Sea World San Antonio

After the family reunion, we headed to New Braunfels, TX to check-in at the condo. The boys were quick to check it out, especially Garytt. He was a big fan of the second story hallway, which overlooked the living room.

  The boys spent some playing just playing in the living room.

  Westyn kept trying to climb up the stairs all by himself. So, Justin decided to move the chair in front of the stairs to prevent him from climbing up there. This was a good idea in theory but then he got his head stuck...

  Mimi met us at the condo that evening and had dinner with us. Then we all just relaxed for the night.

The next morning we had to take Justin back to the airport so he could fly back to Missouri. Before we left the condo, I took a picture of Mimi, Justin, and the boys.

  Then it was off to the airport to drop Justin off. Then, just about an hour later, my parents were scheduled to arrive at the airport. They agreed to come to Texas to help me with the boys, especially in the airport on our way home, since Justin couldn't stay for the whole trip.

Once we had Grandma and Grandpa, all of us headed to Sea World!

Now, some of you might be thinking, Sea World in November?!? Um, yeah, it was over 90 degrees the day we went. So, definitely shorts weather and Sea World weather.

The nice part was that it wasn't a very busy day at Sea World, so we were able to park pretty close. And here's the gang walking towards the entrance.

We stopped for a photo opportunity just outside the main gates.
  Once we got inside, the first order of business was to see Shamu!! As luck would have it the Shamu show was starting in just a few minutes.

On the way to the show, we saw a area with ducks. So, Garytt wanted to check those out.

  Then we found some seats for the Shamu show. We chose to sit close, but hopefully not too close to get really splashed. I do know that is the attraction for many viewers of the Shamu show but killer whale water is really not good for cameras. And I wasn't too sure how Garytt would take it if he got really splashed. So, we chose a fairly "safe" zone. And the show began.

  The Shamu show really kept both boys interested the whole time. You can see Garytt is pretty much in awe...and Westyn just seemed excited.

  When the whales did splash, the water reached over halfway up the bleachers on the sides. We were situated in one of the corner sections and were safe...until one of the trainers got out a hose and decided to "splash" some of the crowd that didnt get splashed by the actual whales. Fortunately, it was just a little bit of water, and the camera stayed mostly dry...but I have to say, I was a bit annoyed that we chose a "safe" zone because I didn't want the camera to get wet...oh well, Garytt thought it was kind of funny...he got a bit of water on his legs.

After the Shamu show, we found the flamingos, which were near the ducks. Mimi and Garytt went to check it out.

  In the center of the Sea World park, they have an area called Sesame Street Bay of Play. It is all centered around Sesame Street characters and has rides geared towards the younger kids. Can you see a face peaking out of the sign?

  We wandered through there....and met Bert and Ernie! Garytt was a little nervous, but Grandpa convinced him to give Ernie a fist bump.

  Then Garytt and I decided to take a ride on one of the toddler rides.


Then, we headed over to the carousel...who doesn't love the carousel?

  Westyn chilled in the shade with Grandma, Grandpa, and Mimi while Garytt and I rode the rides.

  Next, we went to the the beluga whale show...which turned out to be more about the divers and swimmers than the actual whale...in fact, we only saw the whale a few times. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as the Shamu show, but parts of it were good.

  This show also had birds and a performer on the silks acting bird-like. Honestly, it was a bit artsy for the Sea World crowd, in my opinion...and was a bit boring at times. (Although the thought crossed my mind while watching this part of the show that if I were going to be a high flying performer, what better place to do it than above a huge tank of water...random, I know...but that's how exciting this portion of the show was.)

  After that show, we debated about heading out since we had been there several hours and the boys were definitely getting tired, or letting Garytt go play a bit in the Bay of Play water area. I, being a genius, brought his swim suit and then forgot it in the car...so we decided he could go through the water park area for a bit and then I would change him and we could head out.

So, Mimi and I took Garytt over to the water park while Grandma and Grandpa stayed back with Westyn. Garytt was a little timid.

  And then an older kid ran him over...which I happened to snap a photo just as it was happening.

  He was knocked over but got right back up. He explored some of the other areas of the water park but really didn't want to get soaking.

  The Bay of Play has a huge ship in the center that has all sorts of climbing ropes and tunnels attached to it.

  Garytt really wanted to "climb that." Obviously, I didn't feel comfortable with that, especially with the bigger kids around. But he found a few tunnels that stayed on ground level and was happy to climb in those.

  Although these tubes were better than the ones up high, it was still hard to follow him along the tubes and make sure he didn't get lost. So, I was able to distract him by showing him the Bay of Play sign where he could play "Peek-A-Boo."

  I did think he was going to have a breakdown when I told him we had to leave that sign. Then we saw Zoe from Sesame Street! So, off we went to get a picture with Zoe!

  Thankfully, that distracted him enough to lead him out of the water park area. We changed his clothes and headed to the front. Westyn was totally out at that point.

  But Garytt still hanging in there...but took a rest with Mimi while we waited for everyone to get ready to go back to the car.

  I thought we had a great afternoon at Sea World minus a bee sting on my mom's hand and the weather being much hotter than we expected. We missed some of the other animal exhibits but I don't think the boys had the energy to go see them anyway.
 
  I guess we'll just have to come back another time!