Dare Devils

Monday we went to Sea World. The kids, especially Allie, were super excited...
They wanted your firstborn child as an entrance fee, but Allie was the only one tall enough to go on some of the rides, so we managed to get in another way.
We found a kids section that had a ton of cool little rides- a bit like a state fair, but the rides look like they won't fall apart and aren't 40 years old. One of the best was some sort of free-fall crab ride. The ladies that ran it were nice and let Wesley in. Hmmm...


BEFORE:
DURING: (it was hilarious for me to just see a little blond, then only a pair of tennis shoes)
WWEEEEEEEE...
The real trouble came at the end of the ride. Everyone thought he was terrified. But we know our son's crys and this one was of the infuriated variety. He was furious that the ride stopped going up! He sat there and screamed for a few minutes until finally he was unlatched and was dragged off crying pointing back at the ride.
Tuesday we drove over to Busch Gardens in Tampa. (Yes, you are right, we'll leave Disney for another day- or decade). It poured rain the entire drive over- probably New Mexico's annual amount. When we arrived it stopped raining hard and the park was deserted- so much so we thought it was closed. We had most of the place to ourselves and started in the kids section.
We realized that Joy and I could go on some crazy rides because there was no one in line. We found some roller coasters that Allie could go on. She is quite the little dare devil. This is a little more relaxed single car ride.


I took her on this roller coaster next. It had a few loops and was pretty quick. She had a good time, I think, but...used her vocabulary when she was done. She is always using the phrase "little bit." I asked how she liked the ride and she said it was a "little bit too bumpy, and a little bit too fast." This is a very Allie thing to say. She thought a little bit more then said "no Dad, it was a lot bit too bumpy and a lot bit too fast."

Joy and I rode this thing. You just look at it (web shot) and think that's just not right:
The photo does not do justice. It takes you to the top of this cliff, holds you there over the edge so you can see down, then waits a random amount of time and drops you straight 90° down. Here is your distinguished author waving to his daughter at the bottom of the drop:
Here is a shot of Allie learning to drive:
One of the greatest hits was the log ride. We never waited once and all had a good go of it (except Wesley). I'm surprised that our kids did so well. Or, maybe you should be the judge:
The idea of making a funny face for the camera was good in theory and always started well.
But always seemed to fall apart by the bottom (click the photo).

Miserable

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa if Florida is such a miserable experience. You can see it all over our kids' faces. So much wide open grass to run through. If it isn't wide open grass, you are climbing through jungle- ducking under palm leaves, scrambling over roots, wild life every where.

You learn crazy things- like how to drink from a house...
that you can make great sand balls to throw with Florida soil...
that baby cows named Scrappy who run around and play and think they are a dog... are still babies and sometimes need to rest...
that on rare occasions on back roads while looking for alligators (and seeing them) and finding wild hogs and armadillos you don't always have to wear a seat belt...
although you do have to be inside the truck when it moving. All very miserable.

The only pleasure to be had is putting kids to bed at 6PM New Mexico time (or was that putting them to bed from 6PM to, say, 9PM- again, and again, and again).

Misery does love company- Jay, Ilene and Andrew are coming out for the pity party Wednesday night.

Happy Birthday Joy!

Her birthday was actually yesterday (Saturday) but I wanted to get a photo of her birthday cake. The camera was dead and never made it out. Bevan, Rae, Marge, Maureen, Cory and Mitchell came by to enjoy celebrate with us tonight (Sunday).

Joy's siblings posted some birthday wishes for her on their family blog, I thought my family might enjoy them; here they are for you to see:

From Peggy: "My favorite memory of Joy is when we created the J/P quadrathalon when she was staying with us one summer. We made shirts and mapped out the course. It was a lot of fun, and I still remember how much fun it was to spend so much time with her. That's probably my favorite memory of Joy. Happy Birthday!"

From Wendy: "One of my favorite memories about Joy is the time we lived with Candice. We were driving home real late one night and were sooo tired! We drove past a sign all lit up with flashing lights and it said "Exotic". Exotic dancers? Exotic women? No- exotic BIRDS! We laughed so hard! "You liiike? You Buuyyy? wraaa wraaa!" shaking our shoulders like exotic birds might. My sides hurt so bad! We were laughing so hard! We still laugh each time we remember that joke!"

From Molly:

Wonderful Aunt
Great Lips
Great Legs
Great hair
Beautiful
Strong
Home Builder
Great Conversationalist
Strong Testimony
Natural Birther
Cook Extraordinaire
Spanish Speaking Fool
Thoughtful
Frugal Mugal
Knows how to have fun
Great Seester
Hard Worker

Undeserving Gingerbread House Wiener

Now go celebrate your birth! And thank ya mutha. We love you.

(Jason: Two editorial notes: It is our little niece Lucy in the baby carrier above. Second: Joy and I clobbered the rest of the Jackson family last Thanksgiving in a ginger bread house contest (see photo below). Molly has been plotting their comeback all year. We'll see at Christmas!).

(Jason to V&M: Even a casual inspection clearly shows that the graham cracker Jeep with licorice windshield wipers is far superior to Vic and Molly's delapitated "house" shown above. Why they thought the whole thing was rigged is beyond me).

Paul & Kristin: That picture made a blog appearance two years ago, but I love it so I'm posting it again. Joy, you are spunky, intelligent, sympathetic, creative, insightful, down to earth, a great mom, easy to talk to, are amazing at home construction projects, you grow your own tomatoes (and make killer roasted tomato soup), support your husband in a demanding calling and job, are inspiringly frugal (totally made up a word), athletic (and make up your own mini triathlons), AND have awesome non-seaweed hair. We love you to pieces and are SO glad we're in the same family!

Hope you have a great day Joy!

From Jenny: Happy birthday to Joy! You've always been a great sister and I loved that people thought we were twins growing up. I hope you have a fantastic birthday, and in celebration of your big day I'm taking my kids to Legoland. They say thanks for having a birthday. :)

From Sam: Hey, couldn't get on yesterday, but I wanted to wish Joy a happy birthday, too!
a very intelligent, thoughtful, fun and playful and kind sister.

From Jason: Joy - I am 0.33 years older than you, so as a newly minted 1/3 Centenarian, I am so happy to be in love with a beautiful younger woman like you. Happy birthday from your old man!

A Good Grief

In case any of you have not heard, Molly has started her new blog. It is really beautiful and honestly there is something there to which everyone can relate . It is also a fund raising site for other families who have lost little ones (have you ever priced out a headstone???).

So check it out!

Halloween (a week too early)

Friday, October 30th. A strange and mysterious note was left on our doorstep with this (click on the photo so you can read the note):
A brain and an eyeball!!! Which we later ate. Watermelon flavor- yum!

What did I do this Halloween that I have never done before? Make my daughter's costume!!! Allie and our close friends/neighbors (aren't they the best kind!?) decided they all wanted to be Geisha Girls. My friend Emily offered to make Allie's costume. I was quite relieved. And then I was feeling bad about that so I offered to hem it. And then, I don't know where it came from, but I decided to sew the thing myself! Maybe it was because I knew Emily would be right there to "hold my hand" through out but I did it! I am pretty proud of myself too. Allie ended up getting to wear it 4 times that week- once to the church Fall Social, once to dance class, once to school for the costume parade and then of course on Halloween. We sprayed her hair black for one of those days and then ran out of the hair spray. So did the grocery store. So for Halloween Allie decided to go with green. Hey, it is Halloween so why not.

We were so happy that the weather was nice since it had snowed for two days in the middle of the week. By Saturday it had warmed up and we ended up going out and going further than we have in years past. We went with the Hedricks (our friend/neighbors) which made it so much fun. So why did it come too soon? There are a lot of things I wish I could do over. I never really got to decorate for Halloween. We missed that. I never got a photo of Jason and I together (he was a dog and I was cat). I broke the wires while trying to put in the doorbell (which we haven't had for months) so we could be ready for trick-or-treaters. All of those fun little things that help you feel ready and like you can enjoy the holiday. Oh well, we still had fun. How can you not?! It's Halloween!