Charlie and Sandi's Visit Part 2

Our visit with Robert's parents didn't end with Schlitterbahn and the USS Texas and the San Jacinto monument. We continued on to the King Tut exhibit at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. I totally dorked out. I was so excited to go. I begged Robert as soon as we heard the exhibit was coming to Houston. We'd never made the time to go see it and when his parents heard about it they decided to take us all. Oh my gosh, standing in line my heart started pumping and I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve morning waiting for my parents to hurry up and get dressed so I could plunge into my stocking. Once we entered the exhibit I was entranced. I read everything and even answered some questions that Robert and his parents had. When I was a kid I was OBSESSED with King Tut. I read every book I could on the topic and even got a hieroglyphics stamp set with my babysitting money. I wanted to be an Egyptologist when I grew up. That didn't quite happen, but I still love to learn about ancient Egypt. It blew my mind to be so close to something so historic. It made it all seem more accessible. It felt more believable that these people existed and their history wasn't just a really good story. There were some artifacts that weren't in cases, they were just roped off. You could lean in and get a closer look at the carvings, the detail. It amazed me. I literally had goosebumps. Some of the more memorable things were the ancient toilet seat (I know, lame thing to remember), the size of the gold head pieces that were placed on the mummified bodies (they seemed too small), the size of the furniture (much smaller than what we use today), and the way they slept (on woven beds that reminded me of the chairs you see people sunbathing in at a pool and they cradled their heads up on a stand that was "u" shaped.) The jewelry was so intricate and beautiful that I'm sure any woman would be thrilled to wear it today. They even had the gold sandals and gold toe covers the mummies were buried in. I'm getting thrills just thinking about it now. It's a memory I will treasure forever. I thank Sandi, Charlie and Robert for taking me and having patience with me as I meandered through the exhibit. I am bummed, but I understand, that I couldn't take any pictures. I think you'd be able to see how dorky I am in them. The only pictures we got were right outside the museum.

Don't look too close because I hate this picture of myself. Someone should have told me that that belt wasn't doing me any favors.

Charlie and Sandi outside the museum.

The next day we went to Bob's Taco Stand in Rosenburg, TX.  Last time Robert's parents were in town we made the 40 minute drive down to eat there because we saw it featured on the Food Network on the show, "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives."  Anyone who knows me knows my world revolves around food and if it's featured on TV and I live nearby I have to try it.  So we made the drive only to realize they were open seasonally and we missed the opening date by one day!  It was a huge downer.  Mostly because we were starving, but it was still disappointing.  So, during this visit, we checked the open date, double checked the open date and again made the drive down.  This time we had better luck.  The food was yummy and reasonably priced.  That's win-win in my book.

This is a great philosophy.

My kind of dive.

Outside the restaurant, Bob's has a Snowball stand.  This is Scarlett waiting for all of us to get our Snowballs so she can start sampling the smorgasbord.

Sandi, Charlie and Nate.  Mmmm....Snowballs.

Robert with his dreamsicle Snowball.  Happy guy.

Nate looks so tall in this picture.  He's growing up too fast.

Scarlett sampling Robert's dreamsicle Snowball.

Snowball tongue!  And Snowball shirt...

Outside the stand.  Can you believe this is the middle of March?  Gotta love Texas!

Happy girl!

Before Sandi and Charlie had to leave we did a mini birthday party for Scarlett.  She's two now!  When people ask me how old she is I still want to say one.  I honestly get confused because I can't believe I've had her two years already!  Here she is opening her present.

Yay clothes!  She grows out of everything so fast because she's so tall.

Beema and Peepa knocked it out of the park when they gave her a stroller with her own baby.  She still plays with it daily.

It's not a birthday party without cake.  I made dark chocolate cupcakes filled with ganache, topped with an Italian buttercream.  Ohhhh, so good!

She's looking at me saying, "Really?  I can eat all this?  It's mine?"

I think she likes it!

Yummy!

I think she loved it!