Sea World!

This year I got to spend my birthday with some of my very favorite people at Sea World. Thursday morning we headed out bright and early with the Morans and Joy & Ava. None of us Joneses had ever been to Sea World before, but I have to say that we are all now huge fans. We had a blast.

We started the day with the kiddie Shamu coaster. I was the only adult who had the privilege of riding it with the kids. I think you can tell I was excited. :) Matt loved it too.

We looked at the park map quite often to satisfy Matt's curiosity and to navigate the huge park. Matt was tall enough to ride a big splash coaster with us that had a big drop at the end to it, and he loved it. He wanted to do it again. He likes the thrills and chills!

Look at these adorable children!!! Big bird was feeling fancy in a tie that day. I told Steven while we were standing there that it has always looked to me like big bird has fruit loops around his legs. Am I the only one?

We watched the Shamu show, and it was amazing. Zoologist Steven was in heaven admiring the ocean animals.

We were in the splash zone, and boy did we get splashed. Soaked, in fact. Matt was not a fan of that part, strangely.

After lunch we spent a large part of the afternoon in the water park where Matt discovered the delightful fun that is the lazy river. He and Ava went around that thing at least a dozen times. Everyone enjoyed the wave pool as well. Matt got to go on his first innertube slide as well, and he grinned all the way down I think. It's so fun that he's tall enough to do all these big kid things now and that he wants to do them. I was a little nervous sending him down that tube slide by himself, but he did great.

We watched the Sea Lion show, too, and it was really cute.

After that the adults took turns going on the big roller coasters. Mary Claire was brave enough to go on one of them with us, and she was tall enough too!

The Steel Eel was probably my favorite of the day. Lots of good drops and super fast.

And this is probably my favorite photo of the day......Mary Claire's face right after we pulled to a stop on the big coaster. She looked terrified, but 30 seconds later as we were walking away she said it was awesome and wanted to do it again. :) I'm so proud of her for being brave enough to do it. I'm still giggling at that picture.

By 6:30 we were done. Exhausted, hot, and hungry. Matt said, "Momma, I can't believe we've been here for 5 hours!" I said, "try again son, it's been over 8 hours!". Conveniently, there was a Rudy's BBQ close to the entrance to the park so that's where we had dinner. Yum, yum, yummy! Somehow, Will didn't nap the entire day. I really thought he would konk out at some point, but he was content and having fun all day. I don't think he wanted to miss anything. He finally passed out on the ride home about 8:30.

It was truly a wonderful day. What an awesome way to spend my 33rd birthday! I feel so blessed. I see many more visits to Sea World in our future. That place rocks.