A Visit from Belana and Manu

Our niece Belana Fingerle came to visit us in Texas with her boyfriend Manu. We did our best to host and show them around the place that we love. 

We showed them the famous Buc-ee's gas stations in Texas. 

Then we took them to the Toyota Center on New Years eve to see the Rockets play. It was their first professional basketball game. We had to sit across the arena since we didn't have seats together, but both sets of seats were great and it was fun to be back cheering on the Rockets. Unfortunately they lost!

First NBA game!

After the game we went and did fireworks at our friends the Cottens house. There was a lot of fireworks and luckily no one was set on fire ;)

The next day Cavin, Ragnar, Belana, and Manu went to our friends property and went shooting. They seemed to enjoy themselves and luckily they all came back in one piece!

Monday Ragnar took Belana and Manu to NASA which is always a tourist thing to do in Houston. 

Then they headed to Galveston to see the "beach" even though it was chilly. 

Cute Uncle and Niece! 

When they got back we went bowling together before the kids had to go back to school the next day. 

We played a lot of games together which was nice. I am glad most of Ragnar's family loves games as much as we do!

The last day ended up a little disastrous. We went to get a Covid test so they could fly back the next day. Well... Covid is out of control right now in Texas, so every place is too full to take people and this place is supposed to have results within 10 hours. Well we waited 3.5 hours to find out they wouldn't have the results til they were already supposed to have flown out. Ragnar decided to take them to the airport to check on the actual requirements while I continued to wait and while there, they found out their flight had been canceled! So, it ended up being a blessing that they went because they were able to get them on a flight leaving a few hours later to ensure that they would get back to Germany. Many flights were being cancelled, so it was the safest option even though it cut out a day of their visit. 

They hurried back to the house, packed, and we headed back to the airport. Thankfully they arrived home safely and all was well without the Covid test. It was nice of them to come visit us. We haven't spent very much time with Belana since we have always lived in different countries, but it was nice to get to know her and her boyfriend better and show them Texas! Hopefully they had fun!