Sea World!

Over spring break this year, we took a little mini-trip to Central Florida. We spent a day at Sea World (thanks to free passes for teachers and preschoolers!), then stayed in an Orlando hotel overnight before driving to the Kennedy Space Center the next day. It was a quick trip, but super fun!

We left Jacksonville early-ish on the Tuesday morning of spring break and arrived at Sea World a little before 11:00. Unfortunately, the ticket line was no joke so it took us a while to get in. But, when we did, we were just in time to kick things off with the dolphin show. The kids were entranced!

Look at E.J. sitting still and everything!

Dancing dolphins

Dolphins all over the place

Loving it!

Next we went over to Turtle Trek, which begins with a lovely stroll through a little aquarium. The kids loved that part. Then you go into a big dome theater and watch a 3D movie about what it's like to be a turtle in the wild, including being grabbed by a seagull and such. Ellie was TERRIFIED. She clung to my neck and begged to leave, poor thing.

Ellie enjoying the aquarium

Ready for an immersive turtle experience!

When we were done terrorizing our child with turtle simulations, we tried to hit the penguin exhibit but it was a 20 minute wait just to look at the penguins let alone ride the ride, so...no. Pass on the penguins. We did, however, stop to take a picture here:

Penguins!

The last time we were at Sea World, it was Mother's Day 2014 and I was quite pregnant with E.J. I took my 32-week belly picture right by those penguins! E.J. sure has changed quite a bit since then!

May 2014 and March 2016! I like him better on the outside, I must say.

From there we went into the little aquarium nearby. The kids loved the fish swimming under the floor!

Ellie checking out the fish below her

"Hi, fishie!"

Then, we went over to visit the seals and sea lions. They were a noisy bunch! E.J. was not a fan, but Ellie was. She and Eric even bought some fish to feed them.

Ready to eat

She even touched a fish!

Then, we saw the sea lion and otter show. E.J. was pretty over it by that point, but Ellie sat nicely and watched the entire (very silly) show.

The sea lion show

Walrus for the big finish!

After the show we grabbed some lunch and went over our plan for the afternoon.

Ellie loved reading the map, and she was pretty good at it, too!

We had to stop by the scenic spot where we took some photos last time to get a few more before continuing on!

Sweethearts

Pretty Ellie

Family selfie!

Then, we made our way over to the kids' area.

I can't with these two.

The kids and I rode the carousel and the little train, and Ellie and I rode a spinny ride. The kids met Shamu, and did a little climbing on a rope net (which Ellie was very brave with, and even said was her favorite part of the day!).

Carousel ride!

Look at Ellie climbing to the top all by herself!

Riding rides together

Shamu!

On our way out of the kiddie area, we swung by the orca tank and were able to watch them playing! It was really beautiful.

Orcas at play

Ellie watching

By then, we were starting to wear out...

Poor, napless E.J.

...so we grabbed a Shamu ice cream to get us through.

Yummy!

Sharing!

We did decide to call it a day after that. We caught a comedy routine on the way out, then made our way to our hotel. Eric once again found us a great place to stay that wasn't insanely priced for spring break, and had a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen so we had some space. Perfect! It also had a balcony with a lovely view:

The view from our room

Once we had dinner and got the kids in bed, Eric and I grabbed some appetizers from the on-site restaurant to snack on as we drank wine and watched TV. Then, we learned that our nice balcony view also was an excellent spot to watch the evening's shuttle launch, perfectly preparing us for our upcoming day at the space center!

What a great day with our family!

Mother's Day at Sea World

We had a very fun day together on Mother's Day! Eric and I decided to take Ellie to Sea World for the day. We took her almost exactly a year ago to the day, and she loved it, but back then she wasn't even walking yet and had just learned the baby sign for "fish." Now, she's obviously walking around a bit (ha!), and she has just started distinguishing between fish, whales and dolphins, plus she's shown interest in things like seals, walruses and penguins. So, we figured she might enjoy a day to see all these things.

Thanks to the Busch Gardens passes my sister was kind enough to get for us before leaving for Japan, our admission and parking were free, so the only cost to us was the time (and gas) it took to drive to Orlando. Free AND fun? Sign me up!

We left just after 9:00 a.m. on Sunday and arrived at Sea World just after 11:00. Our first stop was the "Blue Horizons" dolphin and bird show at 11:30. We made it to the theater just in the nick of time, and Ellie was entranced. She watched in awe, only stopping to cover her eyes when the music turned ominous (smart cookie, that one). When we left the theater, she was all, "Had fun with dolphins! Dolphins jumping! And princess!" (She thought one of the "bird" acrobats was a princess...hello, there, lingering effects of our Disney trip!)

Checking things out with Daddy

It's always wise to keep one hand on each parent at all times. You know, just in case.

Hiding during the "scary" part

A few shots of the show, including the "princess" at top left.

After the show we walked over to check out the new penguin exhibit, which was still under construction at the time of our last visit. Ellie hated the simulator ride, but she did like checking out all the penguins in their snowy habitat. We also hit a new milestone: she actually said "penguin" correctly. Since Christmas, Ellie has pronounced "penguin" as "conquin," but she finally (and sadly) got it right during our Sea World visit. I've always taken the approach of not repeating things she mispronounces, but rather saying them correctly so she can hear the proper pronunciation, which I suppose is the best course of action for the sake of learning. BUT, that means that she learns the proper pronunciations, which is always a little sad. It's like each suddenly correctly-pronounced word is just another piece of her babyhood, gone forever. DON'T DO THIS TO ME ON MOTHER'S DAY OF ALL DAYS, KID.

32-week belly pic at the penguin exhibit!

Being silly with Daddy (and Goldfish crackers) in line for the ride

On the simulator ride

Penguins!

Hi, friend.

Watching the penguins swimming around

Later, channeling her own inner penguin via headwear at a gift shop

By the time we finished with the penguins, we were getting pretty hungry, so we stopped for a pizza lunch.

Whale plate and whale cup. Subtle.

Then, we went over to the sea lion habitat and managed to catch them at feeding time! We stayed and watched for quite a bit, resulting in a lot of "Had fun with seals!" out of Ellie when we finally moved on.

Waiting for some fish

Eric, Ellie and the sea lions

If I know anything about sea lions, it's that they sure do get two-year-olds in the mood for a run through the park with Daddy.

And they're off!

We made a stop in the Shark Encounter exhibit...

She's not at all fazed by this, but heaven forbid the music of a dolphin show shift to a minor key.

Watching the sharks and big fish

...then we caught the sea lion and otter show. Ellie was particularly in awe of the walrus that made an appearance at the end!

"What. Is. That."

Scenes from the show. In Ellie's defense, that walrus is pretty...shocking.

On our way out of that show, we stopped for some photos at a very scenic spot.

Family selfie!

With my pretty girl

Mother's Day photo with my kids!

Then, we made our way to the kids' area, where we met up with Shamu himself! Naturally, Ellie made sure to show him her piggies.

This kid loves her some costumed characters.

Ellie wanted to "ride the fishies" (the carousel), so we hopped on that, and much to Ellie's delight, Shamu joined us!

"Wait a second...what's happening back there?!?!"

"I'll just settle in right here, thank you."

Best buds sharing a carousel ride

After that, we very seriously debated letting Ellie play at the little splash pad in the kids' area, but she was getting pretty sleepy and we weren't sure if it was a great idea to toss an already unsteady, tired toddler into a slippery water park. Before we could decide, as if on cue, Ellie went running off and immediately tripped and fell (we're talking a full-on scorpion situation). She was left with a scrape on her forehead and both knees, as well as some bruised knees and elbows, and was pretty shaken up. So, yeah. We'll skip the water park.

Instead, we treated ourselves to a little Shamu ice cream bar. Muuuuuch better.

I wish I could sit comfortably in a stroller while people feed me ice cream. I mean, right?

And that was it! We picked up some beverages for the road and then made our way to the car for the drive back to Jacksonville. Ellie passed out in the car...

Sea life is exhausting.

...for about 20 minutes, and then was pretty unhappy the rest of the time. Luckily, we had the Magical Stop Crying In The Car CD at the ready. I bought this CD for her in the Dollar Spot at Target around Christmas time (solely because it came with a Sesame Street song book, not actually for the CD itself), and for whatever reason, no matter how unhappy she is, as soon as that horrible music starts playing, this happens:

VIDEO: Ellie responds to her car CD

God bless that CD.

All in all, it was an excellent Mother's Day. I loved spending that fun family time with my favorite people, and I know Ellie had a blast because she still hasn't stopped talking about it: "Had fun with dolphins! Dolphins jumping! Had fun with seals! Meet a whale!"  Definitely a successful day!