Sea World!

We finally got to use our Christmas present from my parents this past Wednesday. We got Sea World passes! It's been a little hard to coordinate Alex's day's off with the day's that I don't have Khloe along with the crazy weather we've been having lately! This is the first time we have ever taken the kids anywhere like this, it was so nice to not have to rush around the park and try to cram everything in since we knew we'd be able to come back many times throughout the year!

The kids were So excited about our day. They had been seeing commercials on T.V for a while promoting the Floridian Fun Passes so they already had a list of things they were wanting to do! First off when we entered the park, Ethan spotted Elmo and really wanted to see him. The line wasn't long so we waited, of course by the time it was our turn Ethan wasn't so sure about seeing Elmo, but Emma kept laughing as she touched the fur on his arm saying it felt funny!

The second stop of the day was at the Stingray's. Emma was more than ready to push up her sleeves and touch the slimy feeling creatures, Ethan on the other hand took a little more coaxing. The day was pretty cool so we all had long sleeves and jackets on, the jackets were removed and sleeves pushed up for this stop...we did really well for about 5 minutes and then while I was taking pics of Alex and Ethan, Emma decided she needed to touch them some more and in went the arm all the way up to the shoulder with sleeve down! Thankfully I thought ahead and had an extra set of clothes! Emma was giggling the whole time, a complete fascination between the feeling of "slimy and soft" as she told us.

Alex, Ethan, and Emma. My three most favorite people in the whole world!

After we had our visit with the stingrays we headed over to Dolphin Cove. This was by far my favorite attraction of the day. The dolphins were amazing. We stood out by the Dolphin pool for a while and then headed to the underwater viewing area where we spent almost a half an hour. Emma and Ethan were just amazed! They stood there watching the dolphins and running back and forth in front of the glass "chasing" them!

While we were watching the dolphins Alex looked at the Shamu show schedule and we realized there was only two showings that day so we literally ran half way across the park to get to the Shamu show in time. We got great seats, but it took a little less time to get there than we thought so we had two little impatient children on our hands while we waited the 20 min for the show to start. I was taking pictures and this lady behind us asked if we'd like her to take a family photo. Of course! At the time in our viewing screen it looked great, but once home I now realize that both kids eyes are closed! Oh well, I suppose there will be many more family photo opps in the future!

Emma loved the Shamu show. She was so excited and of course was doing her signature hand moves! :) This was the only time of the day we got cold but we had a blanket we'd brought in the backpack so we pulled it out and Ethan snuggled down for a few minutes before the show started. It's pretty cool to see what these trainers can get these large killer whales to do! Oh and just to note, Alex completely geeked out about the projection screens (4 of them) which moved and spun around during the show! I look forward to watching a night show sometime this year as well.

We also got to go to the Shark Encounter. At first Emma was a little timid, but once we explained that the Sharks were behind glass and she would be safe she warmed right up. As you can see Alex was loaded down that day, I'm so thankful for a husband who carries the backpack and all our jackets! :) As we were heading out of the shark tunnel a couple gave us their punched ticket to feed the small sharks out front as they had to leave to catch their cruise ship. It seemed more grandeur than it turned out to be as A. the sharks weren't hungry (prob too cold!) and B. our hands all smelled of fish for the rest of the day! Oh well.

Last stops of the day were the Penguins and Sea Lions. Ethan had been waiting all day to see the penguins (this I am certain comes from watching many episodes of Diego!). We headed in and had to make two trips around for the boy to be happy, and upon entering the penguin room the 2nd time Ethan looks at me while holding his nose and goes "EWWWWWW, Mommy, these penguins are stinky!" HA! It did smell of fish pretty strongly, but then again maybe that was our hands! We also saw the Sea Lions who were very loud, Emma and Ethan started making noises back at them! Ethan was exhausted though and fell asleep in the stroller fairly quickly after this stop so we called it a day.

We had such a great time, really needing this fun day as a family to re charge and enjoy each other's company. Both kids took naps on the way home but haven't stopped talking about all the fun they had since we went, we all look forward to the next time we can spend another day exploring all that Sea World has to see and do. Thanks Mom and Dad for the best Christmas present ever...it will keep giving all year long!