We had a pretty major occurrence at our house a couple of weeks ago. Our stubborn little Zoe finally decided to get over herself and start using the potty! Those of you that know our darling daughter will understand why we are completely over the moon with excitement about this. The child is ridiculously hardheaded (and we have NO idea where she gets it from...*ahem*...).
Anyway, Grammy and Granddad had used a pretty major bribe to get all this going. They promised Zoe that they would take her to Sea World if she would actually potty train and be able to wear underwear all the time. Well, she did it!
So, on Thursday, May 17, we got up early and hit the road! Destination: Sea World San Antonio.
Anna and Daddy are ready to go!
But first, Casper the Friendly Ghost needs sunscreen.
We found Nemo!
These are my favorite.
This poor employee. The boys were grilling her, and it was so funny. She wasn't expecting two pint-sized people to come up and pester her with a billion questions about sharks.
"Which shark is that?"
"I want to see a lemon shark! Do you have one?"
"Where's the leopard shark? You don't have one of those, either?"
"The great white shark is too big for this building. That's why you don't have one of those."
"The hammerhead isn't too big, so why don't you have one?"
This is a brown shark, in case you were all wondering.
My four year-old taught me that.
This is a sand tiger shark.
I actually knew that. I learned it at the aquarium in Corpus Christi. :)
The boys holding some great white shark teeth.
A very small one, that is.
Then, we went to feed the dolphins.
We waited long enough that the crowd was gone and we were the only ones there!
Hi, there!
Ethan, feeding one of them.
Look at the expression on Anna's face. She wasn't afraid at all, but she was really watching to see what Ethan was doing.
So, we gave her a fish. She knew exactly what to do with it! She held it out over the water, and the dolphin came up and got the fish, but Anna wouldn't let go. The dolphin had to wrestle it out of her hand. She didn't even flinch!
Look at her! No fear!
Then Ethan and Nicholas got to touch the dolphins.
Ethan and Nicholas were both tall enough to ride the kids' coaster!
They loved it, and went back for seconds.
Then we went over to the splash park and let the kids play in the water for a while.
Even Anna got her feet wet!
Nathan took the boys into the gigantic playscape and let them run around like fools for a bit, and then we headed over to see the sea lions.
These guys were seriously noisy!
And I think it's pretty obvious who the big boss is!
The kids got to feed them, and we watched them swimming around for a while while we rested on some benches (the grown-ups, not the kids). At this point, I was feeling pretty horrible, but I attributed it to low blood pressure or low blood sugar, since it had been a while since I'd had anything to eat. We decided that we would try to find somewhere to sit in the air conditioning and have some food.
That's more like it.
(Don't worry, I didn't eat this. It's Nathan's. I had a chicken sandwich, which wasn't too bad.)
I felt a little better after eating, and we all enjoyed sitting in the cool restaurant! We wanted to go and check out the penguins, but Nathan got distracted by the roller coasters. Of course, I told him to go for it, but there was no way I was getting on that thing!
As we walked toward the next exhibit, I started watching the coaster rush past us, and wondered if we would be able to see Nathan coming down in the car. I got out my trusty zoom lens and decided to wait. He was in the very next car!
Fifth row from the front, white T-shirt, riding alone. Can you see him?
The guy behind him looks like he's going to be sick. Or he's praying.
While we were in the penguin exhibit, waiting for him to come back from the ride, Anna passed out. Poor baby - too much Sea World! Nathan ended up riding the coaster twice because there wasn't a line, and I think he had lots of fun.
It was really too dark to get decent pictures without a more elaborate set-up, but I did my best!
Then the boys got to pose with a penguin outside! I bet that poor person was super hot! Zoe wouldn't go near him - she's such a chicken!
I love this picture.
Zoe's our navigator.
The other coaster that Nathan rode twice.
No, thanks!
Finally, just before the park was going to close, we went over to see the final Shamu show of the day.
Anna was completely captivated the whole time. She kept clapping her hands!
After the show was over, Ethan marched down the stairs and went over to the tank, where one of the trainers was standing. He just started talking to her like they were old friends. He was telling her how much he liked the show, and asked her a ton of questions about how they get the animals to do all those tricks! She was laughing the whole time, but just kept answering question after question.
We finally made him leave, and she told him, "Thank you so much for
coming! We hope you get to come back really soon! Keep learning!!"
Bye, Sea World!!
We marched some seriously tired kids out to the parking lot and went straight to our hotel (which was only a few miles away, thank goodness). I had a killer headache, so I popped some pills and spent some time laying on the bed. Nathan and Granddad ventured out to get some pizza for dinner so we could just eat in our rooms, because we didn't really want to drag the kids anywhere else. We had food and bath time, then we tried to get settled in for the night. The boys stayed in a room with my parents, and the girls stayed with Nathan and me.
Thus began the longest night we've had since Nicky was a newborn (sorry, Nick-Nick!). Oh.My.Goodness. Zoe developed a stuffy nose, so she couldn't/wouldn't sleep. She would wake up Anna and then fall back asleep, and then Anna would then start screaming until she had woken Zoe again. This continued until about 2:30 in the morning. Finally, Anna got into bed with me and Nathan climbed into bed with Zoe. We alternated trying to calm down screaming kids until the clock read 6:00 a.m., at which point I gave up and got out of bed. I got dressed and wandered into the hallway to see if I could hear any movement from the other room, and I did, so I knocked on the door. It turned out that Grammy had spent the entire night awake with Ethan, who also had a stuffy nose and couldn't sleep. We decided to go downstairs to the little dining area where the hotel had breakfast and see if we could cheer everyone up with some food. Zoe was still asleep in the room with her Daddy, and I definitely didn't want to wake her up.
The adults evaluated the situation and decided against going to the Riverwalk because the exhausted kids would not be able to handle all that walking and all those people. Plus, it's not the most kid-friendly place as far as activities go. Instead of going home, we thought we would give the zoo a try. We have a membership, so there wouldn't be many additional costs, it's a fun place for the kids to go, and it's very familiar and low-key, so we could leave if things just spiraled downward.
We were only able to spend about three or four hours there before it was very apparent that we needed to go home. Poor babies. It seemed like they had fun while we were there, though!
(Yes, you're about to get photobombed with even more pictures of the San Antonio Zoo. Sorry.)
Anna didn't make it into this one. Bad mommy!
Flamingos!
I'm cracking up. This guy looks totally freaked out.
Red ruffled lemur.
Black bear.
Nicky always wants his picture taken like this, every time we go.
Lack of sleep never looked so good.
My husband is so silly.
Striped eel.
Monkey! Two of them, actually. :)
I keep telling him he has monkey arms (and hands).
Here's the proof!
Um, ouch?
Texas Rat Snake.
Mexican milk snake.
Green mamba.
Green mamba.
Baby komodo dragon.
King cobra.
A conference. Where are we going next?
Nicky was making Anna laugh.
Jaguar.
The okapi. I love it!
Um, this is an elephant. Please tell me you already knew that.
Ostrich.
I love zebras!
The zoo finally got their two new tigers! Gorgeous!!
And the "pokey-pines."
We got home as quickly as we could. Poor Nathan actually almost fell asleep at the wheel, so we let Granddad take over driving. I felt sorry for him - I know he didn't sleep at all. The best part of this entire trip? We all ended up getting really sick over the course of the next few days. If we had a high fever, I would swear we had the flu. Nathan got hit the hardest, and I thought I would have to take him to the hospital or something.
Almost two weeks later, and we're still recovering. That was ugly. Not a good way to end a family mini-vacation. Maybe we can call for a re-do sometime?
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