The day before we left Texas we went to Sea World in San Antonio.  It's only about two hours from my parents house.  Not too bad of a drive.

I remember going to Sea World when I was younger and I LOVED it.  Of course, that was during the summer so it was super hot and the water park was open.  And we tried to sit as close as we could to the shows so we would get splashed.  

Since it was winter we went back and forth about going. . . but then just went for it.  You only live once, right?

The park didn't open till noon so when we got there the boys were a little sleepy and craaanky.  So we told them they better shape up and have fun.  Because we paid a lot of money for them to be there.  And if they didn't have fun they were never getting anything from us again.

Just a little dramatic.  But it worked. 

And we left Liv with Grandma.  More fun for her and more fun for us.

So first we went to see some dolphins.

Look how friendly they look.  And even though some people say its so sad they're kept cooped up. . . they look happy.  Look at that little guy below. He looks smiley.

We could have paid a hundred extra bucks to feed them.  Um, or not.

Watching other people do it is almost the same, right?

Next we went to the aquarium to see the fish and SHARKS.  The boys were pretty excited for the sharks.

 They have a whole little carnival section with lots of little rides for the kids.  So we rode the little roller coaster and the merry go round and a few other fun rides.  

And we got to meet the Sesame Street crew which Cam thought was really cool.  He loves Elmo.

The first show we went to was a dolphin and beluga whale show.  I was a little worried the boys would be bored and therefore annoying, but they loved watching it.

The dolphins did lots of tricks.

And the divers did cool jumps.

And a trainer rode the beluga whale.

Pretty cool stuff.  Then we went to see alligators.  They were kind of a dud.  We saw another Pet Show that was inside and I didn't take any pictures.  But there were a bunch of rescued animals like dogs, cats, a rat, birds, and even a pig that put on a funny show.  I think that was the boys favorite.  After it they even got to go up and pet some of the animals.

And then we headed to the penguins.  

We caught the last half of the Shamu show.  Those whales are beautiful.  And huge.  And can jump really high for a big whale.

No pictures of that though.  Plus we had to stand at the top of the stadium.  Because we were late.

We saw some sea lions.  And got to feed them disgusting slimy fish.  

And we went to the last sea lion Christmas show which was very amusing.  And the big old walrus came out at the end.  He was huge.  

We rode the roller coaster a couple more times.  You know how they always take your picture on the drop (even this one with the drop only like two feet)?  And then they charge like twenty bucks to buy it.  I decided I would take a picture of it myself.  I only got a couple of clicks before the guy at the counter came yelling and waving his arms in front of me.  "NO PICTURES!"  Whoops.

Totally worth having a Sea World man yell at me, though.  Take that, Sea World.

We got a special surprise as were heading to the exit.  We stopped to play for a minute at the AWESOME play place, and suddenly the Sesame Street gang was dancing in the street.

And I only took one not so great picture of the play place but it's pretty cool.  It's these netting pathways high up in the air that are mazes and open to slides, and other cool playing things.  Jace was IN LOVE and did not want to leave.  But it was almost time for the park to close and we were starving. . . so we had to drag him away 

See ya later, Sea World.  (like a loooong time later.  cause you were expensive.  so please send me some free passes sometime, okay)