Florida Trip: Sea World

On Monday, June 17th, we took all our crazy kids and went to Sea World. It was hot and humid and a bit crowded but we all had a great time. The kids had so much fun at their first big amusement park adventure. I'm afraid they will now be expecting something like this every summer!

Morgan was happy to see more flamingos when we first got there.

Right after we got to the park, Ali and I saw the line for a big roller coaster was only 20 min long so we jumped in while everyone else headed to a seal show that was going to start in 30 min. After our awesome ride on The Manta, we got to the show just in time and found our group sitting right in the blazing sun in front/center. Turns out my mom picked the seats because she always likes to sit in the center. After about 10/15 min all of our kids were just melting and one by one adults and kids fled to higher seats in the shade or just sat on the stairs in the shade till just Gramma was left sitting in the crazy hot sun. After that, which was only about an hour since we had arrived at the park, everyone was falling apart and we needed to recharge. So we got some food and headed inside an air conditioned eating area.

Can you just see how red and sweaty these poor kids are?!

After that break, our troops were once again excited and ready to explore the park.

It was so fun to see everything through the kids eyes.
The wonder of it all.

Apparently I am still too much of a city girl because I spent the whole day getting yelled at to slow down.
I cannot handle taking forever to go from point A to point B or standing still in the heat.
Luckily, I only lost people a few times:)

Cousin/friends are the best!

The kids were all very excited to ride on the kid size roller coaster.

Unfortunately, about two seconds after this picture thunder crashed and all the rides shut down for about a half hour and it started to rain.

Around the corner from the kiddie area is an arctic exhibit/ride that is all indoors. We spent the whole storm inside watching a movie or riding a ride if you were tall enough and adventurous enough, and seeing some awesome animals. When we came out the storm was over, the crowds had cleared out and rides open. Perfect!

Touching a huge piece of real ice.

Mesmerized by the beluga whales.
Jane started us all singing the beluga whale song. I'm pretty sure some strangers joined in as well.

The polar bear kept teasing us that it was going to jump into the water. Never did make it in though.

Exploring some ice caves.

So Jill is pregnant and due in September.
Riiight?! It took Ali a few days to even realize Jill was pregnant and then she had to ask me first:) 

Hardly able to contain the excitement!
I will have to scan in the ride pictures my mom bought. They are hysterical!

Just thinking about this ride makes me want to throw up!

Here's a nauseating video of their ride:


A big highlight of the day was the dolphin show. Ali and I got their first, of course heehee, and made sure we got some nice shady seats. They were kind of centered, not really but we all enjoyed the show from the comfort of not boiling in the sun. We also got everyone popsicles, that helped a lot too.

Jane's face is awesome!

This show had everything! Dolphins doing tricks, girls in pretty costumes, music, high divers, trapeze and other high wire artists and lots of big, pretty birds that flew right out into the audience and almost hit us in the head. We LOVED it!

Totally mesmerized.

Morgan and Jane were tall enough to go on the log flume ride. I couldn't convince Jane to go with me but Morgan was super excited. The line took FOREVER but in the end it was totally worth it. While we were doing that Cody and Ali rode The Manta and Jill and Gramma took the little ones to play and see some sea creatures.

This is us after the big, huge hill waving at the cousins.

I was a little wet and thought that was the end of it. Boy was I wrong. After this, you go back into the ride, have two or three more decent drops, get totally soaked and even have a roller coaster part with twists and turns and another drop. Morgan was over the moon about this ride. I was happy that it was worth the torturous line experience:)

Our last stop was to the dolphin cove to just watch the dolphins swim around. It was getting late and we needed to get home and pick up Hazel from my cousin Lisa's house. Side note: I am SO, SO, SO glad we did not take Hazel with us. This would have been a very different post if we had had her with us I am sure! But I could have stayed in this peaceful area all day. Dolphins are truly amazing creatures!

Morgan got a big stuffed animal eel after his big water ride. When Gramma held it up to the window the dolphins swarmed to it and went crazy!

We were all totally exhausted by the end of the day but so glad that we went. And I'm so glad that Cody was there with us to share those memories.