Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend we hopped in the car and headed off to...San Antonio!!

First stop: The Alamo Even though Jeff warned me beforehand, I was so surprized by how small the fort is.

I can't be a Texan without seeing the Alamo

Next stop: The San Antonio River Walk

The Riverwalk is a network of walkways on the banks along the San Antonio River lined by shops and resteraunts. It is like being in Venice, except everyone speaks English.

Well, Venice probably doesn't have mariachi bands.

We got ice cream from Haagen Dazs and ate it right next to the river, it was fun to sit on the bank of the river enjoying the beautiful scenery and watching the boats pass by.

Here is the famous San Antonio. I wonder, if we had kissed his toe would it have brought us good luck?

We went to the Alamo and the Riverwalk Friday evening. As we pulled out of the parking garage Jeff turned right and all of a sudden there is a car in front of us honking at us. Oh No! We were on a one-way street going the wrong direction! It was embarassing to have to make a 9 point turn on a narrow road. That night we stayed at Mark's house (Thanks Mark!) and the next day we headed to Sea World!

Shamo says Hi!

Sea World in San Antonio is very different than Sea World in San Diego. San Antonio's Sea World has roller coasters and San Diego's doesn't, but San Diego's has more (and better) animal exhibits. But there were still 3D movies, flamingos, sharks, and SHAMOO! So we loved it!

We had so much fun riding the rollercoasters!

Yes, we took a picture of our picture. haha. We are in the back row. This is how we looked on every ride! Jeff has his hands in the air and Angela is hanging on for dear life!

Yay for Sea World!

The next day was Mark's graduation- the reason for going to San Antonio this weekend. He is now a doctor! Congratulations Mark!

While we were watching the ceremony, we saw this man walk in wearing something strange... are those PAJAMAS?! I can't' think of anything else they could be!

After a delicious dinner at Mark's and a "beautiful princess dance" performance by the nieces, we drove back to Houston. We spent the night and the next day at Jeff's parent's house. The time was filled with swimming, game playing, and competitions!

The boys tied rope across the pool and then dove from the diving board above the rope. Then progessivly moved the rope higher and higher. I have no idea who won.

We had a lot of fun this weekend. I hope everyone else had a great memorial day weekend!

More unpacking

This week we have been un-packing like crazy and I am excited to announce that we unpacked the last box this morning! We had 4 boxes full of books in our living room, so we decided we needed a bookshelf.

It was fun to set up the bookshelf together. Jeff is a great handy-man!

Yay for our bookshelf!
We also needed room for our food storage. I think the bottles of fruit look very pretty!

The next step was to make our bathroom pretty! So we bought a new shower curtain and rug.

I love how it turned out!

Lastly, we bought a COUCH! YEA! In the words of Zachary, "nice couch!"

Un-packing

Yesterday we unloaded the moving truck, got our car inspected (phew!), and then started un-packing. This process is going to take a little while.

This is our living room, with the dining area further back. The first thing we set up was our TV and DVD player so we could put in Pirates of the Carribean while we unpacked. Boxes are everywhere.
Here's our bedroom, partially set up.

Here's our kitchen. Yes this picture shows the ENTIRE kitchen...sigh... not everything is bigger and better in Texas.

After we unpacked for a little while, we went grocery shopping. After our trip, our fridge still looked pathetic. Milk, eggs, cheese, butter, and raspberries (carrots, potatoes, and oranges are hidden in the produce drawer) oh- and a capri sun that our nephew Zack donated to us in our poverty. Our fridge has never been so poorly stocked before. No worries, we are heading back to the grocery store tomorow. (We DID buy food at the store, a lot of stuff went into the freezer, and we only had time to make a list of things to get us through Sunday).

Grocery stores in Texas carry something Utah stores do not: wine. Three aisles of wine!

We do not have a couch right now. We have plans to get one, but in the mean time, we put together this beauty. When we sat down on our make-shift couch we imagined we felt like the Count of Monte Cristo felt when he sat down on the priest's chair when he hadn't sat on a chair for years.

Moving In

We owe a big thanks to Janie (Jeff's mom) for documenting the move-in yesterday.

Living on the second floor means less bugs (I pray) but it also meant we had to haul the furniture up the stairs. The Hamaker's have a moving curse. When Ali and Justin moved, their moped fell on top of Justin. This move we got close to another terrible accident. You see, the very top step of the stairs is about 5 inches taller than the other steps (seriously, how do you mess up that badly when building stairs??). So we kept stumbling on that stupid step, and when Jeff, Bruce (Jeff's dad), and Eric were bringing the armoir up the stairs, that step got in the way, and the armoir almost fell on Jeff's dad! The boys worked together and kept it stable for Bruce to get out under the armoir and he was not hurt. Luckliy I was in the moving truck at this time and did not witness it myself, or else I would have had a panic attack, it could have broken his leg!

Zack was a great helper! He used the dust buster to clean the whole apartment and then swept the entry way.When we had finally hauled everything up to our apartment, we were all exhausted. Houston is SOOOOO HOT and HUMID! I won't describe how much I sweat that day, but needless to say, it was more than I have ever sweated in my life. GROSS! I fear however, it is only going to get more hot, and more humid. Oh dear.

Day 5

Today was the last day of the big move, I was so excited when I woke up this morning. We started off in Kingwood and drove to Houston. This 30 minute drive was nothing to the hours we have spent on the road.
Kingwood is called the livable forest, the roads are lined with so many trees you feel that you are deep inside a forest.

Is it just me, or are Houston roads scary? I am terrified to learn how to navigate the zillions of highways.

Downtown Houston, here we come!

About a block away from our apartment, we see flashing lights behind us. Uh-oh. We pull over to the side of the road and the cop starts to walk toward our car... Jeff and I are racking our brains: maybe it's illegal to turn left there? What speed were we driving at? Jeff, did you use your turning signal??? Then the cop is there at our window... Our car's registration is expired! We had been in the city for less than an hour, and they had already noticed?! We explained to the cop that we just moved from Utah and we explained that we had gotten the car inspected in Utah and had the certificate to prove it. But Jeff has a Texas driver's license and that made our story suspicious. He took Jeff's license and went back to his car to look him up in the system. He came back and said there is no record of him living in Utah. We quickly pulled out my Utah's driver's license and our check book with Jeff's name on it next to our Provo address to prove that we weren't lying!!! Luckily, he decided to let us off. No ticket, just a warning to get our car inspected immediately. We were both releived, but a little annoyed too. You'd think the enormous moving truck who pulled off to the side with us would be proof enough that we weren't lying about moving.

After the run-in with the police we pulled into our apartment complex and got all set up with paperwork. Then we started moving in everything. We owe a BIG thanks to Eric, Sandy, and Zack; Janie and Bruce; and the Hamaker's neighbor who let us use their dolly. THANK YOU guys!!!!