SeaWorld - San Antonio, TX

Emma has been wanting to go to SeaWorld for over a year, so I decided it would be a good time to visit my father and sister down in Texas. We spent two days at SeaWorld, San Antonio. We had lots of fun. Emma finally got to touch a dolphin, which she said felt like glass.

We spent the first day seeing all the animals and shows with Tonya (my stepmother). We got drenched by a 10 minute rain downpour in the morning, and spent the rest of the day in the blazing sun. The high temperature that day got to 96 degrees. Both girls favorite show was "The Cannery Row Caper" sea lion and walrus show. It was super funny!

Leora fell in love with the Sea Lions after watching the show. We fed the sea lions afterwards and she freaked out when it was time to leave their exhibit.

We spent the second day at the "Lost Lagoon" waterpark with Steffinie (my sister) and her children. The girls had lots of fun being with their cousins and playing in the water.

Overall it was a fun trip for us. The only downer was when we got stuck in the Phoenix Airport on standby on our way home to Seattle. We ended up spending 10 hours in the airport being bumped from 2 flights. Instead of getting home at 6pm as originally planned we got home at 2am the next morning. The girls were real troopers.

You can view all of our pictures of the trip in the photo album that's on our family website. The link is on the right!!!!

What a Wonderful Day!

Sunday, August 17th was a fun day for us. We went berry picking, dug for clams, and went out boating. We did it all without even leaving Raft Island. We live in such a great place! My sister Lindsay came down from Bellevue to spend the day with us. Our berries turned into a yummy blackberry cobbler, and Eddie ended up with a bucket full of clams which he was very excited about.

Of course the water was rather cold as usual on the boat, the skies were overcast, and of course with my luck we got a little rained on. While Emma was in the water she said, "I'm roasting it's so cold in here!". It was a good laugh.

Breaking Dawn

Okay, so I have to admit that I am a big Twilight series fan. I loved the first 3 books. So since I get off work at midnight most of the time I decided that on my way home at 12:30am the morning of August 2nd I would stop by the super Walmart and pick up the book. That way Eddie didn't have to go with me to Costco or Target just to get the book, and so I could avoid him rolling his eyes at me. I finished the book in 4 days. Slower than other people I know, but according to Eddie, way too fast. His words were, "That must be a really good book!" Well, the truth is that I did like the book, however, was disappointed by Stephenie Meyer. I know that the series is categorized under teen books and is therefore advertised to the world of teenagers. The first 3 books of the series I felt were age appropriate for teens, but the 4th book is not.

I just kept thinking while I was reading "Breaking Dawn" that there were so many young teenagers, meaning age 12 to 15, that were reading this book at the same time I was that I felt shouldn't be reading it. There were moments in the book that I felt were too steamy for a young teenager to be reading. We try to shield our children from certain things until they are mature enough to really understand them. I feel that she wrote the book very tastefully, but just kept thinking about a 13 year old reading the book bothered me.

I admit that I liked the steamy moments and other violence that has escalated from the previous books. It made the book better for me, and is what kept me reading. Unfortunately it also kept younger readers reading on as well. If Stephenie's book "The Host" was categorized as an adult book then "Breaking Dawn" definitely should have been the same!

I won't put any spoilers in here, since most people haven't finished the book yet. The book made me love Jacob more, and get really irritated at Bella a lot of the time.