Sea World and Halloween

I was shopping early one morning at HEB when we heard a loud scary voice come over the loud speaker telling us that they were giving away free tickets to Sea World to the first person to bring them something with the word "Jack" in its name. I didn't think much of it, playing it cool, but made sure to pass by the cheese section one more time and grab some Colby Jack in case I saw the guy. I saw a group of people in the produce section and as I got closer I saw:

Jack

His costume was scary and freaked Ethan out. I was too late with the Cheese but now they wanted a pepsi product. The adrenaline pumps and we are on a mission. I race with my HUGE cart (the big car kind) dodging people left and right, did a fly-by pass through the soda aisle, grabbed a liter without even stopping and booked it back to where the pumpkin guy was, just before a lady emerging to my left.

totally won.

Freaked Ethan out a little, but we won tickets for Halloween day. Samuel had Regional band try outs (who plans stuff like that on Halloween???) He was there at 6:30 am to register at a school across the street from Sea World.
So while Samuel went through 4 rounds of adjudication,
D, Ethan and I went to Seaworld.

We went on one ride, Ethan's first carnival ride ever!

Here they are waiting in line.

Ethan wasn't even scared!
He'd go anywhere with his Daddy.

"Seat belts! So we can be safe!"
(wink* wink* Dora fans)

Up, Up,...

and Away!

So excited!

Next we checked out the shows.

Ethan liked it, but I'm not sure he knew what was going on.

They did lots of high dives and acrobatics.

This is Val after the show. She's in our ward. She's awesome.

She trains Beluga whales to do stuff like this!

She generously invited us back stage and we got to meet this guy!!
Both him and Ethan like playing ball.

We got super close!

Close enough to touch!!
Thank You, Valerie!

After that show we made our way to watch the sea lions.
I've seen these bad boys in the wild, but never like this.
They were great actors.

I think Ethan liked this one a bit better because of the story line.

This is the Steel Eel.

I was feeling courageous and got in line to ride it.
The entry way looks so innocent, easy getting on, almost cute even! So misleading!!
I'd say I'm a daring person as far as carnival rides go, but this is me on the Steel Eel:

Scared out of my mind!!

We started up the first big hill and half way up I had to close my eyes cuz I got so freaked out! I kept chanting "I can't look! I can't look!" and didn't open my eyes until the end. There were parts when I had to force myself to breath cuz I was so scared. It was a thriller, but I don't think I'll do it again, atleast until I've forgotten what the first time felt like. :)

We picked up Samuel from tryouts and he made first alternate and
will be competing in the Region band in a few weeks.
We went home and I put the kids in their costumes and we all went around the neighborhood.

Samuel was a headless guy. I saw this costume online and was so excited when I was able to put it together. We all got a kick out of it when S tilted his head to the side like this.

Ethan was a monkey and loved the costume. He wore it off and on for two weeks cuz he liked it so much. I think D even put it on him yesterday when it got chilly outside so they could go play basketball. What the neighbors must think! :)