Christmas On the River Walk

One of my San Antonio bucket list items was to go see the lights on the River Walk in December. We got down there just as the sun was setting. And the guy who offered to take this picture on my phone told me accepted tips. He was not kidding. Classic.

 We got tons of stares but manged to keep all the kids out of the river. I couldn't figure out where the best place to see all the lights were so I tried to convince David that we should take the kids on a boat ride. He wasn't thrilled about the idea as the boat rides are 40 minutes and we know from experience that the last 15 minutes really drag...

 But the kids begged and while he took Scotty to the bathroom I did the unwifely thing and bought us all tickets so he didn't have a choice when he came out. The kids were thrilled.

 We were on it at the perfect time before it was too crowded and the lights were amazing.

 The kids loved it until the last 15 minutes like David knew was going to happen when they were all too hungry or tired to care about the lights anymore.

We were all so glad we went and the top 3 will all at least remember this!

 Who knows where we will be next December - so I am glad we got to experience this while we could!

Ashton turns 9

Ashton's 9th birthday was quite eventful. It was the day before Thanksgiving and we were up in Dallas with David's family to celebrate. He has been asking for a bb gun for awhile and was thrilled to finally get one. No I didn't read the label on the box about protective eye wear... hence the story you know is coming...

 I took him outside to watch him shoot and then set a water bottle up on the railing for him. He has used a bb gun a lot and I thought would be totally fine so I went back inside. 4 minutes later he came inside screaming holding his eye.

I didn't think there was any way that the bb had actually ricocheted so perfectly off the water bottle that it actually hit him in the eye ball. Well, David said, "Sam, quick come look at this!" and we got this picture and kind of freaked out a little bit. We quickly sent this picture to our doctor friends whom we use and abuse. Both of them said he needed to get into an ophthalmologist ASAP. 

 He spent about 3 hours of his birthday like this at the doctor's office getting checked, dilated and rechecked. 

Finally we got home and got to do his birthday cake.  The doctor's orders were for him not to do anything physical for the next 3 days. She ordered him to watch movies or play video games so he had zero risk of injuring it again. That was the only upside for Ashton.

We had 3 different drops going at different intervals throughout the day and it was a pain. David's dad made us an excel sheet so we could keep it all straight.

He walked around with his right eye dilated for two weeks after the injury because he was doing steroid drops to speed up the healing process. After the first week he acclimated to the lights and stopped complaining about the sun. Poor kid, it was quite the whirlwind but he handled it well.

Sea World in December

We live in central Texas and most days in December still get up to 80 degrees but Sea World sure helps us pretend that it's cold and wintery outside. They have a serious set up! 

This was a giant snow globe the kids went in... and then Scotty decided he shouldn't have chickened out.

The abominable snow man and the little dentist elf who is a family favorite.

Some days in December we just go in our swimsuits.

This girl is a water baby through and through. She gets right in there with the big kids.

And the shows are so awesome with Christmas carolers. Scotty has seen the shamu show at least 20 times and he still gets into it every single time. Even Rachel claps along now with the music.

November Happenings

 These are just some pictures I don't want to lose. When we got home from Africa I was so happy that Rachel came right to me without even hesitating. Then we opened out suitcases to get out some souvenirs for Lucy and Scotty and they went straight for our bag of seashells and lined them up all over the living room. It was so cute.

 Also, during the month of November I took the girls to the free art classes downtown at the art school. They loved it!

They made ceramics, weaved, painted, made corn husk dolls and had the best time.

Also on one random Sunday after church Ashton came downstairs wearing his suit jacket which he begs never to wear. I asked him what in the world what they were doing. I went upstairs to find they were holding their own election.

 No kidding, there were campaign signs and a voting box and they had built a podium and were having a debate and promising glow in the dark parties for whomever voted for them.

 This was Hannah's sign "Vote for me President Hannah I was made to win." Is this so Trumpesque or what? I dyed laughing.

Sometimes kids are sheer genius when left up to their own devices. Sometimes they make crazy messes and sometimes they make me so proud. Gotta love an election year!

2016 Family Pictures

 My friend Kelley is amazing. This is the third year she's done our family pictures and she just takes our crazy amount of kids in stride.

This one is probably my favorite of the bunch. Scotty had seen a bird and wouldn't focus and we just cracked up and I quit trying to pose them.

I love these people.