Shamu Time!

Editorial note: In looking back over this blog entry, I realized that some of my pictures don't quite mesh up with my timeline...Spencer is wearing different shirts in pictures I labeled as happening at the same time. Oh well, enjoy anyway! It hurts my brain to try to figure it out.

Spencer took his first trip to Sea World last Sunday. Geep met us there for a few hours, too - bonus! The night before, Dave went out with his buddies, so Spencer hung up some signs in our room so he wouldn't forget about our trip.

"Remember that Sea World is today. Aquatica Sea World Water Park." (sidenote: we didn't go to Aquatica)

Ya gotta get a picture at the entrance.

Family shot.

Mapping out our day.

We started off by checking out the dolphins and sharks, then we rode the Shamu coaster a few times. Unfortunately we didn't get Spencer to sit on the side where he showed up in pictures, but here's Daddy having some fun.

We rode the coaster three times and then Geep arrived and we climbed on a pirate ship in the Bay of Play, then headed over to the dolphin show. Spencer bought a fun bubble shooter to pass the time.

Dolphin show - pre-bubble shooter.

Definitely easier to wait when you have a bubbles!

Next we hit my personal favorite, The Cannery Row Caper. Gotta love the otter, sea lions and walruses. I think after that we rode the carousel and played a couple of boardwalk games. I might have the sequence of events a little wrong, but I'll blame it on heat stroke.

Shooting baskets - no luck, but we did win a stuffed fish in the water gun game.

After that, we hoofed it over to the Shamu show. Spencer was surprised the whales were so big.

 

 

Our next stop was the ski show, followed by a much-needed ice cream break. We kept trying to get a good photo of Spence and Geep, but he wasn't having it. He was being a little grumpy about taking this picture, but honestly he was in a great mood all day despite the heat.

He also acquired a fan/mister along the way.

Geep decided to head home after our ice cream break. Have I mentioned it was HOT? We decided the best thing was to go on the river raft ride, Rio Loco.You know how one section of the raft always gets stuck under the waterfall? Well that was Spencer and me this time. We were drenched but man, it was a welcomed cool-down! And the temperature actually dropped to the mid-80s around this time so we were feeling much better. Then we checked out the penguins.

At least Spencer had his swimsuit on!

We saw one last show (a bunch of trained animals - cats, dogs, ducks, pigs, etc.) then grabbed dinner. After that it was time for the Sesame Street Bay of Play. I think Spencer would've splashed til the break of dawn if we'd let him. And a benefit of having a child who really isn't into all the costumed characters is that the splash pad completely cleared out because an Elmo show was going on. I had a hard time choosing which pictures to include because there are so many fun ones - such exuberance!

 

We ended up staying until 8:30PM! We should've just stayed for the 9:00 closing show. Spencer crashed out in the car and didn't even wake up when we got home. It was a fun day!