Trip to Sea World

Six of us crammed into my parent's Expedition for the 5 hour road trip to Sea World on Thursday, September 29.

Kellyn took this picture of us in the backseat. My husband is such a dork. She also took that picture of Rhett in the car. 

 After a stop in Austin at the Dollar Store and traffic we finally arrived in San Antonio at 7:00 even though we left at 12:30. We were all starving. I was feeling really bad. We tried to go out to dinner on the River Walk, but the kids did not want to sit still, my dad needed to check in at his veterinary conference and I was having some major cramping in my esophagus or some sort of muscle just below my breast line and above my stomach. I had never had that feeling before. It literally felt like contractions, but way up high. I think I either got overly hungry or got car sick or maybe strained a muscle, I don't know. Luckily our hotel was on the River Walk so I didn't have to go far to get back to the room to rest and they brought me my dinner later.

The next morning we went to Sea World!

It was a perfect time to go. Not too hot. I think it was in the 70s and 80s. Such a great weather. 

We saw the Sea Lion show and fed the Sea Lions. 

           

 Then we had a quick lunch and hurried to watch Azul, the beluga whale and dolphin show. It was more like a crazy awesome high dive and acrobatics show. 

Because it was Fall they had a little Trick or Treating trail set up for the kids to walk through and see all kinds of characters, get candy and bananas, and get pictures, but Kellyn only wanted a picture with this octopus princess (not even Ariel or a pink fish). And this is as close as she would stand by her. And that is my dad holding Rhett. I don't even know how to describe my dad. He is the same way with my kids as he was with us, crazy fun and high energy, all the time.

Kellyn got her face painted, or course.

We saw this silly table setting on our way to see Shamu. Kellyn took over Rhett's stroller by the end of the day which was fine because he just wanted to run all over the place. 

Then while we stopped to see the ducks and flamingos who do we run into, but Gina and Charlotte!! We didn't even realize we were both going to be at Sea World at the same time. What a fun surprise. Gina had just found out that week that she is having a boy!! Oh, and Max bought me that hat while we were there. 

Shamu!!

After that we went to the penguin exhibit to cool off. Then headed to the Un-Haunted Castle and saw this turtle getting fed on our way there. 

When we walked in there was this wall with buttons and every button you pushed made a silly different sound. 

Ok, now this was the coolest thing of the entire trip. We walked in the room and this pumpkin on the tv looked down at my kids and asked them their names. Then it repeated them back to them correctly! "Oh, Kellyn, thats a pretty name. How old are you? I like your Barbie shirt. Cool hat, Rhett. What are you going to be for Halloween? Oh, Alice and the White Rabbit! How cute. I met a little girl and a little boy earlier today who is going to be Peter Pan and Tinker Bell...." It was awesome. Then as we were walking out of the room my dad said, "That was cool." And the pumpkin said, "Yeah, you're cool too with your dark glasses on."

There was a maze of different mirrors with buttons that made sound effects. Here is Dad and Rhett looking in the tall skinny mirror. 

We went to the creepy, crawly show in the Theater so we could sit and rest and cool off a bit. And Max and I got to hold a snake. I thought the kids and my parents were going to be in this picture too, but they all chickened out. 

Feeding the dolphins was so fun. Rhett wanted no part of this, but Kellyn loved it. 

The shark reef was amazing!

And was a nice break from the heat. We arrived at Sea World at 11:00 a.m. and didn't leave until 6:00 p.m. Needless to say the kids were exhausted. 

Thanks Mimi and Joe-joe for a great first trip to Sea World!