It all started on Tuesday morning. I was so excited to get up and start our day so I went right in and woke J up (he was actually sleeping in for once, he's usually an early riser). It was nice walking into his room singing "Happy Birthday" to him. His smile melts my heart. I had plans to make him a special breakfast, his favorite, pancakes, eggs, and bacon, but unfortunately I forgot to get eggs from the store, so I was unable to. Once we were all up, we got dressed and loaded up the car. This wasn't as easy as we thought it would be since we have a small car and needed to pack quite a bit of stuff. Eventually we managed to get everything in and we were on our way, after a quick stop for breakfast.
Just as we stopped for gas, this is what we saw...
Yep, rain! Although I hoped it would end shortly, we weren't so lucky. It followed us all the way to Orlando. But the birthday boy didn't let that ruin his day. He was as happy as could be once we arrived at our hotel, which was on SeaWorld property, so that probably added to his excitement.
After checking in we were on our way to the park. Since we bought our tickets online we had to stand in line to get our official passes. At this point A was due for her next nap, but unfortunately she's not a good napper outside of the house, so she wasn't a happy camper here...
Our first stop was at the Clyde and Seamore show, which was super cute and we all enjoyed it.
After that we went across the way to J's favorite exhibit, the penguins.
From there it was time to ride some rides. So while A and I watched, the boys went on their rides. First Jamie rode Kraken, then he and J went on Journey to Atlantis.
I should mention that once we arrived at the park, the rain stopped. It was actually a nice time, up until this point. As you can see in the picture below, the skies opened up and it started to pour on A and I as we waited for the boys.
To take shelter from the rain, we headed over to the Shark Encounter. Now I should also mention that I am deathly afraid of closed in spaces, so I avoided this attraction the last time I was at SeaWorld (20 years ago). But we weren't here for me, we were here for J and I thought he would like to see the sharks swimming over head. So I decided to tough it out and go in. Apparently so did half the other people at the park that day. It was so crowded that we could barely see anything, so my pictures aren't the greatest. I was rather surprised that I didn't go into a complete panic attack from the crowd, maybe I'm finally getting over my fear.
I guess our luck of a clear day ran out, because when we left the Shark Encounter we were met with more rain. Since it was about 45 minutes before the Shamu show, we decided to make our way there. We were unsure if they would still do it, but figured it was worth a try since that was the one show we really wanted to see. Fortunately, it was still going to happen so we found some really great seats, front and center. We tried to get some pictures of the birthday boy in front of the stage, but he was acting goofy, so it took a few shots to get a good one.
Our view was amazing and the show was even better. It really was moving and taught a great lesson about our planet. Warning, picture overload ahead...
After the show we decided to get something to eat. Since we are passholders we qualified for an extra 10% off our meal, plus free dessert for each adult! Our 20% off pretty much paid for J's meal, so we only had to fork over money for ours. Oh, and because I was so excited to get free dessert, and because it looked so yummy, I decided to take a picture of it for you. Mmmm, carrot cake and rich chocolate cake. The pieces were so big that the three of us could barely finish them.
So that pretty much ends our day at SeaWorld. It was a fun filled (and very wet) 5 hours!
The next morning we all slept in (including A!). Since we asked for a late checkout we had plenty of time to get dressed and go out for breakfast. Once back in the hotel room, we all rested as we watched Beauty and the Beast. Once it was time for checkout we loaded up the car and headed over to Aquatica. This was a surprise for J. When he saw a commercial for SeaWorld on TV before our trip, he was so excited to see they had a water park, but when I told him it wasn't actually at SeaWorld, he was bummed. So we spent the extra money and added Aquatica to our passes.
There aren't many pictures from our day there since the camera spent most of the day in the locker. But before we put it away we went over to the dolphin tank at the Dolphin Plunge ride. It was so cool watching them swim around in the tank knowing you could ride the ride "through" the water (which Jamie did, but I didn't).
So that ends our family vacation to celebrate the 8th birthday of the sweetest, coolest little man I know. I love you J and I hope you had a wonderful birthday :)
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