Sea World and San Antonio

Our family ended a great 2010 with a fun-filled trip to San Antonio. It was a trip that once we found out we were pregnant, we really wanted to do with the boys! Oklahoma State ended up earning a trip to the Alamo Bowl, which was while we were there, so it was extra fun to see so many OSU fans, players, and coaches while there. The most fun was when Kendall Hunter was in the lobby of the Marriott, and we started talking with him. Side story: Kendall is good friends with one of our church's nursery workers, and apparently, Kyle talks about him so much that she asked him to sign a Christmas card for Kyle. It says "Merry Christmas, Kyle! Happy Birthday to Jesus!" So we told him that "this" Kyle was "that" Kyle, and he remembered and asked Kyle to take a picture with him. Our little fella was in heaven! Just a few steps away, Grant saw Brandon Weedon walking and yelled at him and got a high-five. It was fun!

That night we went to the Riverwalk and took part of the Alamo Bowl pep assembly on the river. Our band and players made their way to the area in the riverboats. Great weather and great scenery.
The next morning we headed out to the Alamo. It was drizzling but we still had fun. Kyle's favorite part was seeing cacti... because it reminded him of Lightning McQueen crashing in to them! They also liked the Koi fish. So much for the history part! :)

It started raining more heavily so we headed to grab a bite to eat. Jason and I ate so much cheese sauce that we had leftovers of our meal to take back to the hotel. The pouring rain at this point kind of forced us back to the hotel, where we took a 3 hour family nap! Heated up leftovers for dinner in the microwave, but then managed to go get Haagen Das ice cream for dessert (and the boys saw 3 guys getting arrested and frisked on a police car!).

Day Three: we took off toward Sea World! We got there about 40 minutes before they opened which turned out to be great for several reasons. The teams participating in the Alamo Bowl had their bands perform so we saw both Arizona and Oklahoma State bands. Also, the gates opened early so we had more time to play!

This picture is at the entrance. What I did not capture just to the right is the Arizona pom squad on the other side of the statue taking turns jumping off of the wall, squealing, getting their pictures taken while in the air. geez....

The first thing we did was head to feed the dolphins! I told Jason while we were there "this is totally worth the ticket price alone!" It was great!!! I counted 11 dolphins at one point. We could touch them!

Call us suckers, but we bought the fish so we could feed them, and not "just look" - so fun.

Next off was the first roller coaster ride.... can you tell if they were having fun!?!?! It was the kiddie ride so we thought they should go together and without their parents.

Some of our friends were visiting their parents near San Antonio and their family joined us for the afternoon.

Sea World has a variety of live shows as well as all of the exhibits. This is the Azul show - a combination of Beluga whales, dolphins, parrots (not really but something like them), and then extremely talented divers/dancers. It was very beautiful and great. We were in the "splash zone" for an added touch of fun!

Lainey, Grant, Gaddis and Kyle Part of the show.... you can see two of the synchronized divers on the left side as well as the ones on the smaller diving boards.

The beluga whale...

This was very typical for these two... they were teasing each other and holding hands the entire time! They go to the same school and really enjoyed this extra time together!

Getting ready for the Shamu show....

We were so very amazed at Sea World during this show. The entire opening video was about the Miracle of Christmas and baby Jesus being born on that night in Bethlehem. It was awesome and also a big shocking at how religious the entire thing was - way to go!

Ker-splat!!!!!! This papa whale was HUGE!

The little boys were able to do their first roller coasters during this trip. They started off on the kiddie Shamu ride and had fun. They then agreed to go on Atlantis with Jason - the big water ride. I didn't get to join them since I was pregnant! Jason must have told them about holding your hands in the air as you go down because this picture below is the one from the Sea World camera capturing them as they descend. Kyle kept his hands up the whole time and it appears Grant decided to grab on to the seat! :)

The boys after their big thrill ride (they ended up going back on it two more times later that day!)

We ended the night with greasy pizza and a funnel cake! yay for great memories!