Hello, Houston!

For Clay's Spring Break, we got to go to Houston to visit where he served his mission for 2 years!

We wanted to get to go back before his mission president leaves in June/July, so this was our last opportunity.

The whole trip was very nostalgic for Clay. He showed me all of the different areas that he served in- where he liked to eat, the churches he baptized people in, the mission office, the mission home, the temple and it seemed like he had a story for everything we saw. I loved getting to be there with him and getting a better understanding of what he did for 2 years. On Sunday, we went to the two different Spanish speaking wards that he served in and got to meet so many nice people that Clay taught and worked with.

The people were so excited to see Clay and I could tell how much he loved and cared for them. It was wonderful to get to see that. We had planned on getting to visit a lot of the people we saw later in the week, so we didn't take pictures, which I really regret now, because we didn't end up getting to visit any of them! It was Spring Break for all of the families there, too and so many of them were out of town or busy, so we didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked to.

We did get to see one of my friends from BYU, Marissa, who now lives in Houston and it was so great to see her!

We went to see the temple and it was closed for maintenance, so we didn't get to go inside (I also forgot my reccommend, so that actually made me feel a little better that it was closed!). It is such a pretty temple!

 Clay was not happy that it was closed!

It was starting to rain while we were there so we only took a few pictures there.

We drove around the temple and there are so many gorgeous houses around there. We spent a lot of our time just driving around and looking at cute little neighborhoods. We love doing that!

We also got to see Clay's mission president. I have wanted to meet him forever because Clay loves him so much. Clay was his assistant for the last part of his mission and Clay basically thinks he is the greatest man. It was so great to meet him and get to talk to him.

Those were the highlights of our trip. We also ATE and SHOPPED so much!

We had so much good food and there was good shopping everywhere!

Our hotel was right across from the Galleria and we spend a good 8 hours in that mall. Oh my goodness. BEST MALL EVER!

It was such a fun trip, but can I just say that I am SO GLAD that Clay's mission is over and he is back with me now? Sometimes it just hits me that he was really gone for so long and I remember how many sleepless nights I had and how hard it was to be apart. I can't help but feel so grateful for where we are right now. Some nights when I can't sleep now, I hug Clay a little tighter just thinking of how much I missed him and how happy I am to get to spend every day and night with him. Houston will always be a special place to us because we both grew so much during Clay's time there AND now my sister and her family are MOVING there! So, I am sure we will be back soon!