SeaWorld

Before I move on to November (and December), there is one more fun thing we did in October that I wanted to blog about - SeaWorld!  We didn't have anything going on the day before Halloween, and it had been so long since we'd had a free Saturday, so we wanted to do something fun together as a famly. 

Cynthia was not even two weeks old yet, so it was a tiny bit of a crazy idea, but it actually was perfect, because she just slept in the front pack the whole time, except for when I fed her during the shows.  The weather in San Antonio was great - hot enough during the day that I felt sorry for all the kids I saw who were bundled up in their furry Halloween costumes, and just chilly enough for jackets in the evening.   

Daniel and the boys at the dolphin show:

Me and the girls:

I love the dolphin show.  It's so neat it gives me goosebumps.  I know I've said this before, but it always makes me wish that in my spare time I was a dolphin trainer at SeaWorld. 

Or the lady who gets to do this:

After that it was on to the Atlantis ride, which Daniel went on with the older four kids.  Lizza was not scared at all.  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, and then click again to zoom in, you can see Tristan, Elizabeth, Daniel, and Rachel in the very back row, and then Oliver (green shirt) in front of them.

I think everyone got pretty wet except Daniel and Lizza.

You can see from Oliver's face that he was very much in "dramatic picture posing mode".  (I actually don't know if he is ever not in this mode.) 

After that we went to the Shamu show.

The older kids really wanted to sit down in the splash zone.  After I warned them that it would be cold and salty water, Tristan thought better of it and moved back a few rows, but Ollie and Rachel insisted on staying.  They got soaked!

Oliver was tall enough to go on the Steel Eel roller coaster for the first time with Daniel and Tristan.  He was pretty nervous, but liked it enough to do it a second time later.



After he and Tristan posed for a picture in front of it, Ollie asked me if I would take a "before" and "after" picture of him.  I was like, "What are you talking about?  You already went on it," and he said, "no, Mom, please!  I have a really funny idea."  So I said okay.

Before (except it's really a pretend before):

And after. (I'm not really sure what he was hoping to portray with this one - maybe he is falling over because it was so fast and scary?  As Henry likes to say, "You are such a goofball, Ollie!")

We bought some little fish so we could feed the dolphins.  We've done this before, but have never been able to get so close to so many.  We were all able to pet the dolphins, which everyone loved. 

After that we fed the sea lions.  I think sea lions are so funny - it's always entertaining to watch them.

Little Cynthia stretching out during the sea lion show:

Rachel took this picture of us while we were waiting for the boys to do the Steel Eel again.   

After it got dark, Daniel took the older three to the haunted forest (SeaWorld had lots of fun Halloween stuff going on).  The line was super long, so I took the younger three out to the car to feed Cynthia.  Lizza and Henry were pretty worn out, and fell asleep immediately. 

It was a good day.