Thankful for ... Sea World!

For Thanksgiving this year we took a family trip out to Sea World.  It was our first time going - and the kids were super excited!  It was all decorated for Christmas and all of the shows were Christmas themed... such fun!  The weather was perfect too!  What a great time.  My kids are such animal lovers that this really was a great trip for them.  We also invited Jeff's parents to join us... the kids got to enjoy a trip and Grandparents for Thanksgiving!!

Here we are in the main entrance Thanksgiving day.  We are excited to get going on all the attractions!

Right outside the entrance there is this display area for their summer water park area.  They had baby Manta reys for the kids to "pet".  They were soft, or slimy, depending on who was describing them :)

Then we came to this water splash down ride.  The kids wanted to watch it.  I thought they might enjoy getting a little wet... so they went and stood in the splash zone.  
See how wet the cement is!  Oh, here comes the boat!

Mid splash picture! - notice how most of the kids are running away. 

Let's just say that the HUGE splash scared baby and soaked him pretty good and Grant didn't dry out til that night.  That night the boys did go on the ride with Jeff and his dad... and they got wet, but not as wet as this.  They really liked it - and went again :)


The kids found some cute ducks and flamingos.  They fed them too :)

Jeff helping Clark feed the ducks.  He was so cute ;).

While waiting for the Sesame Street show to start the people behind us had some popcorn and a 2 year old son.  They offered to share with Clark.  Let's just say Clark really liked it... and wouldn't stop "sharing".  Grandpa went and bought a couple of bags to share and Clark was very happy!  He got to sit with Grandma and Grandpa and bond over food.

We went and found the dolphins and showed up right at feeding time!  The kids had fun getting so close to the dolphins :).
Grant giving it a fish.

Jeff with Mhari.

Talmage and Clark

We visited the aquarium area also right at feeding time...

See the guy inside the tank!  It was cool to see him pet the sting rays and feed all the fishies!

Then we found the sharks!

Oh, and let's not forget Santa Shamu :)

While waiting for the kids to ride some rides Clark shared his popcorn with Grandma :)

The little roller coaster the kids went on.

And the carousel...

I stood and helped Clark ride his horsey.  So cute :)

Then there was the dolphin show.  It was pretty cool.  We saw Beluga whales, synchronized swimmers, lots of cool dives and jumps, etc.  

Oh, and let's not forget the penguins.  Sandra found the little animal she wanted as a souvenir.  The next day we came back and all the kids got to pick an animal for their Christmas present from Grandparents.  Sandra got the penguin, Talmage got a beluga, Grant picked a shark, Mhari got a dolphin... and Jeff got a huge Shamu :).  He's still a kid at heart ;)

Clark looking at the penguin exhibit. 

Oh, and let's not forget the carnival games.  
I wanted Jeff to do the test your strength game - where you hit the hammer on the target and try to ring the bell.  He did really well... 92 out of 100.  The guy running it has only seen 1 person win it and otherwise has only seen a 91... so Jeff's pretty awesome, but I already knew that ;).  He made the 300 lb body builder who went before him look pretty bad - obviously he didn't know how to swing a sledge hammer!

Jeff with his prize - little penguin.

The Shamu show!  There were 3 of the orcas.  It was a fun show to watch!

Too bad we didn't get wet while sitting in the "splash zone" :(.

Day 2 - Daddy and Clark 

 Looking at the sea lions 

Cute sea otter!

Swimming sea lions

Mhari wanted her picture taken... so she posed like this for me :).

Clark posing too.

This is in the animal sanctuary... and the older kids were holding a huge snake... which I wasn't allowed to take pictures of :(.  


We had a fabulous time and the kids really loved all of the rides, food, and animals...  Yay for Sea World!!

Sandra's Surprise!

Last week Sandra came home from school super excited.  She came running up to me smiling...

(come on can't you see what's so exciting?!?)

Well, she didn't tell me, but the necklace in the picture above was a pretty good clue!  She lost her first tooth, at school!  She got to go to the nurse and get the fancy tooth necklace too.  Such excitement!


Now here's the look at the cutest little gap in her smile.  See, now you can tell right :)?  (she even has her tongue poking in the hole)

Yay for Sandra!  She's happy to be joining the toothless club with her older brothers!  

Pumpkin Picking

Our friends grew pumpkins this year and harvested right around Halloween.  I saw all of the vines and cool pumpkins before the harvest.  There were so many pumpkins that I asked if my kids could pick some if they had extras.  There were still tons of tiny green ones and some big ones too.  Here are the kids examining the vines... 

Grant picked the biggest one left.  Check out that huge leaf!

Punkin with her pumpkin ;)

Sandra's pumpkin

Clark thought the little pumpkins were balls and kept throwing them :).

Talmage took forever to pick... because his siblings had taken all of the last big ones and he didn't want a tiny one :(.

This one was a decent size still.  Look how big it was in my hand... there were tons that were the size of grapes.

Clark loving being outside!

Clark looking at the pumpkin vines.

Talmage finally settled on a collection of pumpkin flowers, tiny pumpkins, and cucumbers.  Here he is showing off 2 of the flowers :).

Clark - because he's just too cute ;)

Happy Fall!  Thanks again to our friends who shared their harvest with us... it was tons of fun!!

Fencing

Our red fence has been slowly deteriorating.  Here in TX there are tons of wood fences and so they all eventually rot and fall over - great times.  Too bad the dirt is too filled with sand and clay to do a better fence because I would love a block fence I never had to worry about again!

Saturday was the day of the fence project.  Jeff decided to take down two of the panels that had lost the post in the middle.  It had been windy again and we figured the fence would be falling down anyway so why not get it fixed right?

After a couple of hours of work - most of that work removing the old posts and cement, here are the finished posts!  They looked fabulous!  Next to finish up with some wood next weekend....

Well, that was the plan until our home teacher showed up with the missionaries to help with our fence project.  We had called him because he had a jack hammer - almost a necessity when working in TX soil - man rocks and cement are nasty down there.  Well, unfortunately the jack hammer wasn't working, but bringing two strong missionaries was almost the next best thing.  


They started by removing the rest of the wood panels - that is a big pile of fence if I do say so myself :)

Then it was time to dig out the remaining 11 posts!  Some were easy... and some took way too long!

Such a hard worker!

Bro Blair with is long metal pry bar - that extra torque came in handy!

The boys had a great time helping too :)

So cute when they work together.  They had been Jeff's helpers with the first two posts - they really do work hard!

Baby had fun hanging out during all the excitement!

Everyone working!  Good times!

Well the posts are set and today the kids finished filling in the holes with the remaining dirt.  

It really is great to have little helpers!  

I am grateful for a hardworking husband and family!  It was such a blessing to have our extra helpers come by too!  It is hard for me right now because I'm not able to do any of the physical help and it could have taken Jeff a really long time to get this far by himself!  
It's exciting to see this project coming along ... maybe soon enough I'll have a fence to show for all of that "fencing" or rather, de-fencing we did ;).