Sea World

We decided to skip the beach and join Brandon, Candice, and Elan on a trip to Sea World. We stopped in Waco and picked up Nana on the way down there. Carter was super excited to go, since he had seen many commercials for it. I did my best to make sure we were prepared for the ridiculously stupid hot heat that I knew we would be up against, and we had plans to do the water park the second half of the day both days. As expected, it was stiflingly hot, but the kids didn't seem to notice most of the time! Delaney was really good, although she didn't really get into much of the animal shows. Her most favorite part of the whole visit was meeting Elmo....she seriously went ballistic over him. Like, was in total awe, as though she were a teeny bopper meeting a boy band heart throb. Carter absolutely loved every part of both days, from start to finish.

These are all kinds of out of order. And I got none from inside the water park section.

About a thousand trillion times, he said "THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!"

Dogpile

Clearly not a part of Sea World. Brandon and Candice live in Buda, which is where the author/speaker/blogger Jen Hatmaker lives with her family. I said I wanted to see their newly renovated house, so Brandon did some snooping and found their address! Not at all a stalker.

The first show we saw the first day was Shamu. She was terrified.

D and some kid

Elan

One of my faves...penguins!

Sass

Those rails clearly don't apply to the boys

Waiting for Shamu

Waiting for my other favorite, the otters and sea lions and stuff

She had no clue why she was clapping

And the day her life was made

I cannot handle this face. Most kids ahead of us in line were screaming in fear. This one had to be restrained before it was her turn.

Uncle Brandon

Zoo with family

The weekend before school got out (for me at least) Brandon, Candice, and Elan came up to visit, and stopped in Waco to get Debra. We decided to skip church that Sunday and make a trip to the Dallas Zoo. And to make it even more fun, we decided to take the DART rail.  It was just starting to get hot out, so we went pretty early and saw all we could stand, then took the kids to play in the splash area. They were nice and worn out, and all three fell asleep on the train back home.

Waiting for the train

"Nana! We in a tunnel!!"

First up, the carousel. 

Carter flipped a wig before it ever started and decided he was better off sitting in the spinning nest

Meanwhile the "mangoes" came by on their morning stroll

Its a tradition now!

We rode the monorail too

Playing in the water. Please ignore my pasty legs.

Elan loved riding the horse!

And the aviary center. The highlight of the trip for me. D was going through a bird obsession phase, so this was pretty much a slice of heaven for her. They gave you a popsicle stick with birdseed stuck to one end, and the second you walked in the birds would come land on you to eat. Sister was beside herself, trying to pet and hug them, and couldn't understand why they weren't exactly fans of the petting.

Again, not my finest moment.

This bird sat on Brandon's shoulder for the longest time, and literally fell asleep there!

Enough fun

Carousel one last time

This time he actually sat on an animal

Despite being sweaty and gross, we decided to eat dinner at Babe's. Nana decided she would stay home with the kids, so just the four of us enjoyed a nice, fattening dinner. Unfortunately, I had to go to work the next day, but we enjoyed our short weekend with them.