Sea World!

We decided that this spring was the perfect time to take Colin to Sea World.  The weather was beginning to be nice and warm (although Texas weather is quite unpredictable), he would still be free until he was 3 and I wasn't going to hurt too bad from waddling all over the park.  We made it a big family event, my parents and brother and his girlfriend were going to join us too, but at the last minute my dad got called away to a business trip to China so he had to miss our trip.  We took plenty of pictures though!  The week before our trip, Colin decided that he was more than ready to start potty training, I was all excited but still nervous about making such a trip without a little potty in tow.  I printed off a map of the park and highlighted every bathroom and then wrote down the times of the shows next to the stages so we'd know when we needed to head where and what time.  A lot of planning goes into a big trip.  We started our trek Saturday morning and made 1 stop in New Braunsfels just in case Colin needed to potty, which he said he didn't need to but he went anyway.  After a brief line to get tickets, we were on our way inside.  I decided that the first thing we needed to do was go over to feed the dolphins because that area was all by itself and we'd spend the rest of the day on the other side of the park.  Colin had been talking about the dolphins all week so I was excited for him to finally see them.  $5 bucks for 4 measly sardines!  Oh well, can't put a price on a child's smile. 

He wasn't quite sure what to do with the sardine so he ended up just dropping it on the side of the pool so daddy had to help out and put them in the dolphins mouth. He loved it!  The trainers even got them to do a few tricks like swimming really fast around the pool and do a few jumps.  That was my only complaint about Sea World, they didn't let you know they were about to do any tricks, at any of the shows, I would have loved to had my camera ready for a jump or something but they just made a few hand motions and off they went.  The next stop was the Coral Reef and the Sharks.  I think Colin stood at the aquarium for quite some time staring at all the fish.  It's funny to hear him talk about the sharks because he lowers his voice when he says "Sharks"  LOL, it's like he needs to add a bit of drama to the word.

After that we headed over to grab some lunch before the shows started.  Colin and Jay walked around a little bit while we all waited in line for lunch and Colin spotted the Shamu Rollercoaster and was eager to ride it.

I think the sea lion show was my favorite, it had the best dialog and the show was just in general pretty cute. The rollercoaster ride took more time than I thought so we missed the beginning of the Shamu show and had to watch from the top of the stadium.  It's very true what their website says, it can be 85 degrees outside and you still get goosebumps from seeing Shamu, I know I did and even teared up a bit but we'll just say that it was hormones.

 Dustin, Sarah, Nana and Colin went to see the dolphin and beluga whale show while Jay and I went and had some ice cream and sat under some trees to rest and boy was that needed.  Jay wanted to ride some of the rollercoasters and while he, Sarah and Dustin went to ride those, Nana took Colin on the Shamu rollercoaster for a 2nd time, he was quite thrilled about that!  It was about time to head out and although I'm a bit sad that we didn't get to make it to the penguin or alligator exhibit, we have a bonus ticket that we got from a coupon I got at Sonic last week, buy 1 ticket, get 1 free for the same season so we'll be making another trip down there in October or November and take our time around the park.  Not that he ever surprises me with his go with the flow type attitude, Colin did wonderfully.  He enjoyed the whole experience, never had any accidents (besides a minor spill on the sidewalk walking towards the sea lions but a spider man band-aid made it all better) and didn't take a nap while we were there.  We left at 5 pm to go to the hotel to get cleaned up before dinner and Colin fell asleep before we ever left the parking spot.  Colin snuggled up with his shamu stuffed animal that Nana bought him and he was off to dream land.  He ended up with the smaller shamu but not because Nana didn't try to push the bigger one on him, he said it was too heavy so he wanted the smaller one.