Sea World, Revisited . . .

Today we went back to Sea World. L decided to leave her baby in the hotel room, whew! But we couldn't get through the whole morning w/o drama. I gave them the choice of wearing costumes or not, L decided to wear hers (she'd brought her bride costume), A decided not to. I threw in a dress for L in case she changed her mind. As we were standing in line w/ millions of other people (more or less, probably quite abit less, I don't know that there was really THAT many people, but they were doing the fingerprint verification & it wasn't working well so the line moved VERY slowly . . . wiping off the fingerprint screen would have helped our line, I'm quite sure, I could SEE the fingerprint smudges on it, thinking that made it harder to read) she decided she was too hot & the dress itched and she needed it off NOW!! Mean mommy wasn't willing to get out of line to change her RIGHT then, nor was I ok w/ her changing in the midst of a moving line (sorry, I'm obviously in the minority (considering what many kids were wearing (or not wearing) in the splash park this afternoon) but IMO 4 yr olds are old enough to not remove their clothing in public (granted, we're still working on the fact that we don't answer the door in our uw at home, sigh . . .) SO, we stood in line w/ her screaming and me telling her repeatedly that as soon as we got thru the line she was welcome to change into her dress but if she continued to scream I would be taking her back to the car. Finally got through, and then she couldn't decide if she really wanted to change or not. Got to the point of dh handing me the car keys & me handing him the backpack (of snacks, etc) and dh & A starting to walk off before L *finally* decided she wanted her dress, and was done w/ the drama. After that, while the girls are both pretty tired, which always translates to being "touchier" the day went pretty well.

Gorgeous weather, sunny, breezy . . . GORGEOUS!!! Although I think we'll be stopping at Walmart on our way to Disney tomorrow to get a cap for dh & sun hats or caps for the girls (meant to bring the girls' sunhats and forgot, totally didn't think about a cap for dh) today was enough shows to not be TOO much sun exposure, but DW is more outside stuff . . .

More crowded at SW today than Monday (no shock there, considering the weather AND that today was Trick-or-treating) but really only noticeable at the gate, lines still weren't bad, and I don't think any show we went to was to the point of NO seating.

There was a Sesame Street (Count's Halloween Party or somesuch) show today that wasn't there Monday, the girls were very excited about that. The girls thought we needed to go back to EVERY show we'd seen Mon, but accepted it ok when I told them that they could each choose 2 shows (the 4 that made the cut were "the dog & cat show", Shamu, Oddeysse (sp? the circus/acrobatic show), and the Sesame St show). We STILL didn't get to see the live animals as much as I wanted to. Pretty much spent the morning doing the shows, though we did make it through the shark exhibit (VERY cool! The pictures do NOT do it justice! You walk through a tube like thing UNDER the shark tank, w/ sharks swimming along beside & above you!) and the horse barn (plus being lucky enough to be walking in the right place to have the horses pull the Budweiser wagon right by us! GORGEOUS animals!!!). Then we went to the car & ate a lunch we'd packed (very nice thing at Sea World, the season passes (at least the ones we have) include "priority" parking and unlike Sesame Place (where Priority Parking is as far away or farther than regular) Priority parking at SW is RIGHT OUTSIDE the gate!!!! Very convenient!!! NOT so convenient aspect of it, SW doesn't have a designated "re-entry" gate, so to get back in, despite having handstamps, we had to stand in line and wait for all the newly entering people to get their tickets/fingerprints checked! I was NOT amused, it cost us "close" seats at the Sesame St show!). After Sesame Street show, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the "kids" area. The girls had fun in the splash park, then we convinced them to try the shamu roller coaster by telling them it was like the "mine train" from DW, they LOVED it, we went 4 times in a row (little to no line) and the girls would've kept going if we'd let them (Mommy & Daddy had been jerked around enough. Separate lap bars are nice in that they're safer for the kids, but not so nice in that it means the end of the kid's lap bar was banging into my hip around each corner). Then we went to check out the "swirly fishies" which was a VERY low-key version of the teacups ride. And the girls could go on it w/o an adult, which they decided they wanted to do & were VERY proud of themselves. Again, no line, so they rode it twice, then L wasn't watching where she was going and bumped her head HARD on the gate or fence or something (I saw her do it, but couldn't tell what she hit), I gave her arnica and before I'd had time to even look for a bump she was ready to go ride again, so they went on it a 3rd time. THEN I got to look at it & she did have a good little bump there. But Daddy had agreed to take them on the flying fiddler (kiddie version of the gravity drop things that I won't touch w/ a 10 ft pole) so she wanted to do that too. While they were waiting in line for that she had to go potty, so I took her potty while dh & A went on the ride. Since the first aid station was right next to the bathroom, I convinced her to get ice to put on it while we were over there. She actually held the ice on it part of the time (first time either of them has ever let me put ice on a bump, I think). And between the ice & the arnica the swelling has gone down quite abit, there's still a little bump though. While she was going potty I did some quick "tests" to make sure her eyes were tracking & such, and she basically looked at me like I was nuts, "duh mommy, of COURSE I can do that/know that!" Then we went back & dh took both girls on the flying fiddler.

By then we were an hour from the special evening Shamu Show (Shamu Rocks, not one I'd recommend for my parents LOL) so we gave the girls the option of staying for it & they said they wanted to. A was complaining about being thirsty & we'd drunk all the water I'd brought in, so we decided to get the girls & I each a slushy (and water for dh) to eat while we waited for the shamu show. The girls, thankfully, chose to NOT sit in the splash zone this time (they were concerned as we carried our slushies to the stadium, that "Shamu might splash my slushy!" which helped them decide they wanted to sit up higher. Needless to say we didn't discourage that (we all got SOAKED at the mid-day Shamu show, I think they had "toned down" the splashing on Monday because of the rain, I'm quite sure they did more splashing today). So, we found seats, ate our slushies, and by then they'd started playing music to get people in the mood for the show, A alternated between dancing along & laying on the bench w/ her head on my lap, but L pretty much danced thru the whole show. I think in a certain sense, the girls (L anyway)could see the whales better from up high because they weren't focusing on "when will we get splashed". Anyway, like I said, not a show my parents would have enjoyed (VERY loud "our generation" music) but the girls seemed to really enjoy it despite being SO tired. . .

I thought they'd fall asleep on the ride back to the hotel (not very far, but w/ traffic & such . . .) but they didn't, and still insisted on their stories & such when we got back).

Tomorrow & Fri (we did get reservations for Fri night, same hotel, dh will talk to the front desk in the morning to find out if we can keep this room or will have to change rooms for Fri night) are both Disney. I'm hoping to convince the girls to choose 1 or 2 things, each to "repeat" and do all new things beyond that, we'll see how that goes . . .

Pictures are here.