Once Upon a Time

I just uploaded a bunch of photos from my wedding day seven years ago and thought I would share a few of them with you. You may recognize my wedding dress from my post about my mom's wedding.






And we're even more in love today than we were then!

Seven

Phil and I have been married for seven years today. We've had our ups and downs over the years, but we are still completely and totally in love with each other.

Phil is the love of my life, and I couldn't ask for a better husband for myself or father for our girls.

I love you, Baby! Happy Anniversary!

Halloween Spooktacular

Hello! And welcome to my highly anticipated Sea World's Halloween Spooktacular post. Let me warn you up front that this post will be heavily laden with photographs. Anybody got a problem with that? No? Good, now, let's proceed.

We never made it to Sea World on Saturday. Well, technically that's not true. We did make it to Sea World, but it was getting late in the afternoon, and we were all tired and hungry, so we left after I got a couple of new passes printed up for Sarah and Emily. We decided to get up early on Sunday and try it again.

This first photo was taken while we were waiting in line to get in. I've never had to wait so long to get into Sea World before, but the park didn't really seem especially crowded, so I'm not quite sure what was up with the delay.


Once we got inside the park, we got our maps, synchronized our watches (not really, we just made sure the girls had Sarah's cell phone), made a plan to meet back up, and then let Sarah and Emily go off on their own for the first time. I was a little uncomfortable with letting them go, but I'm a bit overprotective of my girls. My dad drops my little 13 year old brother and his friends off at Busch Gardens whenever they have a work day off from school, so I know that other parents do the same thing.

Anyhow, after letting Sarah and Emily go, Phil and I went off with Katie. Sea World had the entire park decorated for Autumn and Halloween, so we had to stop and take a few photos here and there.






Phil and I took Katie on the Sky Tower ride, which she quite enjoyed. She loved looking down at everything and trying to spot Shamu in the water. I took this photo of Katie and Phil while we were waiting to go on the ride.


After the Sky Tower ride, we walked around some more, and eventually made our way to the Sea Lion and Otter theater where we were to meet up with Sarah and Emily for the Clyde and Seamore show. Katie is posing here while we waited for the girls to show up. In case you hadn't already guessed it, Katie dressed up as her favorite Sesame Street character, Abby Cadabby.


When the girls caught up with us, we all went into the theater to watch the show. In case you haven't seen the show before, it's a pirate themed show, starring a pair of sea lions, with a bit part by a sneaky little otter, and a cameo appearance at the end of the show by a large walrus.







After the show, we got lunch and rested a bit.




One of Katie's missions for the day was to go see the penguins. She had watched Happy Feet on Friday and was excited to see the real penguins. When we finished eating our lunch, we all headed over the the penguin exhibit.


Just in time for Halloween, the Headless Penguin!


No, he wasn't really headless; he just had his head turned all the way around and bent down to pick at his back. I don't know if he was scratching an itch or cleaning himself or what, really.

From the penguins, we headed over to take Katie along the Trick-or-Treat path. They had little Trick-or-Treat stations set up every so often along the path, and the kids got a different prize (mostly candy, but sometimes not) at each station. They also had people dressed up and posing for photos with the kids all along the pathway. Katie really liked some of them (the pretty ladies), but others she ran away from. Whenever she got scared, she would say, "I want to go home," so we knew to get here out of there quickly.





After making it all the way through the Trick-or-Treat path, we stopped for a photo op with the Shamu statues.


Here, Katie is enjoying some of the loot from her bag - a lollypop, to be precise.


Next, we went to catch the Shamu show, Believe. We've seen the show before, and I really find it be rather boring compared to some of the other Shamu shows I've seen, but Katie just had to see Shamu before we left.














Emily took this photo of Phil and me when we paused for a moment on our way out of the park. I was hoping to get a nice shot of the two of us, but I forgot how tired we both were and that my lipstick had disappeared quite some time before then, so it is what it is.


All in all, we had quite a nice day together at Sea World. Although, I must say that by the time we made it to the Shamu show, my feet were absolutely killing me. I had bought a new pair of shoes the night before to try to keep from hurting my feet and hip (I've been having trouble with my hip lately when I walk a lot) while we were at Sea World, but it obviously didn't help. I'm not sure if my feet hurt so much because they weren't used to being enclosed (I always wear flip-flops), or if there was some other reason. I ended up trading shoes with Emily, who was wearing flip-flops, so that I could walk out of the park relatively pain-free.

Sesame Street Live

This morning, Phil and I took Katie to see Sesame Street Live: When Elmo Grows Up. It was a great show, and we all had a great time. We had great seats, too. We were in the fourth or fifth row from the stage, and over toward the side of the stage. I was wishing that our seats would have been a little more central, but once the characters started going off-stage and along the sides of the audience, I was glad we were on the outside.

Because of our location, Katie got up close and personal with some of the Sesame Street characters. The first couple of times, she was very excited about it, but later she was over it and didn't want to interact with the characters anymore.

The show was really cute and entertaining. I did find a problem with it, though. The show was an hour and a half long, with a fifteen minute intermission. I think it would have been a better show for the preschool crowd if they had just made it a one hour continuous show. When they broke for the intermission, Katie was still fully entranced in the show. But after getting up out out of our seats during the intermission, Katie wasn't too thrilled to have to sit back down again for the rest of the show. And it seemed like that seemed to be the case for quite a lot of the other children.

Now, some of you may be thinking, well why didn't you just stay in your seats during the intermission? Well, have you ever tried to get a two year old to sit still with nothing to do for fifteen minutes? Yeah, that's why.

We bought Katie an Abby Caddabby souvenir t-shirt during the intermission. She tried to get us to buy her a Sesame Street mini soccer ball, too, but we didn't want to spend that much money. Anyhow, the smallest size t-shirt they had was a Medium, so I asked what size that translated into. I was told that it was about a size 2-4, but that it ran a little long. When I got home and took it out of its package for the first time, I was surprised by just how big it really was. It seriously looks like it would fit Sarah better than it would fit Katie. I'll have to take a photo of one or both of them wearing it (no, not at the same time!) tomorrow and post them for you to see.

After the show, we went to the mall and had lunch in the food court. Afterward, we went into Old Navy to look around. They are having some good sales right now, and I figured since it was Phil's birthday, we might like to get a new shirt or a pair of jeans or something, but he wasn't even interested. (Party Pooper!) Oh, well - his loss.


BTW: There was no flash photography allowed during the show, so I don't have any photos to share. Also, it's late now (12:23 AM), so I'm not going to take the time to put any links in my post right now. Maybe later. Maybe not.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the best friend, father, and husband I could ever ask for!

I love you, Phil!

Just Like Daddy

Faker

Apparently, this little Pleco is a fighter. Yes, he's still alive.

Now, Phil will only be charged with four counts of fishicide.

They're All Dead

I don't know how Phil does it, but he sure knows how to kill fish fast.

Phil Came Home

Last night. Katie stayed up to go to the airport with me to pick him up. She also refused to take a decent nap yesterday. She was wide awake for the entire drive to the airport, too.

Katie was thrilled to see her Daddy, and he was thrilled to see her. No hug or kiss for me. All I got was "Let's go get my bag," and "Carry/Hold this for me."

And the craziest thing happened on the way home, too. Katie finally fell asleep but then woke up crying. But her cry wasn't her normal cry. She sounded like she did back when she was a little baby. Phil said so, too, so it wasn't just me that thought so. It really freaked me out.

A Conversation with Phil

Last night Phil and I chatted briefly via online instant message. The chat went something like this:

Phil: John Tesh and Gwar are coming.

Me: Together?

Phil: Not together.

Me: That's too bad.

Phil: That would be really cool.

Me: Totally.

Speaking of Daddies

I found this photo on my camera. You've got to love a man who loves his daughters enough to do this.


Phil's such a good sport, isn't he?

Oh, and those of you who work with Phil, please don't give him too hard of a time about this post.