Sea World, Lunar Eclipse, and a Puzzle Expert

We had a chance to get free passes to Sea World on a Sunday back in June.  We weren't able to get there until late (1pm,) and so it ended up being a fairly short visit because Roman had a complete melt down like I've never seen before or since.  We had to leave after the 5pm show since he didn't take water well back then and he was getting dehydrated.  It was a hot day and although I didn't even have him wear his helmet, there was little chance of keeping him cool.  Mostly, Brian took the adventurous kids on rides and I tried to find shady or cool spots to hang out with the less adventurous (and the too short for rides) crew.

Overall, I was disappointed in how few shows they have nowadays and how short they have made them.  I am not a rides kinds girl.  I want to see the dolphins and the whales!

That's the rest of my family cooling off after a very long wait in line.

The Lunar Eclipse was visible from our cul-de-sac.  We had the best view across the street from our house on the sidewalk.  We just laid down and enjoyed watching the eclipse in action.

Mimi came and started a puzzle, but didn't finish it before she headed back home.  Judah sat and worked so hard for most of the day and finished it all in one day.  He and Genevieve are my biggest puzzle doers.

Judah was reading a book to Roman to help him practice sitting.  Seems like Roman decided to recline instead.

 

Sea World

And what vacation to San Antonio, Texas would be complete without a trip to Sea World?  My sister, brother, and their families went with my parents, all of my children and me to Sea World, and it was a great day.  I have always loved Sea World.  I love the dolphins and whales.  I wanted to be a dolphin trainer when I was a young animal lover.  These creatures still bring tears to my eyes.

Waiting for the dolphin pool to open first thing in the morning.

Genna wanted to jump in and swim with the dolpihns so badly.

My sister's family

This is where Genna turns to me and says, "I want to be a dolphin trainer when I grow up!"  I was waiting for it.  I could see it in her eyes.

Isaac, Drew and my sister went on this ride.  It was a loop with a couple of small hills.  Isaac was so excited to go on a "roller coaster" and was very proud of how he put his hands up the whole time.  It was cute.  That guy needs some confidence, so it was good for him.

I didn't get to ride any rides because I had Judah, but I'm not much of a ride person so that's okay.  My favorite parts are the shows.  We didn't get to go see the sea lion shows which was disappointing, but thanks to my planning (which I was a little teased for by a certain brother-in-law) we hit everything else on the list.  We split up into two groups in the afternoon so the little kids could go to the Sesame area and the big kids could go on a couple of the bigger rides.

This was Dylan and Drew watching Elmo.

This one was hot.  I kept putting handfuls of water on his head during the day to keep him cool.

Most of us

What a trooper this guy was!  He stayed in the Ergo nearly the entire day, only coming out to eat in the high chair or to ride in the stroller for a very brief time.  Mostly Drew was in the stroller.

We sat in the splash zone for every show, but never quite got splashed.  We were so hot!

The Azul show is by far the best one!

We ended the day with a Shamu show.

I lost two of my kids during the course of the day for about 3 minutes each time.  The question is can you guess which ones I lost?