Sea World!

We took Kaitlin on her very own vacation this week, to Sea World in San Antonio! Yes, we were jerks and left CB behind with Nanny and Pawpaw. Claire had a great time getting all the attention though, and she would've had no idea what was going on at SW, so it was a win-win. And Kaitlin got to have us all to herself, which she ATE up. It is so funny how easy one kid is now. Probably the age has something to do with it too, but I felt like it was a bit of a vacation for me too, which I've never felt before when I've had either or both of the girls with us on trips.

We drove down Thursday morning and checked in to the Hyatt Hill Country Resort (link). It was AMAZING. The place has a huge lazy river, huge lawn, playground, bikes to rent, several pools, "hot pool" (aka hot tub to everyone in the world besides K), tons of kids activities, great food. All in all it was one of the best places we've stayed, highly recommend it. We checked in and went swimming all afternoon/evening on Thursday and ate dinner by the pool. They have s'more's every night on the beach by the lazy river, so we went and did that after dinner. Then bedtime, which we have yet to figure out when we're all in one room. She did okay, after getting off her Aerobed about 5 times and moving to different locations to stare a hole in my forehead as I pretended not to notice and read my book. Finally the threat of "little girls who don't go to bed don't get to go on vacation EVER AGAIN" coaxed her into the sack, and we read with our book lights. Not sure what else you can do when sharing a room like that?

Friday we got up, ate a delicious buffet breakfast and headed out to Sea World. It was HOT, and it was only 10am. I'm so glad we went in May, I can't even imagine that place in July. We first headed out to the penguins, which she enjoyed, but the real hit on that side of the park was the empty roller coaster making it's practice runs before opening up. We seriously sat there and watched for about 20 min, she every minute of it, and demanded our full attention on it when the car was on the tracks "MOMMY DADDY WATCH, HERE IT COMES!!!!" Then we headed over to the Shamu side of the park, where we stumbled across the ride Atlantis. This is the big boat thing that comes screaming down a drop into the water below and splashes everyone on the lookout deck. Let me just tell you, we paid $49.95 each for us to watch that ride over and over and over again. Because that is what we did. She could've cared less about going to see Shamu, dolphins, any other thing in that park. We of course eventually made her (meltdown ensued, rest assured), but honestly she could've stayed there all day. She is very much like her dad, in that she watched about 20 times before she got up the confidence to go and get wet with all the other crazies. And once she did, she LOVED it. It was priceless to watch. But now we know, we can just spend $10 and go sit in the parking lot at Six Flags in Arlington and watch different roller coasters go around and she'll be perfectly content.

We saw all the shows, went and saw the dolphins and sharks, played in the kiddie splash park and got a souvenir penguin for CB, and then hit the road about 3pm. Not before she asked to go see the "boat ride" again of course. And on the way out of the parking lot she could see it and wanted us to stop and watch it. C-R-A-Z-Y. We headed down to The Cove restaurant for a couple burgers and some play time on their big playground. I had looked up Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives website to see what SA restaurants were on there and this was one of them (for their lamb burger and one other thing). It was good, very fresh and local. We ordered K what I believe was her 5th quesadilla of the trip. All that kid eats is cheese, bread/tortillas and grapes. Headed back to the hotel and did a repeat of the night before (swimming, s'more's, but a better bedtime routine).

Saturday we got up and played on the playground and swam a bit before we had to checkout. Then we went and saw Randy, Julie and Reed's new place and their ADORABLE puppies. I'm so sad we didn't get any pics of this. K immediately asked for the "big one" and held that one and kept asking to take it home. Weird that that was completely unprompted, but that is exactly how Scott picked out Chunk from the litter so many years ago. Reed was a sweetheart, and in love with me (if I do say so myself). Then we got on the road and made the loooong trip back to Dallas. She actually slept on this part though, so that was nice. And the borrowed DVD player was a godsend again, allowing me some time to read while she watched Cinderella. It was a great trip, I would love to go back next year and just stay at the resort the whole time! And of course bring CB with us this time.

Here are some pics from the trip (link).