SeaWorld

Before I move on to November (and December), there is one more fun thing we did in October that I wanted to blog about - SeaWorld!  We didn't have anything going on the day before Halloween, and it had been so long since we'd had a free Saturday, so we wanted to do something fun together as a famly. 

Cynthia was not even two weeks old yet, so it was a tiny bit of a crazy idea, but it actually was perfect, because she just slept in the front pack the whole time, except for when I fed her during the shows.  The weather in San Antonio was great - hot enough during the day that I felt sorry for all the kids I saw who were bundled up in their furry Halloween costumes, and just chilly enough for jackets in the evening.   

Daniel and the boys at the dolphin show:

Me and the girls:

I love the dolphin show.  It's so neat it gives me goosebumps.  I know I've said this before, but it always makes me wish that in my spare time I was a dolphin trainer at SeaWorld. 

Or the lady who gets to do this:

After that it was on to the Atlantis ride, which Daniel went on with the older four kids.  Lizza was not scared at all.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, and then click again to zoom in, you can see Tristan, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Rachel in the very back row, and then Oliver (green shirt) in front of them.

I think everyone got pretty wet except Daniel and Lizza.

You can see from Oliver's face that he was very much in "dramatic picture posing mode".  (I actually don't know if he is ever not in this mode.) 

After that we went to the Shamu show.

The older kids really wanted to sit down in the splash zone.  After I warned them that it would be cold and salty water, Tristan thought better of it and moved back a few rows, but Ollie and Rachel insisted on staying.  They got soaked!

Oliver was tall enough to go on the Steel Eel roller coaster for the first time with Daniel and Tristan.  He was pretty nervous, but liked it enough to do it a second time later.



After he and Tristan posed for a picture in front of it, Ollie asked me if I would take a "before" and "after" picture of him.  I was like, "What are you talking about?  You already went on it," and he said, "no, Mom, please!  I have a really funny idea."  So I said okay.

Before (except it's really a pretend before):

And after. (I'm not really sure what he was hoping to portray with this one - maybe he is falling over because it was so fast and scary?  As Henry likes to say, "You are such a goofball, Ollie!")

We bought some little fish so we could feed the dolphins.  We've done this before, but have never been able to get so close to so many.  We were all able to pet the dolphins, which everyone loved. 

After that we fed the sea lions.  I think sea lions are so funny - it's always entertaining to watch them.

Little Cynthia stretching out during the sea lion show:

Rachel took this picture of us while we were waiting for the boys to do the Steel Eel again.   

After it got dark, Daniel took the older three to the haunted forest (SeaWorld had lots of fun Halloween stuff going on).  The line was super long, so I took the younger three out to the car to feed Cynthia.  Lizza and Henry were pretty worn out, and fell asleep immediately. 

It was a good day.

October

Things we did in October.. .

More football.  Tristan's team is done now, but Oliver's team (the one Daniel coaches) made it to the playoffs, so we could still be going to football practices/games through the end of November.

The kids entertain themselves with their notebooks during the games.

When Oliver's not playing, he is a good sport about drawing Star Wars guys for Henry (Ollie is our resident expert at drawing Star Wars guys).

Daniel's 33rd birthday. 

The kids made several cards, as usual.  Here's one of Oliver's - a dinosaur roaring out the words "Happy Birthday".  I love the little dino chef on the island with the cake.

On the inside he wrote a cute little note and then drew a picture of two dinosaurs imagining blasting off from earth in a rocket, right as a giant asteroid destroys the planet.  At least I think that's what is going on.  I'll have to ask him.  I'm not sure what it has to do with birthdays - I think he just wanted to stick with the dinosaur theme of the card.  He's big on birthday card themes.

Lizza and her friend celebrating at Chick-fil-a after they finished lesson 50 in their reading lesson books.  Elizabeth is now on lesson 80 - only 20 more to go!

Lizza and Henry are good drawing buddies.   

Cynthia/Cindy/Cindy Lou/Lulu.  We love this little girl!  She is my easiest baby ever. 

I love when little newborns lay on their tummy and scrunch their bottoms up, so even when you pick them up they stay in a little bundle. 

One week old:

Cynthia was born 5 days before my 30th birthday - best present ever.  It's weird to think that only ten years ago on my 20th birthday I was 7 months pregnant with Tristan.  Even weirder (scarier?) is that on my 40th birthday I'll have a 19-year old, 18-year old, 16-year old, 14-year old, 12-year old, and 10-year old.   

Here are a millon pictures of all the kids holding Cynthia.

When they weren't holding Cindy, the kids were having fun getting ready for Halloween.  They had mixed feelings about the pumpkin guts.

Rachel's faces were cracking me up.

Henry eventually decided he was going to be brave about it.

They tried on lots of different variations of possible Halloween costumes.  Lizza couldn't decide between a fairy. .

Wonder Woman/Super Girl (with weapons added) . . .

And a mix of the two.

Henry went back and forth between Batman, Darth Vader, and just a regular "fighter guy", as he calls it. Mostly he just wanted to practice "flying" by jumping off the couch in some sort of costume.  Flying is one of his new goals in life - he often includes a "please bless me to fly in the sky" in his nightly prayers.

He decided to make our Halloween more exciting by splitting his head open two days before (he fell at the park).  He had to get six staples in the back of his head.  Getting the staples in was awful (for him and for me).  I'm sure someday he will be proud of his battle wounds, though.

And he was still able to go the ward Halloween party that same night.

Cynthia did not go to the party.  I stuck some bunny ears on her and let her pose by a pumpkin, and that was it for her first Halloween experience.

The annual Halloween candy draft (they dump all their candy into a big pile, sort into different kinds of treats, and then they each get to choose 15 pieces).

I always think it's so funny to see what the first-round picks are.  At least Tristan and Oliver have started choosing from the candy bar pile.

That's pretty much it for October.  I left out the trip to Seaworld that we did the day before Halloween, but I think that's going to have to be a whole different post.