Hello from Houston Texas everyone! We have finished our big move and have been in Texas now about a week so I thought it was a good time to give everyone a quick update. To start with the road trip here was… well it just was. Traveling for three days in the car with Erin, myself, Caden, and the cat was a heck of an experience but we lived and arrived in Houston last Friday afternoon. We were hoping the moving guys would be able to deliver our stuff on Saturday, but it ended up being Sunday before they could come. So our first official night in Houston was spent in a hotel about three miles from our new house. But on Sunday morning the guys arrived and delivered our stuff safe and sound. All told I was very impressed with the moving company (Allied). They worked their butts off and did a fantastic job. Not a single thing was broke, missing, or other during this entire move. Well nothing besides the lamp I dropped and broke, but that was after they were here and gone so I guess I can’t really blame that on them.

The first few days here in Houston were spent unpacking… unpacking… and more unpacking. Lucky for me just like the packing side of things, Erin did the majority of the unpacking too. We did get a chance to meet several of the neighbors. Everyone has been extremely friendly and welcoming to us. The house is in a cul-de-sac and there are a number of younger kids in the circle with us so Caden has been having a blast playing with everyone.

Next up we did some exploring around our house. Mostly finding the important stuff like a new GameStop for me to buy my video games at, and a BestBuy so I know where to get new toys from. Erin also wanted to find a grocery store and other boring stuff so we did that too. We also went and bought Erin a new car. Since her old job provided her with a car and they made her give that back when she left we needed to get her something new to get around in. After a lot of research Erin decided she wanted a Chevy Equinox. So we headed up to the local Lone Star Chevy dealership and she picked out her new car. It is really nice and I am pretty jealous of the coolness.

We also had our first official visitors at the new house. Kay and Dick came over on Thursday to welcome us to Houston. They even brought gifts, cards, and a sweet chocolate cake! It was nice to have them here and Caden really enjoyed hanging out and playing with them. I am looking forward to hanging out more with them as well as their daughter and grand kids real soon.

With this being the last of Erin’s days off before starting her new job on Monday we wanted to do something fun this weekend. Kay and Dick told us about a nice place on the gulf coast just north of Galveston called Kemah, TX where they have a really nice little boardwalk area with restaurants, shops, and rides. Since it is only about an hour from here we took a ride in Erin’s fancy new car and checked it out today.

That pretty much brings us up to date so far. Texas is nice, but this whole move has been an adjustment for everyone and we are still getting settled. I will say it was pretty nice to see all our friends and family posting about snow flurries in Cincinnati while we were wearing shorts and looking at a forecast for 80 degrees this weekend. I will probably feel differently when it is August and 120 degrees in the shade, but for now I’ll take this weather all day long!

I added an album with some pictures of the new house. You can find them on the Greatlandings Photo Site in the Other category under the album named Texas House. See ya~

Yesterday a bunch of us went up to Devou park, near the Drees Pavilion and took some fun family fall pictures. The plan was to get some cool shots with the city in the back ground as well and get some with the little kids. In the end we got some of what we were after. Caden and Jackson were not in the mood for posing for pictures so most of the ones of them were just grab shots while they were running around playing. But we did get some cool family photos of Adam, Sarah, Sky, and Cole that I really like. I wish there was more of the fall colors around that we had during the middle of the week, but thanks to two days of 80 mph winds there wasn’t much left. All and all though it was a fun time at a new place I hadn’t been to in a long time.

I separated the pictures into two separate albums on the Greatlandings photo site under the People category. The first is called Ashpaw 2011 Fall Pictures and the second is Stouffer 2011 Fall Pictures, but there is some cross over between the two. Anyway, check them out and let me know what y’all think. Thanks for a fun time everyone!