Sea World

The day after Clay's birthday party, we headed off to Sea World! Mike and I were very excited about taking the kids on their first trip to a theme park. We kept it a surprise until just before we left. We talked to them about it since they had no clue what Sea World is and I said, "So, is everyone excited about going to Sea World??" Clay's reply was "Can't we just go to the zoo?" Uh, no.

We went on a Thursday so we never had any problems with crowds or lines. The kids started on the Shamu roller coaster and they loved it! I insisted on Mike and I riding with them the first time in case anyone freaked out but they thought it was awesome. Mike and I got off and they wanted to ride again and again!

After a couple of rides on Shamu, we went to the "spinny ride". It was a boat kind of thing that went in circles and up and down. It was right up mine and the kids' alleys--not Mike's. 

I wanted to make sure we balanced rides with shows so we went to the Sesame Street 4-D show next. It was super cute and nice and cool. :) Carolina got frustrated with a few of the things (not unusual) and Mike was next to her so he was cracking up. "Who's frowing that water at me?!" "Who's bwowing that air on me?!" Poor girl couldn't figure out what was going on.

We went back over to the ride area and while we were standing in line I spotted some special characters. Clay's pretty shy but Carolina was all about going up to meet the characters.

While we were gone, Clay and Mike made it to front of the line. I guess there must have been an extra spot because...

We went to a sea lion show that was really cute. Carolina loved it when the girl and guy characters fell in the water and she talked about it all day. We also saw some alligators sleeping with turtles on their backs which impressed us all!

Both kids kept seeing the big roller coasters and asking to go on. We knew Carolina wasn't tall enough but we thought Clay might be. He and I went over to the line but he was still a couple of inches short (he's 46" right now). He had been super excited about going, even after seeing how really big it was up close. I was so proud that he handled it so well when we figured out he wasn't tall enough. You could tell he really wanted to cry but kept it together. We talked about how he would probably be tall enough in the fall and we could ride it then. Poor guy. :(

The penguins were really cute but Carolina was way more interested in being on the people mover. Clay liked them and we all had fun playing with the penguin stuff in the gift shop.

We did the Shamu roller coaster a couple of more times. At one point, all of the riders were seated with the seat belts on but Carolina wouldn't get in her chair because it was wet. Apparently, the person who sat there before her had been on a water ride. The two teenage girl ride operators didn't know what to do with her so they just tried to clean the water up with their hands. Carolina just stood there on the side fussing until they got it to her satisfaction. Mike and I weren't riding so we couldn't help them but I will say the girl knows what she wants. Maybe that will come in handy someday...

Our last stop of the day was the Shamu show. This is always a highlight of Sea World when I was a kid so I was super excited to take my kids. We got them seated and the show started but it was kind of slow. The whales were doing their tricks (not as good as they used to be) and a couple of minutes in Carolina turns around and says, "When is the show going to stawt??". See, it was that good.

Overall, it was a really fun day. Carolina got tired of walking and fussed (but she also missed her nap). Clay never got tired. We got to do some really fun things and share a special family fun day. :)