The first thing that we did while we were in Sea World (which I am now going to refer to as SW from now on cause I am tired of typing Sea World.... and I am not even through the first two paragraphs!) was take a picture with a shark.... well technically a person in a shark suit.
This is us... with a shark.... Aeddon could not accept that the shark was not going to eat him if he looked away... cause he is 2 and that is the kind of things that 2 year olds worry about.... and so he is not looking at the camera. Fine... the back of his head is cute too... time to move on.
Then we headed over to see the clydesdales.
This is Alexander watching a horse get a bath.
He loved the horses! We thought that we were gonna have to pry him off that fence with a crow bar!
After the Clydesdales... we saw the dolphins. They were so fat! They live in this relatively small tank and they spend their whole day eating fish out of the hands of tourists. Wait... you wanna see the dolphins? Ok... fine.
Then we started to head to the "reef" part of SW.... on the way I believe I saw one of the least intelligent parents I have ever seen...
See that little girl??? Well her parents convinced her to go try to pick the wild squirrel up so that they could take a picture! AAAAGHHH! You don't pick up a wild animal. One, they could attack you.... and two, they could be carring disease ridden fleas! Or they could be carring rabies! So as we passed them I said loudly "Dont touch the squirrel. It could have rabies!" and kept walking.
The reef area was pretty neat. We saw alot of cool things... including feeding time in the aquarium.
Then towards the end of the area... was a critter that didn't make any sense to me...
Yep. Those are poison dart frogs. What the heck are they doing at SW????
Then we let the boys play for a while...
The boys wanted to go on a roller coaster. So we went to the only ride that they were able to go on... It was a really cute little roller coaster where you ride in the back of a little shamu.
This is Mikaela protesting because she wanted to go on the ride with Daddy.... which is pretty funny, cause at the last minute Aeddon panicked and refused to go on the ride unless I went with him. So Owen stood at the bottom of the ride and took our picture and I went on with Aeddon. Alexander rode in a whale all by himself!
After the fun of the coaster... we decided to let the boys play on the climbing area built for kids. The boys wanted me to go with them. So I did. I got a friction burn on each knee. I also got this really cute picture of my boys!
After they played... we accidentally stumbled on the sea lion show. They were THE BEST TRAINED SEA LIONS WE HAVE EVER SEEN!!!
The show was really cute and included a walrus doing sit-ups!
Then Owen insisted that we go to my favorite part of SW. THE PENGUIN HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the pictures came out really badly... cause Owen's camera is just not designed to take pictures in a dark setting.
I had a hard time being able to tell in the dark... but I am pretty sure that the first picture is of King Penguins. The second one was easier to tell. That is a Chin-strap Penguin swimming around.
The kids each decided that they wanted a penguin toy... and it is not like I was going to protest! I also got a really amazing bowl. It looks like a penguin... and the belly is the bowl part and is big enough for dip!
SO CUTE! I was also pleasantly suprised because when I asked how much it was... (it is a handpainted ceramic bowl after all...) I was expecting her to say something like $35 dollars (which was all of my souvenier money). Instead she said $10 dollars and I almost exploded!
Then we booked it over to the shamu show. Here are the highlights of that.... the full set of all of these pictures is, as always, on my flickr page.
Mikaela and Aeddon loved the show...
Alexander was actually upset at the end of the show... It turns out that he had wanted to be a "whale guy" at the show (the rest of the world would call them trainers) and was upset and hurt that this had not happened... So Owen being the brilliant man that he is... decided to take Alexander over to talk to the trainers! He got to ask them what it would take for him to be a "whale guy" when he grew up.
I could have kissed this man! He stood there and very patiently explained to Alexander that he had the heart to be a trainer someday, but that he would need to learn to be a really great swimmer and that he would have to get really good grades in school and that he would have to go to college and get a degree in whales and dolphins (since the Orca Whale is not actually a whale, but is in fact the largest of the ocean dolphin family). He also told him that he would have to get good grades when he got his degree so that SW would hire him. Now normally I wouldn't have thought anything of this... but as soon as we got back to El Paso Alexander asked me to take his "School Posters" off the wall so he could study. One is the alphabet and one is the numbers from 0 to 31. I did take them down for him for a little while and then he asked me to put them back on the wall. Today he told me that he wanted to show me his new trick. I sat in my chair and he stood on a diningroom chair and pointed to random numbers on the poster and told me what they were. He only got 2 wrong on the whole poster! Then he went over to the alphabet poster and tried really hard to do the same thing there too! He got about 15 of them right and the rest wrong... but he has never come close to this before!
Ok so now that I have taken a break to get over feeling weepy about my big boy learning so much cause of something a stranger told him.... back to the SW story.
After Shamu... we went and fed the ducks and Flamingos for a while... then we went to go watch the Journey To Atlantis ride for a while. Alexander really wanted to go play in the huge splash area from the ride... so we did...
Alexander had a great time playing in the wall of water that comes from the ride...
Then Owen had a very evil plan.... see little Miss Mikaela wanted to go play in the puddles... and she did not understand (um hello she is one!) that to do so would mean that she was right in the path of the 10 foot wave. So Owen, knowing that I had the camera and my Voyager on me, let her go play in the puddles. He said that he was going to run out and grab her as soon as the boat thing began to go down the huge drop so that he would have her out of the way of the water when it came. HE LIED!!!!
This is my baby girl innocently looking at all the water...
By the time I realized he had lied... it was to late... I had no chance to stop the inevitable... so I took a picture instead.... see that white in front of her? That is the water coming at her.
And this is what happens when an unsuspecting 1 year old is hit with a 10 foot high wall of cold water. Owen is really an ass sometimes.
this is him trying to convince her that he is sorry. Notice that she doesnt look like she believes him? That is my girl!
So then I told him that he had to go stand in it while I gave Mikaela some consolling chi-chi milk. (seriously I dont think she is ever gonna ween and with Owen not here... I dont have the heart to force her to...)
Father son bonding.... for the record... Alexander wanted to stand in the water with dad...
I dont have a single good explination for that... Honestly. I know it was something about keeping his belly from feeling cold...
The trees at SW had a serious infestation of Spanish Moss.... so of course... Owen had to put some in my shirt and take a picture.
thanks honey.
Owen and the boys went on a ferris wheel after that....
Except for one thing... once the ride started, Alexander panicked and had to get off. Aeddon, On the other hand, wanted to do it again.
Mikaela and I sat the ride out and ate freeze dried strawberries instead...
Then we headed for the exit... On the way we found this:
A coffee mug that not only has penguins, but that is also done in purples and black!
OMG!!! I am in heaven. So we bought it... because if we had not bought it I would probably have cried.
On the way out of the parkinglot we took a picture of this:
Yep. I want it. Owen says that when we live somewhere where it snows in the winter that I can get one and put it up for the snowy season..... Does it snow in Tacoma?
Well that was our trip to SW in a (relative) nutshell... I will post about the rest of the trip some time tomorrow. It is after midnight and I am getting sleepy. Goodnight all!
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