Sea World

*Get ready for picture overload!!!*

We arrived at Sea World this morning just as they were opening the park for the day.  We lathered everyone up with sunscreen and then joined the crowd of people excited for a day at Sea World.  Our first stop was the sea lion show.  It was really good!  It was a comedic show who's stars were the sea lions, an otter, and a HUGE walrus.  Here's our family waiting for the show to start.

MarkAngela & Jayden.  (No.  You didn't just see a typo.  That's what Barrett calls both Mark & Angela.  For some reason, they are one name in his head.  All weekend he referred to them both by the name MarkAngela.  Cracked us up!) 

"The Cannery Row Caper" - Sea Lion show

Can you believe the size of this walrus?  Are all walruses this large? 

 

After the show it was time for lunch.  We found a nice, cool cafe to eat lunch at.  Did I mention that it was in the upper 90's outside today?  The air conditioning felt so good.  Barrett kept trying to get Jayden to give him knucks, but Jayden wasn't wanting to show off for us.

After lunch went to a show called Cool Vibrations.  We sat in the splash zone at this show and got soaking wet!  The guys on jet skis rode right up to the stands, turned the jet skis around, and then revved the engines spraying water all over the crowd.  It felt great!!!

After the show came the highlight of Brody's day...Journey to Atlantis.  This was one of 2 roller coasters that he was tall enough to ride.  He had seen this roller coaster in the Sea World brochure and had been talking about riding it for days. 

Mike, Mark, and Brody were the first to ride.  They're sitting on the back row in the picture below (Mark is in a red shirt and Brody and Mike are beside him) and you'll notice they all have their arms up high in the air!

Angela and I watched the little boys (knowing we'd get to take Brody next).

After they got off the roller coaster they stood at the bridge at the exit and waited for the big SPLASH of the riders after them.

They were soaked but looked like they had so much fun!

Brody begged to go again, so Angela and I took him.  (We're in the third row.  I'm in a turquoise shirt and Angela's in pink.  Notice that Brody and I have our arms up in the air...but Angela is holding onto the lap bar with a death grip! lol)

 

Brody begged to go again, and again, and again.  We told him we might get to ride it more later, but we wanted to do something that everyone could do together.  We headed to Shamu Theater for the show Believe staring Shamu (the star of Sea World).  Barrett fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the show.  Since they don't let you take strollers in (and since we knew Barrett needed the nap), Mike and I decided to just walk around the park with Barrett while everyone else went to see Shamu.  We thought we'd get to go to a later show, but that didn't work out.  I'm kinda disappointed that we went to Sea World and didn't get to see Shamu!  At least the others did.  They sat in the splash zone and got wet.  Brody told me that Shamu was really big with black and white on him.  He said his favorite part of the show was when he got splashed.

During the Shamu show, the lines for rides were extremely short.  As soon as the show was over we hurried to do a few rides before the lines got long again.  Mike, Brody, Barrett, and I rode a ride a ride called Texas Splashdown (for those of you that have been to Six Flags, it's like the Log Ride).  The boys loved it!  Barrett was so excited to be able to say he went on a roller coaster.  (Tonight as he was going to sleep he was still telling Brody, "Bubba!  I went on roller coaster!")  Next Mike and Mark went to ride one of the big roller coasters.  The rest of us waited for them at the end. Barrett was happy and energetic (remember, he'd just had a nap)...but the other two were starting to get really tired. 

Jayden finally gave in and went to sleep.  Barrett thought it was funny that Jayden was asleep, so he climbed in his stroller and pretended to be asleep too (just for a picture).  Notice how his eyes are squinted shut and he has a smirk on his face?

When they guys were done with the roller coaster, we headed to the kiddie park (which Brody misunderstood and thought I was saying "kitty" park, therefore, he kept asking to go to the cat park! lol)  Next came the biggest mistake of the day...the egg ferris wheel.  We thought it'd be fun because all the little kids could ride.  Don't be mistaken by the smile and wave...

This is what it really felt like.  It was BRUTAL!  The sun was soooo intense and we sat there baking!  You wait for them to load each egg individually.  Then the ferris wheel goes around maybe 6 times?  Then you wait your turn to exit.  I bet it took 10 minutes...which meant we were sitting almost still in a metal bowl in 95+ degree heat with no breeze and no shade.  Did I say brutal?  Jayden was crying and we were all ready to disembark and run for the shade!  If you go to Sea World with little ones, only ride this if it's in the early morning shade.

 

Next we headed to see the dolphins.  You can lean over the edge of the dolphin pool and reach for them as the swim by.  They didn't come close enough for us to touch them, but it was fun to watch them swim around.

The last stop of the day was the aquarium.  We saw so many sharks, fish, and sea creatures.  Angela and I talked about how the differences and uniqueness in the sea life causes us to marvel at the creativity of God. 

 

By the time we left the aquarium it was after 6:30 pm.  It had been a long day.  The kids still had some smiles left in them...

But the rest of us felt like this....

We decided it was time to head back to the hotel.  We had so much fun today it wore us out! 

When we got back to the hotel Mike and I took all the kids to our room and let Mark & Angela have a date night.  We took them to the pool (it felt amazing after enduring the heat all day), feed them pizza, and then put them to bed.

Tomorrow we're headed to Sea World's water park, Lost Lagoon.  We're all excited about spending a day in the water!