Soccer Season 2014

This past Saturday began a new soccer season for the Sanchez crew!  Of course Richard had to work this weekend and both kids games were both at noon.  I recruited my sister in law to take Allison to her game.  The plan was for me to go to Cooper's game and leave at half time.  His coach already new the plan and was going to play him the first half.  Cooper was on fire!  Parents on the team asked if I brought a different kid to the game because for once Cooper was actually playing soccer.  I was for sure this was Cooper's last season of soccer he just wouldn't truly participate.  At his first practice Cooper told me "Mom I think I will really play this time.".  Cooper was actually running on the field, chasing after the ball, shooting at the goal, and defending the goal.  I was in utter shock, I wanted to record it because I thought no one would believe me!!!  Lets hope it wasn't a fluke and he keeps up with his promise to play.  We left at half time but it literally took me thirty minutes to get out of the parking lot, drive across town, and park at the other fields.  I got out of the car watched Allison make a shoot at the goal and the whistle blew!  I felt so bad I didn't even watch a second of the game!  She made two goals and her team tide the game 3-3!  I was so glad that Allison's Aunt and Uncle were able to take her to her game and be there to support her. 

Almost home

The drive back to Texas was exhausting, thanks to my sweet hubby for driving those 21 hours.  We pulled into my moms at 6 on Sunday night, she had dinner prepared.  It was a restful afternoon, and my mom even pulled out some of her family history to show me.  Later we made chocolate chip cookies and chatted for a while before bed.  The next morning we ate breakfast, loaded the car, and played a little ping pong.  I was glad we were able to spend some time with my mom through our Florida travels, we were on the road and made the four hour drive back to Texas. Back to reality.. 

Cousins and Good byes!

The whole reason for our trip to Florida was to see my sister and her family.  Cousins can have such special relationships.  Because my mom was the youngest of seven my cousins were several years older than me.  They also lived states away.  My children were lucky enough to grow up minutes away from cousins close to there age for several years. Allison is the ring leader and the oldest at nearly 9 then the ages are as followed 7 1/2, 7, 5 1/2, 5, 1 1/2, 1, 11 months, the twins at nearly 7 months.  And my sister Heather is due in a couple of weeks. Plus my step niece who will be 5 this summer.  Lots of kiddos from the Hughes sisters, 12 kids!  I enjoyed spending time with my nephew and nieces this trip and I loved seeing all the children playing with each other!

The day we left was my nephew Ryu's birthday the big 7!  We had a silly string fight, ate BBQ, and hit the piñata.  I was so sad to leave!  I came to FL and did everything I set out to do.  My sister holds a piece of my heart, and so do her babies.  It hurt to leave but I was so glad I visited.

 

Disney World

Our family loves Disney!  We couldn't come to Florida and not got to Disney World.  This trip thanks to my younger sister buying my nephew a ticket we took him with our family, also my mother in law came.  We came to the park minutes before it opened and didn't leave until 11pm.  We walked a lot so much so that early on my mother in law decided to get a scoter which was a good idea because we walked for 14 hours!  We actually rode every ride expect peter pan which had a 60 plus minute wait the entire day and this ride has a no fast past available.  We mainly stayed in Tomorrow land most of the day.  Richard is so good a navigating and we used our app on our phones to look at minute wait times which helped us know where to go.  Beckett took a two hour nap so Richard and I took turns taking all the kids on a rides.  Space mountain was all around voted everyone's favorite ride, we got a fast past the first of the day!  Allison and I collected 10 more pennies to add to her stamp collection from various stops throughout Disney World.  After 6 trips to Disney we finally watched the parade, the castle light show, and the firework display.  It was my favorite part of our visits.  We bought the kids cotton candy, popcorn, and coke.  They were very content eating and watching!  My second favorite part of the day was when my nephew screamed out his wishes during the fireworks.  It was a very special day with our group of 7, many lasting memories made!

Chuck E Cheese and WINTER!

On Thursday we went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch with my sister and her family.  It was a large Chucky Cheese and the kids had a blast!!!!  They ate a ton of pizza, played a bunch of games, and won junk lol.  It was a whirlwind of kids and we were always making sure we had all six kids!  Everyone had a wonderful time together!

After lunch we parted ways and my crew headed to Clearwater to go to the aquarium.  This is a special aquarium where they filmed the true store he movie The Dolphin Tale.  Last year the kids saw the movie and fell in love with Winter the dolphin.  When I found out that my sister lived so close I knew this had to be one of the stops we made while in FL.  It wasn't the most awesome aquarium I've ever been to, but the kids didn't care.  All the wanted to do was see Winter and they got a front row seat to her show!  We got to see Winter swim around with her friend Hope which is the new rescued dolphin at there facility.  Dolphin Tale Two just wrapped the week before we were there, and the new dolphin Hope is the Star of the second movie.  We got to hear facts about Winter and watch her swim with her prosthetic tale.  From what I understood the aquarium is for injured sea marine animals.  Which means there could be any type of animals there, some are permanent residence and others are being nursed back to health to go back to the ocean.  There were three levels at the aquarium; the top level you can see the animals swim in there aquariums; like the shark angle, otters, dolphin, and turtles.  The lowest level are the bottoms of the aquarium with many different types of fish.  The middle level houses there hospital and care facilities.  The aquarium offers a ticket deal to take a ferry excursion to the Dolphin Tale set building.  We took a twenty minute ride along the Clearwater beach, and boy was it beautiful!  The sets were large and had very interesting facts about the movie.  But our favorite part was the walk through experience of a hurricane!  Its a home that you walk through that's experiencing a hurricane.  Wind is blowing, the power is flickering due to thunder/lightening, and there's rain and water in some areas.  Cooper literally pushed me through the house and told me not to worry because it was not real!  Both the kids bough something neat Allison of course choose Winter and Cooper choose a shark tooth necklace!  We then took a bus tour through the city back to the aquarium.

 

Zoo

 

 

 

 

Wednesday we went to the Tampa Zoo.  The day started out rainy.  It had actually rained a good portion of the early morning hours.  I was afraid we would have to call off Zoo day.  As we drove to Courtney's the rain subsided and I was so relieved.  But as we drove to the Zoo it started to sprinkle and didn't stop for about an hour and half.  But the forecast insisted that the rain would clear up after lunch and we decided to brave the Zoo anyway!  What I loved most about this Zoo is all the kids exhibits, it had an entire kid areas with rides and a splash pad area.  I also really like all the different animals you could feed at the Zoo.  But my favorite part of our visit was the safari bus tour!  We took our three and Courtney's three on the tour.  It was a behind the scenes tour inside the animals cages and through there feeding and veterinarian care facilities.  We also were able to see there hurricane safety areas for the animals.  It was so neat to see a handful of animals up close and personnel.  I forgot to mention we took a lunch break and had a picnic outside the Zoo in there amphitheater on benches.  It was a nice little break before we headed back in the Zoo and we stayed until closing.  For dinner that night Courtney and I got to grocery shop and cook a meal together, like old times.  The big kids and I spent the night and Courtney and I got to play a few rounds of cards, I was in heaven!