Sea World

We had so much fun at Sea World. We drove down Thursday night and swam in the hotel for a bit when we got their. Friday morning we were up and ready and caught the first shuttle. We were literally the first people to get our tickets-yeah for no lines! But then we had to sit and wait for the park to open. Luckily they open the gates early and you can go in and do some shopping and look around before the rest of the park actually opens. They had some pretty pink Flamingos to look at. Of course Koyle found a stuffed Shamu right away and was instantly attached. How could we say no? He carried that thing around all day long.

I just love his face in this picture, so I had to include it

 Somehow I didn't get a picture of the Shamu Express. Riggs had told the boys that it was the best ride so of course we had to go there first. It was the longest wait in the park all day and it was a very short ride; but the boys loved it so that's all that matters. I hadn't realized how much Sea World is really just an amusement park. I had more of a interaction with sea life experience in my head. But the boys had a blast and it was worth it anyways.

 Landon was such a good baby all day long. We even got him to take 3 naps throughout the day! The weather was perfect. It was overcast and misty in the morning, never got hotter than 85 degrees, the sun came out for a few hours in the afternoon and then went back behind the clouds before you could get too hot. We could not have asked for a better day.

 Matthew's favorite ride was Journey to Atlantis. Koyle will adamantly tell you that he did not like this ride. In all fairness, it is a pretty big ride for a little boy (he just barely met the height requirment).

 The boys went on it with dad first and then we jumped right back on with mom. Koyle did NOT want to go the second time, but I made him do it anyways. He didn't like the big splash at the end.

 Never mind the huge drop before the splash! Can you see us in the picture? 2nd row from the back.

 The shows were really fun and they were so excited to see the Killer Whale shows. The last show we went to was just too much stillness for Koyle late in the afternoon of a fun packed day, and he crashed right in the middle of his beloved Shamu show. We weren't too bummed about that though because it made the second half of our day remain pleasant.
It was about this time that the sun came out and there was one really wet water ride that Matthew wanted to go on but Koyle was too short. So they took the chance to go, but it was the only long line of the day. So while they waited an hour to ride, and Koyle napped, I let Landon out of the stroller to crawl around and get his wiggles out. He was starting to get cranky about being confined to a stroller all day.

 Koyle woke up right as they were finishing and we didn't let the last of the sunshine go wasted. They had a big splash park that the kids had been eying all day. Don't worry-we had been warned and brought a change of clothes!

 Matthew would have stayed there all day-he was in a happy place.

 Koyle would not go on this little ride. It was the slowest moving, most boring ride ever, but for some reason he did not want to get on it. Silly boy.

 One of the best parts of the whole trip was the food tickets we had bought. Unlimited food all day...yes please! It was so nice to not have to scrimp or ration or deal with hungry kids. Koyle especially liked that all the meals came with chips, aka cheetos.

 The last thing we did before leaving that night was let Dad go on the Great White rollercoaster. Can you see the tired in their eyes. While we were waiting they kept asking if we could go back to the hotel and go to sleep.

 Perfect picture-they were moving fast!

 They had these ocean animals made completely out of garbage found on the beach. I had to get a picture with one because they were so cool.

 Here we are the next morning sporting our souvenir shirts and toys. Matthew got a Shamu bubble gun. The kids all over the park had them and so no matter where you walked there were bubbles gently floating through the air. I actually really loved it, it gave the park a nice ambiance. 

 It was time to get out of the hotel though. Unfortunately it was super cold and windy so our plan to spend the morning swimming got cut to about half an hour in the pool. Our backup plan to go tour some sites in San Antonia got cut to a drive by wave of the Alamo. Oh well, we wanted the trip to end on a nice note.

 My friend had told us about this nice little German town that was on the way so we stopped for lunch on our drive home. We walked through the historical settlement and then had lunch at a German restaurant  The kids were restless and they forgot about our food; but I guess it turned out okay because they only made us pay for half our lunch.

The wildflowers on the drive were gorgeous! Especially around Fredericksburg.

It was a perfect little family vacation. The boys had a blast and Koyle prayed about Sea World every day for the next week. They still talk about it almost every day; it is so fun to be the parent that gets to plan special moments and memories for my kids.