Happy Wednesday, everyone!
I woke up at 3am and could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned until my gym opened up and then set off to get in some fasted cardio. When I got home I headed straight for the shower because I worked up a major sweat doing intervals on the stair master.
After my shower, I made myself a cup of coffee and made Schoen some protein waffles. I ate some scrambled eggs and half of the banana that was left over from his waffles.
While I ate, I typed up this Easter weekend recap. Prepare yourself for a ton of pictures and a little history lesson! Here we go...
Easter Weekend in Houston
So, this weekend recap is publishing a tad late....but better late than never, right?
My parents decided to come spend Easter weekend here with us in Houston! Ever since I found out they booked their flights I was counting down the days!
Thursday
My parents arrived into Houston shortly after noon last Thursday afternoon.
My mom visited us earlier in the year, but this was my dad's first trip so we were super excited to show him around! After picking them up at the airport and dropping their bags off at our house, I gave my dad the grand tour and then we headed off to eat some lunch. After lunch, we headed back to the house to wait for Schoen to get off of work.
While my parents relaxed, I got to work in the kitchen preparing my very first Easter dinner as a married woman! We decided to do Easter dinner on Thursday night because they were leaving somewhat early on Easter Sunday and we had dinner plans with old Singapore friends during the rest of the weekend.
I have to say, preparing such a large meal was rather stressful. I have to give my mom mad props for making it look so easy! On the menu was broccoli casserole, baked beans, mashed potatoes, ham, corn and deviled eggs. I was so hungry I forgot to snap a picture of the spread :( But I did get a picture of my parents filling their plates!
I also caught a picture of Schoen sneaking Roxie a piece of ham.
It was delicious! I'm proud of myself for cooking so many different dishes, but I was glad my mom was there to guide me when I needed help.
After dinner I cleaned up and prepped an overnight breakfast casserole for us to eat over the course of the weekend. The remainder of Thursday night was spent hanging out, chatting and watching the movie Interstellar. I really loved the beginning of the movie, but then it just got weird. We all agreed that the ending was not all that great. But, it was a fitting movie to watch because we had tickets to go the the Johnson Space Center the following day.
Friday
I woke up early Friday morning and popped the breakfast casserole into the oven and a short time later it was ready to eat.
After our bellies were full we showered and hit the road and made the 1.5 hour drive to The Johnson Space Center.
When we first walked in, there was a small section of Ripley's Believe It or Not! items that we enjoyed looking at.
It's crazy to believe that someone was actually this tall! I'm 5'5" and felt like such a shorty!
After browsing around for a bit and catching a few of the presentations, we headed to wait in line for the tram tour. I think we can all agree that this was the highlight of the space center. There were a TON of people there that day so we waited in line for just under an hour.
The tram tour took us through various parts of the Nasa campus. My favorite part, hands down, was getting to see Mission Control.
Selfie in Mission Control, what what!
After Mission Control we got back on the tram and toured the campus a bit more before our final stop, Rocket Park. Rocket Park is now the home for the Saturn V Rocket which is the most powerful rocket ever built and operated.
This sucker is HUGE! It was so neat being able to see it in person. We also got a bit of a history lesson on all of the Apollo Missions while we were there.
I, of course, had to jump in to a picture with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.
A fun side story...
I actually got to meet Buzz Aldrin at my high school in Dubai. Someone even asked him if he ever thought about nudging Neal Armstrong out of the way!
By the time we were done with Rocket Park, we were exhausted and hungry. We headed for the car and stopped for some barbecue on our way home. Unfortunately it wasn't barbecue like we were used to back in Oklahoma. Lesson learned!
We finally got home around 8pm and spent the rest of the evening relaxing. All that walking and learning about rockets wore us out!
Saturday
The majority of our Saturday afternoon was spent at the Galleria Mall doing some shopping!
Naturally, I gravitate towards workout apparel. I picked up a pair of Lululemon crops and a sleeveless portofino shirt from Express. We also had lunch at Rainforest Cafe which was a blast! I kept with the weekend tradition and took a picture with the robotic tigers.
After a day of shopping we headed home to shower and relax a bit before our 7:30 dinner reservations at Straits, a Singaporean Restaurant & Lounge. We decided to head downtown a bit early to walk around and have a drink before dinner.
I was actually in Houston last year for work and stopped by a restaurant near my hotel for dinner with some colleagues at a place called Brio and they had the best espresso martinis. (<--- brio="" dinner="" distance="" espresso="" for="" from="" go.="" holy="" i="" knew="" martini="" me="" nbsp="" on="" our="" p="" reservations="" run="" s="" sentence="" should="" since="" that="" walking="" we="" were="" where="" within="">
My mom hopped on the martini train as well. She loved them!
After pre-dinner drinks made the short walk over to Straits to meet a few of my parents friends from our Singapore days. City Center, the area where the restaurant was located, was buzzing with people. It was definitely the place to be that night!
We ordered so much food! I had trouble getting pictures of all of it. Some of the highlights that we enjoyed were chicken and beef satay with peanut sauce, roti prata and black pepper crab. The satay tasted exactly like I remembered it from Singapore. It was fabulous.
It was such a fun weekend. I am so glad that my parents were able to come into town and spend the long weekend with us!
Well, I'm off to the grocery store. I'll be back a bit later with my second What I Bought Wednesday post. Catch ya later!
Labels: Breakfast, Dinner, Family, Food, Holidays, Houston, Weekend
