The birthday boy

It's hard for me to believe it, but Luke turned 3 yesterday! He's been so excited about his birthday and has been counting down the days. When he woke up yesterday, he was thrilled his birthday had finally come. We had a Thomas party in the afternoon, and lots of our friends came to help us celebrate. He had such a blast playing with all his friends, but his favorite part was, of course, opening the presents. It was a little chaotic as all the other children tried to help him open the presents, but we all survived and Luke got some fun new toys. His favorite present was the Diego Rescue Center. Gary & I gave him a big boy bike which he has already learned how to ride (he has obviously inherited Gary's athleticism and not my complete ungracefulness!) A friend from church made his completely awesome Thomas cake which was a huge hit. Even though it was 100 degrees yesterday, the day was better than I could have imagined!

Luke, the musical

Luke loves to sing. He loves it so much that he often makes up his own songs. The other night he was singing about his bath toys, and a couple of weeks ago he was singing the praises of chocolate (something along the lines of, "Chocolate is so good and chocolatey!") It's so funny to hear him making up these songs, but it's even funnier when he asks me to sing them when he's done. I'll tell him I don't know the song, and then he'll tell me he just taught it to me. I need to pay better attention! Wouldn't it be nice to have such joy in your life that you wanted to sing about everything?

Mr. Smarty

I think Luke is so smart! Ok, I know I'm completely biased because he is my child, but he constantly amazes me. A few days ago, he asked me to help him draw a "k" so he could write his name. I watched him write an "L", then helped him a bit with the "u", showed him a "k", and watched him write the "e". He did most of it himself, and even though he didn't quite get it all on one line, I think it's still pretty good considering he won't be 3 for a couple of weeks! I think that pretty soon he's going to be smarter than me so I'll have to get some kind of full-time tutor to help him out!

Remember the Alamo!

Before we left town Wednesday, we went to the Alamo. It's right in downtown San Antonio and was definitely worth the trip. The building is a little underwhelming when you first see it, but once you go inside you realize how big it actually is. A distant, distant cousin of Gary's, Micajah Autry, fought and died at the Alamo, and it was neat to make that connection.

Dinner with Shamu

The highlight of our Sea World adventure was Dinner with Shamu on Tuesday evening. Dinner was served behind the Shamu show arena by the training pool. After we ate, the trainers told us more information about the whales (which are actually the largest member of the dolphin family), and they brought them up close for everyone to see. It was so cool to see them that close!

Sea World

Our first order of business Monday morningwas going to see Shamu. Luke's been talking about Shamu for several weeks now and wondered why he wasn't at the hotel when we checked in. We hit Sea World bright and early Monday morning and had a blast. We fed the dolphins as soon as we got there - what at treat that was! They swim right up to the edge of the pool to eat the fish. You can even touch them if you're quick enough. We saw a dolphin & Beluga whale show next, and it was really neat. Luke like seeing all the acrobats jump into the pool from way up high.

Luke feeding the dolphins.

Feeding frenzy!

After the dolphin show, we went to the Shamu "Believe" show. That's where things went a little sour. We were sitting in the "splash zone", and boy did we ever get splashed! We were all soaked, and Luke freaked out! He started crying and said he wanted to leave. So we watched the rest of the show from up high where there was no danger of getting wet. Despite getting wet, the show was fun to watch.

The day was saved when we went to the children's area after lunch and rode rides (by "we", I of course mean Gary & Luke rode rides.)

San Antonio

Casa Rio restaurant on the riverwalk.

This week we took a little vacation to San Antonio. It's about a 5-hour drive from home, but Luke did really well in the car, thanks to lots of movies and our DVD player. We got to San Antonio Sunday afternoon and after buying enough clothes to last me a few days (since I left ALL my clothes at home), we took a walk on the riverwalk. The San Antonio river runs through the middle of downtown San Antonio, and there are shops, restaurants, and hotels on either side of the river. Luke really thought the river was neat and asked all week when we were going back. We ate dinner on the riverwalk Sunday and Monday nights and took a boat ride Tuesday night. San Antonio is a pretty city, and we all enjoyed our vacation.

One of the many bridges on the river.

Enjoying the breeze.

Our Tuesday night boat cruise.

Happy Birthday, America!

We had a grand ol' time yesterday! Thanks to G-Mommy, we were all decked out in flag t-shirts. Landon, one of Luke's friends, had a birthday swim party yesterday morning, and we swam and swam and swam. Luke's doing really well this summer in the pool, and swimming has been a favorite afternoon activity. After nap we had another pool party, and Luke & Gary swam some more. It was a little rainy, but it cleared up enough to get in the pool. All of us were tuckered out yesterday evening!

Luke & Landon's sister Chloe enjoyed "pushing" Gary in the pool.

Landon & Luke taking a well-deserved lunch break.

Dallas World Aquarium

We went to the Dallas World Aquarium on Monday. It's such a neat place! They have fish from all over the world, plus exhibits with other animals. Luke loved the penguins and the flamingos, but his favorite animal was the jaguar (I didn't get a picture of it.) Luke wasn't in a picture taking mood, so I'm just posting pictures of some of the animals.
The shark tank.

Love those Florida flamingos!

Silly boy

What can I say other than Luke is his father's child?