Thus, deal with it.)

Our first stop in Houston was to the Museum of Natural Science. It was a great museum, primarily because of all the dinosaur bones. Nate's favorite.






Quiz: Anyone know what Malacology is? We do and we have the above picture to prove it!

Our next stop was NASA. It was amazing. Big rockets, big engines, and everyone saying "Houston, we have a problem" the entire tour. Our tour guide told a "great" joke that I thought I would share. They had these huge long horns as part of some ecological project, but our guide told us that they were prepping them to go to space to see if they could actually jump over the moon. Houston, we have a problem with our tour guide!



I must admit it was a bit humbling and awe inspiring to see the size of the rockets that make the trips to outer space. It was quite impressive and I gained a new respect for not only the men and women that created them, but the men and women who were willing to strap themselves to the rockets!
The above picture belongs with the museum pictures. Don't blog, don't care to fix it. They had this huge precious gems exhibit with massive diamonds. Erin was like, "jeez Bob, where are you at?" as she looked at her wedding ring. This gem happens to have a familiar name Kunzite (Kunz is Erin's maiden name...no relation to the gem).

Yep, back to NASA


We also visited the Houston Aquarium. They had this train that you could ride that would take you to a 70,000 gallon tank full of sharks. They had a tube that ran through it and the train would stop and you could look at the 360 world of sharks. Nate loved it. I am sure there is a picture somewhere in this post.


Along with the shark tank, the aquarium had a white tiger exhibit. They had two white tigers and I am pretty sure there is a picture somewhere in this post. Kind of like a Where's Waldo. Good thing I was there to protect Erin from this tiger.

The above picture is of Nate and the massive Houston Zoo. They had a tube that ran through their fish tank. Nate is in the orange shirt and I am pretty sure those are piranhas in the tank.

Okay, these pictures are back on our tour at NASA


The above picture is the actual mission control room for all space missions. They did not have any missions currently going, so they let us actually see the room. It was pretty cool. It was the real place of "Houston we have a problem" (I think that was the third time I typed that)



While at NASA, they had this huge exhibit on the movie magic of George Lucas. I am pretty sure that those are the real R2D2 and C3PO.

My dad tried to steal the Indiana Jones clothes. He was actually caught and escorted out. He almost made it out with the fedora before two buff guys tackled him (just kidding).


They had a big obstacle course that Nate could run through. Not sure how Erin got in, she is not under 3 feet tall.
So, on a completely dorky side note, they had a flight simulator at NASA that you could simulate trying to land a plane after re-entry. My dad tried the simulator and he crashed and burned. I on the other hand, on expert difficulty, effortlessly landed the plane and set the high score for the day at NASA. They gave me a card and said that if I ever quite my day jog, give them a call. Erin was so proud.

We, luckily, found the Houston temple (it is not really in Houston). It is a beautiful temple and we enjoyed walking around the grounds. I say luckily because my GPS did not know the difference between a temple and a Kroger grocery store. We were a bit confused.



See, this is part of the train and the shark tank....from what I talked about in previous pictures.

This is a picture of Downtown from the ferris wheel that will be mentioned in the next commentary. There were actually guys cleaning the windows in that middle building....made completely of windows. Wow, what a great job.

Story here. I hate heights. Especially when I am not securely fastened into the vehicle that is taking me so high. They convinced me to ride this massive ferris wheel at the aquarium. I was not happy, especially when the comedic duo of Erin and my dad thought it was funny to make the dangling thing we were riding in sway at the peak of the wheel. Curse words.

Got to love taking kids on kids rides. My philosophy, make the most of the situation and pose in as many pictures as possible. My question is, what is the sea lion I am riding looking at?


Pretty sure this was the real Nemo and Dori. Nate thought so at least.


They had a petting tank where you could touch fish. Nate drank some of the water...perhaps this is what led up to the big gross story!

Yep, me being a dork, Nate in the posing in the underwater suit, and Erin fleeing the scene because I have embarrased her. Pretty typical Ross family moment.

White tigers. Not sure who the people are in the above picture. I like to take pictures of random strangers.
This is a sleeping white tiger. See I told you there would be a picture of one. I am sure that you went through this post thinking "That Bob is a freaking liar!"

Um...blurry blue picture. I think this is the shark tank.


Again with the fun rides. This ride was extra fun because there was no line so the chipper man with a ciggarette decided to let us ride an extra long time. Let me tell you, extra fun!

Some pictures from the Houston zoo.


Nate riding the statue of a giant tortoise. Nate is looking forward to Fezzik getting this big.
Cool thing, they had an albino allagator. It did not move much, but we are pretty sure it was real.


We were doing our Fezzik impersonation. The gross thing about this was I was the first to get in the shell and I am actually on my arms, not letting my body touch the ground because someone had spit, at least I think it was spit, all over the inside of the shell. I get out of the shell and what does Nate do. Follows me in and lays down. That is my boy! At least it made a cute picture.

These pictures are from the prarie dog exhibit. You could go up in these tubes and be a part of their world...inside a tube. Great pictures none the less. My mom wussed out and did not get in her tube.

So, this concludes the picture look at our trip to Houston. Hopefully you made it through this post; hopefully this post gave you desires to come visit us in Houston. We loved our visit to Houston and we are grateful that we got to share the experience with my parents. We are really excited to move there and call it our home (we still don't know how we feel about being Texans. Can we live in Houston without being considered Texans?)

I know this blog was a bit out of order and confusing...kind of like trying to navigate the Houston freeways when our GPS got left and right confused. Feel free to let Erin know what you thought of the post and how much you want her back!

Nate's "Big Gross!"

I'm falling way behind on all of my blogging but I wanted to get this story recorded before I forgot. I still need to do my massive Houston post, but I am living with my mom and dad and their Internet isn't as fast as ours used to be so I'm going to have to wait on doing that one. However, I do have a great story about our flight home. I should warn, though, this is not a story for those with a weak stomach.

On our flight home from Houston, Nate, Robert and I were seated in the very last row of the airplane. I hate the very back because it takes forever to de-board and your seats don't recline. During the flight Robert and I had an understanding that halfway through the flight we'd switch chairs so neither of us had to sit next to Nate the whole flight because he can really wear you out. He loves the window seat so I sat next to him with Robert next to the aisle. During the flight we gave Nate rainbow colored goldfish and apple juice to snack on. Nate's been flying since he was 3 months old so he does really well. He loves to fly and see the big planes. Near the end of the flight I had to get up to use the restroom and that's when Robert and I decided to switch seats. I came back and not 5 minutes later we began our descent. I was thinking about how great the flight has been when Nate starts screaming, "I hurt! I hurt, Mommy!"

I look over and ask him, "Where do you hurt?" It was so out of the blue and he'd just been sitting there happily playing.

Nate looks at his dad and me and the next thing we know he's projectile vomited all over himself, the seat in front of him, and down on the floor all over our bags under our seats. Robert reflexively reached out and tried to catch the mess on it's way out so his hands and arms were covered. He yells for me to grab a vomit bag but it's too late at this point. Because we are descending no one can get out of their seats. The people around us are looking over and looking a bit sick themselves. All we can see is rainbow goldfish and all we can smell is stomach bile and old apple juice. Everyone has their hands over their noses and giving us sideways glances. Because we were in the back of the plane I looked around at the stewardess and asked for help. She said that she couldn't do anything because we were in the middle of the descent. I told her what happened and she got us napkins and a garbage bag. We start cleaning up but there's a huge mess and it's slow going. Meanwhile, Nate is yelling that he's cold and he's shivering from being wet for so long. He looks up at me and says, "I made a big gross. I made a big gross!" He looks so worn out and sad. I felt so bad for him when I told him we had to wait to land before I could really help him.

After what seemed like forever we finally landed. We had carried on all of our baggage so I pulled a clean outfit out for Nate and we stripped the yucky clothes off and threw them in the garbage bag. We managed to clean things the best we could all to the soundtrack of, "I'm sorry, I made a big gross!" Followed by a full reenactment of the mess sparing no sound effects. Poor kid was really traumatized. The stewardess was so nice and told us not to worry about cleaning it too much because the mess was so big they would just replace the entire seat! The good news was that the plane was headed to the hanger so there wasn't another flight after we got off. I was thinking about the poor person who had to sit in that seat, not to mention all the people around him.

So we deplaned and I took Nate to the bathroom to wash his face and hands the best I could. On our way out of the bathroom I'm feeling a little sick and I know Robert is feeling a little green when I see his face as Nate and I meet him outside of the bathroom. That's when Nate looks up and me and says, "Mommy, I'm hungry."

Are you kidding??? No way! I thought I was going to be sick now. Anyway, long story short, we got everyone fed and made it home safely. Now Nate tells his "Big Gross" story all the time with all the sounds effects. All our family thinks it's hilarious and I admit that now I look back on it and think we handled it pretty well but this is one of those parenting moments I could have done without.