Day 2!

 

The day arrived!!! The kids woke up early and we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. They had delicious Texas shaped waffles...I had one everyday. The park didn't open til 10am so we went and grabbed a few items at the store. We then hitched a ride with the shuttle. The kids loved riding in a van with a whale on it. We loved getting dropped off at the front and not having to pay parking.

 Of course we had to stop and take a few pictures. Thankfully the kids were willing.  Then our adventure began. We had slightly planned out our day around the shows and wanted to make sure we saw them. It was really hot and humid there, and of course we got rained on through out the day. Unfortunately throughout the day rides were closed due to nearby lightning.

The first show we saw was the sea lion and otter show. It was really sunny and I think the kids had a hard time figuring out what was going on with animals coming out of nowhere and all the actors. But Seth and I would point them out and they really enjoyed watching it.

Ready to watch some fun!

Abby before the show

I don't think the show has changed since the last time we were here over 8 years ago

This guy was so massive it was cute

On to another adventure

The Carousel was a big hit with the kids. Between both days I cannot even remember how man times we rode it.  But it was A LOT! Thankfully the kids zones were not that crowded and we didn't have to wait in long lines.

All three ready to run their horses

 Another ride Abby and Briggs could ride was the Shamu Express. Briggs was terrified at first as you can see in the picture above. But overall he ended up riding it several times!

 

 This is where it gets a little cheesy. Later in the day we saw the whale show. They started playing the music and the whales started to come out and do their thing. The kids were in total awe, wonder and amazement. It was a mommy moment. I couldn't help myself, but I totally started crying. I was so incredibly overwhelmed for just a few minutes. To see your kids with such pure joy on their faces all at once is indescribable. Honestly the show was OK. The whales were beautiful but that moment was something I will always remember. I hope to experience it again someday but for a few short minutes that day I was in absolute heaven.

Getting ready for the whales to come

 After the whales it was time to grab some food. The kids were starving. But it also started to rain and all the eateries instantly were packed. We finally found a spot with very average overpriced food that we had to wait really long for. Emily fell asleep while we waited as you can see below. We ate and had a plan to do a few more things. But one thing is for sure, next time we are packing our own food.

Sleeping beauty

His normal picture taking face

 After lunch we headed to see the dolphins. Where you can touch them if they come close enough. We looked into getting the kids a dolphin experience but for that particular weekend they were not available. However this was pretty dang cool too. They come really close!

 They had to close the area down do to lighting so we went to the shark experience. It was pretty neat although Briggs and Emily were a little freaked out to go in because it was really dark. I will say it wasn't the best thing we did, but at least it was something. Unfortunately when we came out from the sharks it began to pour rain. Rain that was going to stay around for while. We took refuge in a little store and the kids were NOT happy. By this time it was probably 3pm the kids were tired and Briggs just wanted to go and swim at the pool at the hotel. We called our shuttle and high tailed it to the front gates as fast as we could. It rained for about an hour and then cleared into a beautiful evening. Swim, Swim, Swim that's all they wanted to do so we ordered a pizza and headed to the pool to finish off our day!

Captives of the rain storm

See dad we are right here

 This kid was so happy to be able to go swimming! That's all he could talk about, even more so than  seaworld. But dang isn't he cute!