Sea World and 11th Anniversary

We love Sea World, we really do.  Between January 2015-December 2016 we went to San Antonio 10 times and visited Sea World.  It's great for our family because it meets the needs/desires for our kids' ages.  The shows are entertaining and the rides are exciting also. 

Sea World decorates for holidays too and Christmas time is really nice because of all the lights and decorations.  We planned a December trip with the Parle family.  We drove to San Antonio Friday after the kids got out of school and spent the night in a hotel.  Sea World didn't open until 1 pm Saturday so we had a lazy morning at the hotel and ate lunch at Canes before going over.  Saturday was December 10th so it was our 11th anniversary.  We were happy to celebrate at Sea World because we knew we would have a date night another time.  Our time together at Sea World was really fun.  The only negative I can really say is that it was really cold.  I mean really cold, so we didn't do any water things. 

Happy Anniversary! 

Anniversary lunch at Canes!

Riding the Steel Eel

I love this man of mine!

Sea World day two!

We left Sunday and drove home in time for Awana Sunday evening.  This was our last time to visit Sea World because we were not renewing our annual passes.  I think we needed a short break because we had all the shows memorized because we have seen them so many times.  We totally recommend Sea World though, to families with young kids. 

Spooktacular at Sea World

Since we had Sea World passes, we decided to go to Sea World for their annual Spooktacular event. My mom and Chuck came with us, so we left Friday after the kids got home from school.  We ate dinner at Buc-cee's on the road and went to bed shortly after we got to the hotel.  We stayed at the Comfort Inn and had a relaxing morning.  We went and ate the continental breakfast and watched TV in the hotel room before heading to Sea World at 10 am.  All the decorations were Halloween themed and the kids "trick-or-treated" around the park using a map.  We went to shows and looked at exhibits all day.  We ate at the Smokehouse and planned to watch the 8:30 Shamu show.  Before the show, we walked around while it started to get dark, and all the scary stuff started coming out.  We walked through the "doll" area and all these broken/scary dolls walked around and followed us.  We also walked through a Zombie spot and that really freaked the kids out.  Near Shamu's theater is the Crazy House section, and all the weird "sick" people yelling and screaming.  The kids handled it pretty good, and only cried a little.  I think Ell just walked with her eyes closed the entire time.  The Shamu Halloween show was a lot of fun, and then we headed back to the hotel.
Sunday morning was a lot like Saturday with TV and breakfast.  We drove back to Richmond and the kids went to Awana Sunday night.  While the kids were at Awana, the adults enjoyed a meal at Pappa's BBQ.

Our clan

A is finally tall enough to ride the steel ell

before the Steel Eel

After the Steel Eel and he loved it!

Crazy costumes everywhere

We let our kids dress up too

At the Halloween Shamu show

All 8 of us in a selfie

This was Jack.  He was our MC and was a little creepy with his pumpkin head

Spring Break 2016 Part 1

We had big plans for Spring Break this year.  We planned two trips on the weekends of spring break.  The first weekend we went to Sea World and the second weekend we traveled to Oklahoma.

We had planned this sea world trip with the Parles back in January, so our kids had been looking forward to this trip for a while.  We both got the annual pass to Sea World and Aquatica so we felt it would be great to vacation together.  We left early Saturday morning (March 12) and arrived at Sea World a little after 10:00. 

The Parles were already inside but they waited for us at the fountain.  We spent the entire day at Sea World and saw the lumberjack show, Azul, and ate at the Smokehouse.

We left around 4:00 to check into the hotel and eat dinner together before heading back inside for the Shamu Celebration show at 8:00.

Eating dinner at Chuy's

 The kids had "sleepovers" with each other so Joe came and slept in our hotel room and R/E stayed with Faith. 

We exchanged kids Sunday morning and met at McDonald's for breakfast before heading back into Sea World.  Our first show was Sea Lion High followed by time at the Sesame Street Bay of Play before eating lunch.  We watched an Alligator Interaction but were a bit disappointed because we thought it was going to be a feeding.  B and I left around 4:00 with the kids and didn't make it to AWANA but we had a great time while we were there.  Since it was spring break, the kids didn't have school so we were able to take it easy and get to bed later than normal, but poor B had to get up and go to work at 7:00 am.

We always park by Dolly #13