sea world

after spending a couple days in nyc with teresa, i took an early morning flight from JFK to orlando to meet g and my family for a couple days at sea world.  we are extremely lucky to have free park admission plus a guest through our company.  we decided to take advantage of the great deal with the family.  g also had to fly down early in the morning, though mom, sis, and the kids wouldn't fly in for nearly 4 hours after we arrived.

once i landed in orlando i quickly changed into shorts (yay!) and met gary where my chickfil lunch was already waiting on me!  afterwards we were able to get the rental car and check in at the hotel.  since there were four adults and two children, our rental car was a dodge caravan.  yup, g and i were cruising the sunshine state in a minivan.  the hotel was nice and literally across the street from sea world.  once the rest of the entourage arrived we settled into the room and then later went out for dinner.

we had a great time at dinner, laughing and sharing stories.  g, gretchen, and i were also happy to learn that it was happy hour.  two for one!  woohoo!  after dinner we put the kids to bed while the four adults attempted to play euchre with our mickey mouse cards (try keeping score with ears, elbows, and legs).

the next morning we made our way to sea world.  rain was forecasted for the day so we made sure to pick up ponchos to take into the park with us.  we rented a double stroller for the kids and began making our way to each attraction.  we saw sharks, manatee, fish, penguins, sea birds, and of course shamu's aquatic show.

the show was fantastic.  dare i say it was even a little emotional.  add the dramatic music to the huge aquatic beasts performing jumps and dives and it can put a little tear in your eye.  of course the whales did plenty of splashing and were able to soak the majority of the audience sitting in the lower sections.

the other highlights of the day included the rides, lilly's hair wrap, feeding the sea lions, and laughing at lilly's freak-out when splashed by the dolphins!  it was a great day and the kids definitely enjoyed themselves.  though i'm a bit disappointed that i didn't go on the roller coasters or the atlantis boat ride, i'm glad that we went and that we all had a good time.  it makes me happy that we're able to do these types of things.