Pretty Much Our Favorite Place Ever....

No, our favorite place is not the Catfish Parlour. Painted on the side of this building is a mural of fish, which is so very convincing to the mind of a two year old - what else could it be but Sea World? And every time we drive by, he claims we are on our way to Sea World. So, to Sea World we must go. This spring we have made two trips to Sea World San Antonio - and each time we have had an absolute blast.

We went one time last year - and it made quite an impression on Little One. The park has a deal where you buy a ticket and it is good for admission all year long! And Little One is free until he turn three, so we wanted to get the most out of his free ticket.

Here's some highlights of our last two trips -

Staying Dry - (Or Not...) The second time it POURED rain...

Feeding the Dolphins
And the Sea Lions
See that little brown spec in the middle of the picture? The wind blew some poor lady's hat off her head and right into the sea lion pool. The sea lions were thrilled that they had a new toy - and the overseer of the pool had a heck of a time trying to fish the hat out. The overseer and his net was slightly outnumbered!
And ourselves...my goodness, we usually don't buy much at amusement parks. I was shocked when I looked in our wagon to see how much loot we had accumulated throughout the day. Now, granted, we went with another family, so some of the stuff is theirs - but we have enough Shamu paraphernalia to last a while!

This was a big moment - talking for about 10 minutes with Dad about the roller coaster. In the past, he has been very afraid and hesitant about riding the roller coaster. "It's too loud!" He would say - and when we walked pass he would cover his ears and cower. But, after watching and talking it over with Dad....
He did it! And he had a great time. Afterwords he ran down the ramp, over to me, eager to share the experience. "You want to ride the roller coaster with me Mama?" How can you say no to that? So we rode it a second time. So much fun.
And of course, watching the shows. There are two shows that we are particular fans of, Viva (acrobats, dolphins and beluga whales) and Believe (Killer Whales). The shows have been a great tool for our dramatic play at home! We play acrobats almost daily. We also play that I am Mama Baby Beluga, Baby Brother is Shamu and Little One is John the Killer Whale Trainer. I think you get the idea of who's in charge of that....
This is how Little One spends a lot of the time at the shows. He is so sensitive to sound. Although, I did notice by the end of the second time, he spent less time covering his ears...

The five'o clock power nap. Yep, he is sawing Z's....the crazy things we parents do in order to get a full night's rest! He had made it this far without taking a nap - and the last thing we were going to do was get in the car and let him sleep for a good hour and a half and be wide awake for the rest of the night. So, we allowed a good power nap - had dinner, rode the roller coaster and took in another show before heading home.