Sea World -- 2012 Season

Today was official "renew your season pass" day for Fords and Nolens.

We loaded up the kids and drove to Sea World to start another fun season with whales and dolphins, sharks and penguins, clown fish and blue tangs (Nemos and Dorries).

We caught the Shamu show and once again Sydney hung out afterwards to ask some questions of the trainers.

This visit, her focus was on the big splashes that the orcas can make and she learned that the bigger orcas can make bigger splashes.  She really enjoyed the show (as she will demonstrate later).

After the show, the Fords wanted to stop to eat and Sydney and John wanted to ride the rides.  John is finally tall enough to ride the Shamu ride which was unfortunate in that it meant I had to ride with Sydney.  I told Jeremy later that the ride wasn't that bad... but that my screams were not voluntary.  He tried (unsuccessfully) not to mock me.

From there, we went to the dolphins and both kids got to feed the dolphins.

Then we went to the Coral Reef exhibit where we settled in for almost an hour.  John and Sabrina were mesmerized by the fish.  Jenny has all of the pictures of Sabrina and fish, but I know I held her for a good ten minutes and other than a stream of babble and the occasional movement that signified pure excitement and joy, she was completely fixated on the fish.

Now, Sydney likes the aquarium.  I know she does.  She thinks it's a lot of fun to be in there and she loves looking at the fish... for about 10-15 minutes.  Which is a reasonable preschooler amount of time to focus on something.  So what to do when everyone else in the party is still looking at fish?

Host your own show, of course.

Sydney stood in the front of the aquarium talking to everyone and no one about her show.  At various points her brother was being an orca in the show and at various points she was pretending he was an orca who wasn't cooperating with the show as he wandered off to see more fish.  Towards the end of our time there, Jenny suggested a video and so I have the tale end of the act.

I love my kids.

My favorite, though, was the end of the day, when Sydney pointed out to her dad that not every kid gets to go to Sea World (a lesson in gratitude I have been trying to impart to her) and that she really felt sad for all of the kids who don't get to do these fun things with their parents.  Gratitude accepted, Sydney.

I feel pretty lucky myself.