Sea World

The week after Lily's birthday we went on our first family of 5 vacation to Sea World in San Antonio.  We went to Colorado last summer with my entire family but we have never gone anywhere with just the 5 of us.  I'm not sure who was more excited about this trip- me or the kids!

 

We left as soon as Parker got out of school on Thursday.  The kids have never been in the car for long periods of time so we were worried how they would do on the 5 hour drive, but they did great!  We stopped in North Austin for dinner so that broke up the trip a little for them.   

"Raise your hand if you want to go to Sea World!"

One of the things that they were all three very excited about was staying in a hotel for the first time.  We've always stayed in condos on vacation so they have never spent the night in a hotel.  The girls insisted on taking the suitcases inside for us- so sweet!  After exploring the room and saying "oooh" and "aaah" and "this is amazing" about 273 times, they all three crashed.  Bedtime was much easier than I had hoped on the first night. 

 

Unfortunately for me, I tweaked my back in the car trying to pick up a doll that Lily had dropped and was in so much pain that I could not sleep.  I think I only slept for about 2 hours that night because I could not find a comfortable sleeping position.  The pain was so bad that we considered getting up and going home the next morning.  Luckily, after icing my back and taking lots of Advil, I was able to get the pain under control enough to walk around Sea World for a few hours. 

 

The kids, on the other hand, slept great and were all up bright and early the next morning.  They were excited and couldn't wait to get to Sea World. 

We had about 45 minutes before the first show so we let the kids enjoy some rides in the Sesame Street area.  Parker and Eden loved the little roller coaster and Lily loved the merry go round.

After we got off the merry go round, we were able to get a few pictures with Zoe.  Lily wanted nothing to do with Zoe but would at least let me hold her for a family pic.

Our first show was the sea lion show.  Parker and Eden insisted on sitting in the splash zone with Cory while Lily and I hung out a few rows back. 

Lily was not sure what to think about the show.  She spent most of the show covering her ears.  She finally relaxed and started enjoying the show towards the very end.

The best part of the show was when they picked Parker out of the crowd to come up and pet the sea lion.  He did a great job and was so excited that they had chosen him!

Next, we headed over to the Shamu show.  It has been many, many years since I've been to Sea World, but the orcas were just as amazing as I had remembered.  And we even got to see the new baby orca perform with his mother. 

After the show, we got to visit with one of the trainers.

Feeding the ducks was next on the agenda.

Parker and Eden were so excited to stand at the bottom of the log ride.  Fortunately, they stayed pretty dry.

One splurge that we made was signing up for the dolphin touch.  It was fairly inexpensive and was something I've always wanted to do.  Our dolphin's name was Nachas and the kids got to pet her and feed her.  Petting and feeding an 800 pound dolphin is something you don't get to do every day and I hope it's something they will never forget!

Because we went to Sea World the week before Halloween, they were having some special activities for the kids.  Throughout the park, they were able to trick or treat with all kinds of sea creatures.  At each station, the kids were given a bag of candy, which they loved!

After the dolphin touch, Parker started complaining of an upset stomach.  I attributed it to being tired and let him ride in the stroller for a little while.  Unfortunately, it wasn't fatigue but a nasty stomach bug!  The vomiting started right before the next show and didn't end until after bedtime.  Needless to say, we left the park immediately and headed back to the hotel.  What should have taken 20 minutes took almost an hour and a half due to rush hour traffic.  Parker threw up 5 more times in the car and then several more times once we finally made it back to our hotel.  It was definitely not how I had envisioned our trip to Sea World.

Parker felt much better the next morning so we kept our original plans of stopping in Austin on the way home to visit Nabeel and his family.  As always, we enjoyed hanging out with Nabeel and Julianne and the kids had a great time playing with their kids.  We went with them to their neighborhood fall festival where Eden got her face painted for the first time in her life.  She has always been too scared to have it done so I was proud of her for finally overcoming her fears.

The drive home from Austin was just as eventful as the rest of our trip.  We got into not one, but two very bad rainstorms/hailstorms where we couldn't even see the car in front of us.  Luckily the kids slept through most of it and never knew just how scared Cory and I were.

I don't think I have ever been more glad to be home in my life.  Other than the first few hours at Sea World, this trip seemed to be one disaster after another.  Despite the craziness, I think we all had a good time spending the weekend together and we definitely made some fun memories.  It may be awhile before I'm ready to try another family trip but when we do, I hope it will be a little less eventful!