Super Long Vacation Post!!

With Kylie's birthday taking center stage, I haven't had time to blog about our wonderful vacation to Sea World. We had an amazing time and everyone was very thoughtful and no one fought, until the last final hours together.

Just to recap, our family went to Sea World in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago. It was me, Alan, Kylie, Riley, Nana, and Poppy. We rode in our new minivan and everyone had lots of room, magazines, and videos to get us through the five plus hours. Mom and I got a chance to catch up since she is working now and we don't get to spend loads of time together anymore. Dad and Alan got to talk sports in the front seats and the kids got to watch a marathon of Max & Ruby.


Saturday
We left on Saturday morning after Kylie gave us a map that she had made, Dora-style. She was super excited! She couldn't wait to meet Shamu and get to spend every day with all of her family and have special attention. On the way down there, Dad was insistent on stopping at Rudy's in Waco for bbq. Mom and I weren't so excited but the food was delicious and Riley ate some bbq off of a fork!! This is a huge feat considering the fact that he only eats carbs and some protein. Nothing off of a spoon or fork!! I'm really not kidding. Alan has been working with him and is making huge strides in things that he would never eat before.


So we finally get to San Antonio and we are telling Kylie, "Here it is, this is San Antonio!" Meanwhile Kylie is looking all around expecting San Antonio to be a big theme park with Shamu on every corner, clearly dissappointed. Her response, "I don't see San Antonio!" and "Can we go to Sea World right now?" So, needless to say that when we checked into our hotel on the Riverwalk, she was the only cranky one in the bunch. This crankiness would continue throughout the trip, by the way. Even though I was angry inside for the way that she was acting, my motto was "We're making memories!" It seemed to help a little. Even through clenched teeth, at one point, my mom managed a "making memories!"

After a brief walk on the Riverwalk in 100 degree heat and with blistered ankles (Kylie), we decided to purchase two umbrella strollers at $20 each. I mean, I knew Sea World had strollers to rent, but I didn't even think of the other places that we would need one. Duh! So, we strolled all over the RW and finally found a really nice Mexican restaurant. They made guacamole at the table and the food was delish. We also liked it because it was not too crowded. After a night swim at the hotel pool, we crashed in one room. Needless to say, Mom and Dad got us our own room for the rest of the trip.

Sunday
Kylie was super excited because we were finally going to see Shamu. We set out for Sea World and had a wonderful time there. It was very hot but we spent most of the time in the aquarium, which Riley loved, and getting splashed by Shamu in his show. Kylie loved all the shows and Riley actually did pretty well sitting through them. As long as we kept his juice full and had candy, he was good to go. He also liked ooching down the stands and sitting with other families. We just let him. It was kind of like he thought he was getting away with something. Here he is sitting next to his new family which just happens to be Hispanic.



That night, we went to Landry's to eat and the food was so yummy! So we had to wait for about 45 minutes for our food, it was still good and so were the kids. Riley sat for over an hour in his big boy seat and played and picked at his food. Kylie waited not so patiently for her fish. She even asked the waiter at one point, "Did my fish swim away?" We loved that. When she got her food, she ate like she has never eaten before. We were amazed! As we were walking to our car, we saw the horse-drawn carriages and Kylie had a fit! We just had to ride them!! So, we enjoyed a tour of downtown San Antonio in a carriage while our rider told us which hotels were haunted and what not. All in all it was a great day!

Monday
Monday was a great day, too because Alan, Kylie and I were going to have dinner (3pm) with Shamu. We were so excited and even though it was by far the hottest day at Sea World, I think we had the most fun.






At the dinner with Shamu, we got to see him up close and take pictures. The food was so good and Kylie really had a big smile on her face the whole time. The trainer came around to each table and answered questions for us. Kylie's question was, "Does Shamu have friends?" The whole experience was really worth it.

Then we met, Mom, Dad, and Riley and went inside to see the penguins. As we were walking through, Riley said, "penguin" very clear. After that, Mom and Alan got tattoos- Superman and a butterfly- and then we were off to another show. Luckily, Mom let us out of it and told Alan and I to go and ride rides. That's just what we did!! We rode The Great White and The Steel Eel. We both love rollercoasters so this was the highlight of the day for us. Plus we got to have some time to just talk and laugh together.




The day ended with more swimming and we all were sacked out by 10pm.

Tuesday
Today the boys went to The Alamo and the girls went shopping! Mom and I had a great time together and finally got to shop without the boys all over us!

Since this was our last night, we wanted to eat great Mexican food on the RW again. Every place was really crowded. So, we passed by this place that was making guacamole at the table and Dad really wanted to eat there. So we were really surprised when they said that they could seat us right away. Turns out that after we got our drinks and were eating our chips, the waitress said, "Oh, we don't do that here. That was next door!" We were all bummed out and it was pretty much the worst food we had ever eaten. We should have gone back to the restaurant the first night we were there.

Then, Kylie really wanted a heart balloon. She had seen other kids on the RW with balloons, so we had to chase down the balloon lady on the RW for a while until we found her. Riley wanted the same one that Kylie got so that was easy. Then we got ice cream and finally rode the
Riverboat that someone had been begging us to do from day one! When we finally got back to the hotel it was dark and we were ready to go home the next day.

Favorite Moments:

• Riley saying, "Poppy, Poppy, up, up, up!"
• Riley pooping on the potty twice!
• Kylie telling Nana and Poppy "I want to sleep with my real family!" after Alan, Riley and I slept together
• Kylie and Riles playing with the Leapster L Max together
• The kids acting so good and being so flexible
• Dinner with Shamu
• Riding the rollercoasters
• Having Nana and Poppy there! The kids loved it!