Ahoy, October!

Though this October was rather greener than any other I've experienced (and we all know I'm nuts for fall colors), it was still ridiculously fun. San Diego has "Kids Free October," which grants free entry for kids with their parents to many museums and other activities throughout the city, as well as various restaurants which offer "kids eat free," (you may have noticed that's about the only way we ever take our family to dinner). Though we didn't make it to nearly as many places as we might have liked (well, as I might have liked, my family is rarely as enthusiastic about all the adventures I try to cram in), we did knock out some fun outings. We were also the lucky recipients of visits from Grandma Donna and Aaron's brother Nate, whom we hadn't seen in far too long.

We were able to enjoy not one but two visits to the Museum of Making Music, only a few miles from our house. It was cool! There were old pianos and instruments from the last two centuries, a variety of early recordings of everything from King Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band to Lil Hardin and Louis Armstrong to the Beatles and Elvis. Obviously a huge hit with Aaron and me, but the kids enjoyed it more than I expected. On our second visit, we were able to bring Grandma Donna along, and she enjoyed seeing early trombones, having played that instrument herself when she was younger, and having a father who was a trombonist with a band during the Jazz Age. At the end there was a place set up with an assortment of different instruments to try, and the kids spent nearly an hour trying out ukuleles and banjos and steel drums and harps and dulcimers. It really was a fun place to visit, especially for a family like ours.

The other fun museum visit we were able to squeeze in was the USS Midway downtown. It's a retired aircraft carrier from World War II that saw relatively little combat, entering the fray as it did in 1945. It has been converted into an enormous museum with opportunities to virtually pilot planes and chances to climb inside several era aircrafts. It was pretty cool to see how the ship was a virtual city at sea, with multiple cafeterias, a hospital wing, and recreational activities available for soldiers, as well as an incredible number of operative jobs to make sure the whole thing functioned properly. We were able to walk the runway up top, and see the boilers down beneath. I think one could probably have been at sea for a year without meeting everyone required to run that thing. We were lucky to have Uncle Nate along with us for that visit, and the kids had a great time getting to know him a bit better.

Among our many adventures, we had the chance to attend the most fabulous airshow on earth--the Miramar Air Show. Unfortunately it fell on one of the hottest days of the year. Although we packed up early in the morning to try to enjoy the most pleasant hours of the day, it was still ridiculously hot, and despite wearing sunblock, several kids went home sporting sunburns. It was thrilling to be able to see the fliers straight from the Top Gun Academy, though, even if the iconic soundtrack was missing during the flights. I wish we could have stayed longer (if the weather had permitted) or gone for the evening show instead. And it would have been nice if there had been less complaining (there was a lot, and I confess that some of it came from me).

We also got to visit Sea World again, this time for the Spooktacular that they hold near Halloween. Aside from collecting candy at various stations around the park, we took a few photos with our matching pirate costumes (and a mermaid), and got to ride Journey to Atlantis under the stars. We even got a peek at the snow they've already started making in anticipation of Winter Wonderland that opens next month--maybe we'll have a taste of a white Christmas this year after all!

The next week, we celebrated my birthday! Though the kids are doing a better job at realizing that the math doesn't work out especially well for me to be turning 27 this time around, I'm not changing my story. Some friends treated me to lunch the day before, then we had a family celebration with a visit to Benihana, an amazing restaurant we'd never been to before (and where we will never be able to afford to go again--holy moly, even with three free kids' meals and a birthday meal for me it was still twice what we would normally spend on going out as a family). It was fantastic! We were seated at a table that surrounded a grill, where our Japanese chef cooked up each of our dishes before our eyes. He was fantastic, doing all kinds of tricks, including flipping shrimp tails into his hat with knives and making faces on eggs before cracking them. The food was delicious, but truly the best part was the show that went along with it--the kids are still talking about Chef Tim's amazing skills. Addy made me a cake (though I helped her frost it), and we closed the night with some special gifts from the family I love most!

The following day, Aaron and I took Emerson and Sera out of school and we all went to LegoLand in further celebration of my birthday--it's crazy that we've lived only minutes away for the better part of a year, and still never visited, especially considering what Lego maniacs they both are. We had a great time, waiting for no more than a few minutes in any of the lines, and trying out the delicious "Granny Apple Fries" that are the park's specialty (they're really good). The best part of the day was walking through Mini Land, which is where some of the most elaborate Lego constructs ever built are set up. We saw the Las Vegas Strip, the Washington D.C. mall, Times Square in New York, and even New Orleans. Then there were elaborate Star Wars constructs from each of the movies--they were pretty spectacular to see. We had a lovely day, but we still managed to end in time for Aaron to make a rehearsal and for me to get Emerson and Sera to the new classes I recently signed them up for--hula and Tahitian fire-dancing (classes I wish I could sign myself up for, actually).

We ended the month with a handful of Halloween activities, from Addy's late birthday/Halloween party with friends to our ward's Trunk-or-Treat (held completely outdoors!) to our own little excursion to "Pirate's Way," a neighborhood street that was as elaborately decorated as a Disneyland set, and where we took a handful of pictures. The kids had a nice time trick-or-treating our street, and came back with enough candy to last only a day or two, which I think is exactly the right amount.