Hanging at the condo
Rise and shine! Enjoying early morning cartoons.
Here’s Dean ready to go. Taking a little walk to the club house, a kid for everyone, we’re willing to share. :)
Sweet Elliott with my mom.
Josh and Meg took Elliott could get into see a doctor, the poor girl was still running a high fever. We were all so worried about her. After waiting for an hour they found out they weren’t on “the list” and it would be another hour, so they left and Elliott wasn’t seen that morning. How frustrating!
Sydney and Tessa were partners in crime, hiding toys up on this ledge by the decorative chests.
Nicole, where’s your baby? Oh yeah, in your belly. :)
We all needed sunscreen before we left for Seaworld, it was going to be a hot day, in the 90’s, though not near as hot as it could have been. My girls think it’s so funny when we put “dots” on their face, I think it’s great how they can make even mundane tasks fun. Threw in this blurry picture of the kids running, they were so busy.
SEAWORLD!!!!
Let’s just say that we don’t get out much. :) So it was a really big deal for our family to go to a big amusement park. We were all so excited!! (all except Jacob, if you look close, you can see him screaming in the stroller, poor guy!)
Our first stop was to pet the dolphins. They didn’t like us much though, so we just watched them.
Josh, my brother.
Elliott, being a good sport, though you can see in her eyes how crummy she feels.
We all went to the Azul show. It’s an award winning show that is choreographed to music with dolphins, beluga whales, divers, birds, synchronized swimmers, and acrobats. While we were waiting for it to begin there was this clown who really tickled Sophie’s funny bone! I think she was the only person in the whole auditorium who was laughing at him, too bad we weren’t closer so he could hear her, would have made his day I bet.
beluga whale; and Jake, he can’t see that far away but seemed to like the music well enough
divers
acrobat (in the middle, dressed up like a bird) Tess was already sleepy and sweaty.
Look under the water and you can see he’s standing on the beluga’s nose getting pushed around the tank. The people in the top of the photo are synchronized swimmers. It was a really cool show, I was thoroughly impressed.
That’s as long as we all stuck together… we all kind of split up to do different things.
We went to the Sesame Street Bay of Play, Sophie had been talking about meeting Elmo for weeks. I kept trying to prepare her that there might just be a pictures or a statue of Elmo there, not the real Elmo. But she would ignore that and tell me how he’s going to say, “Hi Sophie! I love you!” and stuff like that. When we walked in there, my heart sank, no characters walking around. I saw a picture studio and walked over to ask them what they charged. He told me about picture packages and said, “but all of the characters will be on the stage over their in 2 min if you want.” I was elated, AND he said I could take pictures with my own camera!
While I was talking to them I had left the girls playing on this big net thing. Then I heard Tessa screaming, she was stuck up at the top(you can see here in the tunnel part), Sophie was coming down and I could see the Sesame Street characters coming out on the stage across the way! I couldn’t talk Tessa into coming down, she was too scared. And I couldn’t get Sophie to climb up with me, she was trying to go see Elmo. Arrrgggh! I didn’t want the girls to miss it!! I held Sophie’s hand and ran around the corner where Dan and a few others from my family were sitting. I yelled for Jonathan to come help me. He retrieved Tessa (unscathed) and we ran over to the stage. Hurray for help!
Tess was too scared to go up there, but Sophie certainly wasn’t! She hugged Elmo like he was an old friend.
I was so glad her wish came true. She talked his ear off for as long as they’d let her, but there was a line of kids waiting for their turn as well. We saw Rosita walking around on our way out and made a mad dash to see her too.
Dan and Sophie went on these “scary” rides.
The whole family braved the carousel.
There was no wait for any of the kid’s rides. My girls could have stayed here and rode the rides for hours. But Seaworld is BIG, so we moved on.
But not before a quick dip in the splash pad to cool off.
Sophie was avoiding the camera for some reason, so mostly just have pictures of Tess here.
The Kendalls helped us make sure our kids were getting the nutrition they need by supplying everyone with lots of Pediasure. My girls give the “kid drink” 2 thumbs up! Thanks Kendalls.
Then we left in a hurry to see the Shamu show. Wow, was it ever cool!
I can’t believe the size of these animals and how well trained they are. They had all kinds of tricks. Crazy that they don’t eat their trainers either (at least none that I saw). ;)
Sure wish I could swim like that. They are just pure muscle, so amazing what they can do.
Dan wanted to buy Sophie a Shamu toy, since he loved his as a kid. It was a really big hit with Sophie.
Tess got a penguin. The penguins seemed to be everyone’s favorite, but only because they were in an air-conditioned building. :)
Sophie, Sydney and Tessa, it was too bright for them to look at me. Poor girls, trying to be obedient!
The Kendalls are true Texans these days, hats and all. Guess Jason and Nicole aren’t quite as committed, never saw them in hats. j/k:)
Jake did great, slept while we walked around and nursed during the shows, it worked out perfectly. My dad pushed grandma around, he’s a true gentlemen. Grandma almost always had a baby on her lap (this babe is Jane).
Dan tried out grandma’s wheel chair too, he was all worried about not having kids behind him while he tried to pop a wheelie, until we noticed that it had little training wheels so you couldn’t tip if you wanted to. He thought he was pretty cool though. And this is Stephanie holding Jacob.
These 2 cousins are the best of friends, they are adorable together.
Cheddars
We stopped at Cheddars for dinner on our way home, Jason (my oldest brother) picked up the bill for everyone. Thanks Jas! Here we are waiting for our table (that took quite awhile.. there were 21 of us after all.)
James, Dean, Sophie, Dan, Jenny, Jane, Jacob, Mom, Tessa, Nicole and Sydney.
It was really yummy, the salad I had was the best one I’ve ever had. I was so happy with the food (and their reasonable prices too!) that I looked up as soon as I got home and guess what? They have some locations in the Denver area! Woo hoo!
Jonathan, Jack, and Stephanie.
We were all tired and ready for bed. We made a pit stop at Marie Calender’s on the way home so I could feed Jacob, and Dan bought a few pies to share with the family. Oh yeah, it was a good day. :)
**Don’t forget that this blog is GOING PRIVATE on Friday of this week, so if you want to continue to read about our family’s adventures (and I hope you do!) please make sure you leave your email address so I can invite you.**
