Spring Break with our BOYS!!

The first day we arrived in Houston is all we heard about was the WORLD FAMOUS RODEO. At this point we were sick of hearing about the damn rodeo and we were ready to see what all the hype was about, especially since everything else in Houston seems to be less than average. However, having worked the night before left us feeling sluggish. As our usual we were running a little late and felt like we were going to miss everything the rodeo would have to offer. But boy were we wrong. Upon arriving at the gates we came to realize that this event is more or less a fair or carnival atmosphere with copious amounts of fried meat that we couldn't have because it was Friday (Yes, we do try to follow some of the Lent ways). Sooo, we settled for a potato on a stick..you know how much we love our potatoes. Then we found the largest cone of ice cream and headed into the stadium. To our pleasant surprise what we thought was going to be an already started concert in which we would be late turned out to be a full blown rip roaring rootin tootin rodeo! WE watched bull riding, broncos bucking, carriage racing, muttin bustin, and 4H crumbsnatchers running around trying to catch calf's by there tails. Each event seemed to be better than the next and we were on the edge of our seats the entire time! Finally, something worthwhile in Houston and the main event hadn't even started!

                                                                                        The rodeo was followed by an awesome indoor fireworks show and Train came shortly after for the main concert event. Again, on the edge of our seats we belted out our favorite tunes like meet virginia and save me san francisco until our throats and others ears hurt. Then we headed home to get a good night sleep before our much needed vacation to Florida.

Happpppy St. Patrick's Day! We arose early so we could don our finest St. Patrick's Day gear and head to the airport. Beads from Mardi Gras, giant polka dot green bows, and hand crafted four leaf clover necklaces courtesy of Big Boy himself.    

 We knew it was going to be a good day when our airport courtesy taxi happened to be named PAT and gave us free courtesy coffee! We continued the good day with talk of bloody marys with our free coupons on the airplane, but to our pleasant surprise the stewardess said they were on the house because it was a holiday! The luck 'o the Irish is on our side! We landed in sunny Florida and were greeted by 3 of our favorite spring break boys. Big Boy, John Boy, and Rob were anxiously awaiting our arrival unsure of what the next few days would bring. As soon as we hit the car our responsibilities were gone and vacation mode hit us full force. As we opened the door we realized an extra passenger who was lost and then found by Big Boy had smuggled his way in...but that is a whole other story. 

We thought the boys would want to head back and continue to work on the shack they are building, but to our surprise they took us to the nearest beach. We spent the whole day lounging on the sand and walking in the water finding all different kinds of shells and sand dollars. The water was so clear and the shells were literally everywhere you looked. To cap off our first good day we had a few beers and grilled some hotdogs before heading back to our new humble abode. The next couple days are a bit of a blur. The main focus was either food or sun. 

The hotel we stayed in had complimentary breakfast and Monday through Friday an impressive spread for a managers special dinner party. So with our bodies toasted and our tummies tight you could see how we each took one of Big Boys shoulders and fell asleep on the couch every night. Each morning we arose early, ate breakfast, and drove the boys to work. Once they were settled in we drove to all the local hardware stores to pick up various items the boys requested. Most items were free with coupons, but who knew screws were so darn expensive! We got several funny looks walking the stores with our finest beachwear and when asked what we were building "a house" was the last thing these people expected to hear. The boys thought they could pull one over on us and gave us a job they thought we couldn't handle. We showed up to work in our summer wear and were handed long sleeve flannels, gloves, and socks (who knows if they were clean or not). They pointed to a room filled floor to ceiling with insulation. Jenn's fear of spiders and talk of possible snakes living in these piles of crap was not allowing for a very thrilled attitude. But, we knew we had a job to do so all garbed up we got to work picking up piece by piece and moving it neatly to another location. The whole time we were getting heckled by the boys, but it didn't stop us and we finished the job with ease. Luckily we did not get the itches; however, our lungs were feeling the sting as we both had a minor attack of the coughs. No worries we would rest it off poolside. One day, actually one hour of work can be so darn exhausting!

 We did what we know how to do best and headed to the pool to soak up some rays. Time flies when you are having fun and before we knew it was time to pick the boys up from a hard days work. Today was no ordinary day of just picking up and going home. Today's special was free fries with green ketchup yet again. Now, the day before was St.Patty's Day and free fries and green ketchup was the special at Burger King, most normal people would just get one order at one place but we are not normal and had to go to numerous burger kings and get numerous fries. The way Big Boys face lights up with free stuff is priceless. So, when we saw a commercial that stated free fries on the 18th as well we knew we had to go back. When all was said and done we had received at least 20 free fries and got scolded by the drive thru employees for taking a photo. 

Needless, to say that bag went to the seagulls in fear that they topped our order was topped with an extra ingredient of spit. It is sad to say that most of the fries went to the seagulls, minus a few for taste testing red and green ketchup...the reason being our hotel offered us not only complimentary breakfast but also a full dinner spread. breakfast was always a surprise. This for sure always made us SMILE! Every time we road the elevator down we just got "caught smiling more" 

The main course switched between egg mcmuffins, omelets, mexican burrito, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage. However, around the outskirts of the main course was waffles, bagels, toast, yogurt, fruit, cereal, and cold and hot beverages.Our absolute favorite breakfast item was muffins. They had blueberry, mocha chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip and banana nut,  mmmhmmmh. One day we came down and there were no muffins!!! The muffin lady explained to us that they had forgotten to take them out of the freezer and they would be back tomorrow. With sad faces we found other things to eat and went about our day. The next morning we were pleasantly surprised that the muffin lady saved us an entire tray of the assorted muffins just for us! We are not early risers and she wanted to be sure we got all the flavors we wanted! Honestly, she was the nicest muffin maker we had ever met! Onto dinner, this is no ordinary dinner. Night one consisted of salad bar, Italian wedding soup, bread sticks, chicken cacciatore, mashed potatoes and gravy, and unlimited beer and wine. Our cheap hungry asses took full advantage of this and dug in numerous times. This meal was so good we even invited the local family that lives about 20 minutes away to join us. Before long we were all stuffed and empty glasses of beer lined the table. What can we say when its free we capitalize. The second night, again local family invited, consisted of salad bar, broccoli cheese soup with "Quakers", sauerkraut, brats, rolls, all the beer and wine you could drink, and if you stuck around to the end you were surprised with leftover chicken and dumplings. 

Management was notified on how great this food was but the disappointment of no dessert always left us craving more, hopefully there are some dessert changes the next time we visit. Fear not! We fixed our sweet tooth by heading to the cone for some of the best ice cream New Port Richey has to offer. After a couple days of this schedule you could pretty much roll us back and forth to our rooms, we would not be going hungry on this vacation. Like us our three little bears always slept right in a row dead to the world! 

The final day was in the team leaders words "rest and recoop day". We were allowed to sleep in, but sleeping in the living room allowed us a personalized alarm clock that went to the tune of "potty potty potty potty". Waking up laughing was always the best. On this final day that didn't seem to be enough so Big Boy came back after round one of breakfast completely frantic. "You guys are gonna miss breakfast they are turning all the lights off!!" So we stumbled out of bed in our jammies, staggered down the long hall, stopped at the public restrooms making sure not to look in the mirrors and headed to breakfast. The muffin maker did not let us down and saved us another tray of muffins, in which we each took about 3 for later. With a fully stuffed gut we started the day at the Greeks local hangout for some morning chatter. (Big Boys brother married greek so he is in the inner circle). Then we headed to the cooks house to check out a swarm of bees, having a professional beekeeper with us came in handy. We swung by and picked up Elanie and we got to drive in the terrorist vehicle. We thought we wanted a standard VW but now we are not so sure. This vehicle is an '89 with a working sun roof that is literally the entire back half. The seats are more comfortable than my bed, with room to stretch your legs and even a ledge to kick back and relax. We road the streets in style!

We made a quick stop at Elanie and Richeys sons, Andy's,  "laboratory" where we met their other son Alex (see photo). From here it was nearly lunch time and breakfast was starting to wear off. Richey offered us some weeds that are actually quite delectable. We munched on those for awhile as we fed the fish our leftover french fries. We must have to started to look pale because the boys offered to take us to the beach and pick us up later. How could we say no! We said our farewells to the local Floridians and told them not to worry we would be back soon, trust me they are excited to have us back! Then we headed to the airport. Rob had an earlier flight so we got dropped too. We tried to get an earlier flight, but it proved unsuccessful. See things do not always go our way! We figured it will all work out, not like we were dying to get back to Texas, we could kill some time in the airport, but honestly the only thing we found to do was eat. Hell it is the last of vacation for this week so we might as well live it up! With only 20 people on the flight into Houston we were able to spread out and realized that people don't fly into Houston much they just flee it!

15 days, 9 night of work, and we are on the road again to our next assignment! Let the countdown begin!