4 Edits on Sea World

There were a few things about our Sea World trip I forgot to mention, but meant to originally add.
None of what is written is to "toot our own horn," just things that I want to remember.

1.  We are sitting on a curb eating our lunch.  I turn and see a grandfather pushing a stroller with a  grandmother walking beside him and looking back at a small, young girl.  The small girl's push-pop is a melted mess, and the grandparents look at each-other, and laugh overwhelmingly.
"Oh," I say, "You guys need some baby-wipes!  Here, take these," and I hand them 3 or 4.
Grandmother smiles, says thanks, and says the parents are on the roller-coster ride.

The grandparents stop around the area my dad is eating.  He and the grandfather talk, each asking where the other is from.
"Bama," says Dad.
"Logan, Utah," says the grandfather.
My dad asks, "Are you guys members of the Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]?"
"Yes," says the grandfathers, "and I can tell you guys are too because your daughter was so kind to my wife."


2.  Before the Killer Whale Show all members, and family members, of the armed forces (USofA and Great Britain) were asked to stand and be recognized.

Dave and Luke

Matt, Isaac, Eli, and Ashley
(I stood too, but I was taking the pic.)

3.  While me, Matt, Ashley, and Madison stood is line for the roller-coaster Mom, Dad, Isaac, Eli, Titus, Dave, and Luke went back to the Dolphin Lagoon.
Mom let Isaac take some pictures with her phone.  Pretty cool stuff.  The boy has some talent!

4.  And Dave made an observation: "Man, it must be miserable doing this in the summer.  I mean, here we are, almost January, and perfectly comfortable!"
True that, Dave... True that.
For those interested to Florida Parks, go in the Fall/Winter.  Trust me.

Jammie Overload?

NEVER!!

I do believe a good set of pjs is important, very important.  One can never have too many well fitting jammies...
... And that's exactly what happened this Christmas!  Hooray!


Christmas Eve PJs from Grammie and Gramps:

Taking these pics was a bit disastrous.  I took them, and Matt was out of the house.
He KNOWS the camera, ya know?
 Can get the right lighting, shutter speed, aperture with a glace.  I cannot.  Lots of trial and error for me...
But Matt is also willing to put in many hours of reading and practicing on cameras.  I am not.

Ain't these cousins cute?  

 Stocking stuffer PJs from the "Stocking-Stuffer" himself:

"Black Ninja" grandchildren PJs from Nana and Mume:

Each child numbered in the order that they arrived as a grandchild.
All of ours just so happen to be the first 3 grandchildren! 

Tom and Jerry PJs from Nana and Mume:

"Grandma Jammies" from Great-Grandma Diane:

Every year Grandma Diane sends out her "Grandma Jammies," each year holding a different theme.
This year was the family's history, with their family crest on the front.
We are the "Number 1" family because Matt is the first grandchild from Grandma Diane and Grandpa Brian.

PS, Matt and I look sweaty, because we are.  Just got back from the gym!  

3 Surprise Weekend

Remember this post with Dave's surprise to Ashley?  Well that was only the beginning...

Grandma Stella and Grandpa Lowell knew my parents were visiting Florida for the weekend, but they had no idea that the whole crew was coming too!   

Stella and Lowell are not our grandparents by blood, but by love.  And goodness, we love them!  

It was a lot of fun knocking on their door Saturday morning and shocking them with all our lovely faces... It's always good to know good people, and these two are really good people.  

They are the parents of the my mom's grade school BFF.  I've known them since... well... since the day I was born!  I've always loved visiting their home.

Plus, they have an awesome car! 

After our visit to Lowell and Stella we headed over to Great-Grandma Anna's surprise 90th birthday!  My grandmother and great-aunts have been working on this party for a whole year, and it went off without a hitch.
My Great-Grandma Anna has 8 children (my grandmother), each of those children have children (my mother), those children have children (me!), and in some cases those children have children (my boys). That's right, it's five generations still living and linked together!
I reckon there were about 150ish people at the party, mostly all relatives :)  It all gets a little confusing to "which?" and "what?" and "how?" are we cousins to which generation... I mean, my mom went to high school with her aunt, haha!

Great-Grandma Anna getting presents! 

So my Great-Grandma Anna was surprised, and it was fun to see families perform musical pieces for her.  Me, Matt, Madison, Ashley, and Dave sang (with Matt's guitar accompaniment) "You Are My Sunshine."  It was well received.

PS, my Great-Grandmother and Great-Grandfather have this really cool history:  They moved down to Florida from Michigan in the 60s... BY TRACTOR and TRAILER with CHILDREN!  One day I'll have to delve deeper into that crazy cool story.  (That's the history behind the cake.)



The day we traveled back to Bama from Florida was my birthday.  Holla!
The night before my mom was like, "So what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?"
"Oh," I haughtily reply, "MY homemade chocolate cake, with MY homemade peanut-butter cream cheese frosting."
And then Ashley asks, "Mom, did you picked up a box cake before we left?"
Mom says, "I got it taken care of."
And I didn't think much of the conversation.

We traveled in 3 vehicles, because none of us have high number seating cars.  When we left that morning we all pretty much left around the same time.
But because of our boys' high number of bathroom stops (FYI, getting each boy an individual Gatoraid was a  bad idea.  Their bladders are small and teeny-tiny, and they refused to drink slowly and in moderation) we ended up being 1.75 hours behind Mom and Dad's car.

We pull up in the drive-way, realizing we were just 3 miles behind Ashley and Dave's car (they took their sweet time, haha), and walked inside.
HOLY SMOKES.  Surprise!  A homemade chocolate cake with homemade peanut-butter cream cheese frosting, and balloon decorations!  Say, "What?!"  I thought that when we'd get home me and the women would get a cake together--I never thought that Mom, Dad, and Madison could pull off a homemade cake in an 1.75 hours!  (Apparently it fell on the ground at one point, but it still tasted great!)

So my 27th birthday was filled with (besides the 10 hours of driving) lots of family, good cake, and good presents.  Loved it all!  (Well, besides the 10 hours of driving.)

Our (Eli refused to join me) first attempt to get the candles all blown out...

... it took a while:

FINALLY!

All travel worn, but all happy.