1st Family of 4 Vacation ~ Sea World

So we attempted and succeeded at our first Family of 4 Vacation! We've traveled with both of the boys before, but there were always extra hands around. This was just the 4 of us, so we had no idea how it would go and went into the trip with low...if not no...expectations. But I have to say, it went great. There were still meltdowns, lots of sweat, and some serious tiredness. But that happens at home, why not let it happen somewhere fun?

The great thing about going anywhere on I-35 is that we get to make a pit stop in Temple to see my sister and her family. Great way to burn off some energy and have some fun cousin time. And amazingly, we even got a decent cousin picture with all 5!

From there, we had a couple more hours on the road to San Antonio and our first stop. My beloved...Alamo Cafe. Now if I'm being honest, this is the part of the trip I was most nervous about. I LOVE (with all caps) Alamo Cafe. LOVE it and couldn't wait to get my hands on some hot tortillas and queso. But with a 4-year-old and 1-year-old, you just never know how a restaurant experience will turn out. Thankfully, my children indulged me and we had a great dinner, albeit a fast one.

Everyone got a good night's sleep and the next morning, we headed to the main event...Sea World.

Tate loved feeding the sea lions with the stinky, slimy fish.

And then it was off the Sea Lion show.

This is also where we somehow became famous. Or at least Will did. You can see a group of about 5 tourists from an Asian country in the row behind us. They were enamored with Will. Like gawking at him, getting him to smile, saying his name over and over, taking his picture, taking their picture with him. It was sweet, awkward, and funny at the same time. So somewhere far away, there is probably a blog written in a language I don't understand with Will's picture on it.

Will did great most of the day, except for the shows. He was not a fan of just sitting there. He much preferred being able to crawl on the ground under the seats. I much preferred he didn't do that, so that's when Wade & I tagged team watching the shows with Tate while the other walked around with Will. Maybe we should've asked someone from Will's Fan Club behind us to help out? :)

Lunch break to plan out our next stop.

The great thing about going on a weekday in May was that there was hardly anyone at the park. We showed up for the Shamu show right before it began and could get down on the 4th row. Yep, in the Splash Zone. Just another attempt to show Tate that I can be the fun one, too. :)

Meeting the Animal Trainer.

And then it was time to cool off in the Splash Park.

Even Will got in on the action. Will LOVED it. It was actually pretty hilarious to see him crawling around and just putting his face right in the water. Didn't seem to phase him one bit.

Time for an ice cream break.

As we walked by what we called the "water roller coaster," Tate said he wanted to ride it. He hasn't been on anything that big before, so I really wasn't sure how this would go. And I was really dreading standing in line only for him to back out at the last minute. I shouldn't have doubted my no-fear child. He hopped right on, arms in the air, giggling hysterically the entire way down. Realizing how big he was getting and just having fun with him on the ride truly made this one of the highlights for me on this trip. We rode it 4 times! :)

Feeding the dolphins.

And with 5 minutes to spare until the park closed, we headed to the Coral Reef Aquarium to see the sharks.

My favorite picture of the trip. We were the only ones in the aquarium. It was quiet. We were all tired. So relaxing watching the fish.

So we got our money's worth of the 7 hours the park was open that day. This is approximately 3 minutes after we got in the car.

Overall, the day at Sea World went great. Way better than I expected. And Tate loved it! As we were leaving, Wade & I gave each other some serious High 5's. We were really prepared for the worst, so even though it wasn't easy, we knew it could've been much worse. For that, we sure were thankful!

Of course, the funny part of the trip is how excited Tate was just to be in a hotel. The indoor pool was a hit. And on the last day, Wade had a conference call, so we had some time to kill. Who knew walking around each of the 10 floors could be so entertaining?

2 nights and 3 days makes for a very quick trip. Still we got home wiped out but with some pretty great memories. Even several weeks later, Tate will randomly start talking about something at Sea World...or the hotel. :)

So thankful for all 3 of these people I get to call mine. And so excited about hopefully many, many more adventures together in years to come.