Family Day at Sea World San Antonio

Our first family trip together was to Sea World at San Antonio right before Emily's third birthday.  The weather was gorgeous, not extremely hot as it normally is around this time of year.  We were a little nervous about how the girls would react to the long trip and long day without a nap.

The day started out well with our two hour drive up to San Antonio, the girls didn't fall asleep as I would have hoped and we only had to take one rest stop.  Once we arrived we checked into our hotel room and met up with Ama, Apa, Alex and Andrea.  We all hopped into one vehicle and headed one mile down the road to our destination.  When we arrived we took a small lunch break and headed over to watch our first show, Azul, which featured Beluga whales, white-sided dolphins, colorful birds and acrobatic performers.  The girls were amazed and couldn't take their eyes off of the performers.  Emily didn't like the applause of the audience too much and wouldn't let me clap as well, but overall she enjoyed the show.

After the show we walked around and took in all the sights, sounds, and smells of the park.  We stopped at the Alligator and Turtle attraction.  At first it seemed as though they had taken the alligators somewhere and replaced them with statues, but at a second glance we realized that the alligators were real.  Out of all the attractions and shows we viewed the girls, especially Avery, loved this one the most.  Avery didn't want to leave and kept gripping the railing, but there isn't much to do but stare at the alligators all day and those weren't our intentions at Sea World.

After much walking around we also went and checked out the Penguins but I didn't take my camera inside.  The smell wasn't very pleasant and although the girls loved the movie "Happy Feet" they weren't at all impressed with the real live penguins, maybe because they were behind the glass.  The day was getting hotter so we decided to take Emily and Avery to Elmo's Bay of Play to cool off in the water area for children.  They both had so much fun here, Avery didn't want to get her head wet but Emily loved walking underneath the falling water.  Both had such a good time here they didn't want to leave and both pitched a fit when I changed them out of their bathing suits.

We went back to the hotel thinking the girls would nap for awhile but when it was apparent they weren't going to lay their heads down we ate dinner and went back to the park for the remainder of the day.  Not five minutes after we placed them in their strollers they were both fast asleep.  So we decided to have a little adult time and hit the gaming section where daddy got to show his physical strength and abilities.  He won a couple of stuffed animals for the girls and when nightfall came around we headed over to the last show called One Ocean featuring the killer whales.  Not having slept all day the girls were cranky and at first didn't want to watch the fantastic show in front of us, until the baby whale came out.  Emily asked me to turn her facing forward and Avery couldn't stop pointing.  Overall, we all enjoyed ourselves and had a great time.  Next stop I'm hoping will be the San Antonio Zoo.

Avery's Birthday Celebration

Avery is two years old now and we had multiple celebrations for her birthday this year.  Over her birthday weekend we celebrated with family and friends at the Aransas Pass Aquatic Center where she got to swim in their huge toddler pool filled with waterfalls and a slide.  Everyone had a great time but not everyone could make it so we had a family celebration on her birthday at Nonna's house.  Nonna made special cupcakes especially for the occasion which were so cute.  Avery had a blast at all her celebrations and got such great gifts from everyone. Thanks to all who could join us and help celebrate our baby turning two!