Christmas At Sea World

This year for our annual Sea World trip we decided to go for the Christmas Celebration. We've heard that Sea World does a great job at Christmas. Having learned our lesson from various trips in the past, this year we booked a hotel, drove down the night before, and were able to have a leisurely morning before heading off refreshed and ready for our fun Sea World adventure. We did take the time to pick up lunch before going in since Sea World food is overpriced and overrated. It was in the sixties to seventies which is a huge improvement over the ninety to one hundred degree weather we've had in the past.

 I couldn't say which was more exciting to the boys: the fact that it was Sea World or the fact that it was decked out for Christmas.

One of the first things we always do is go to the dolphin area followed by the shark encounter. In the last year or two they've stopped letting you feed the dolphins which is really a shame since my boys always enjoyed that. The shark encounter is always a huge hit, however. Miles was convinced that every fish was a shark and every tank held invisible shrieking eels (from the Princess Bride).

Next we hit up the dolphin and beluga whale stadium and enjoyed that performance. This time round it was a little more instructional based instead of entertainment based. As a result the kids were a little less interested than usual, but still enjoyed the show.

After the show we headed over to the climbing playground. With its myriads of nets and climbing tunnels this is an awesome way to have kids blow off some steam and use up plenty of energy at minimal parent expense. This is also where a brand new family first occurred. Miles has now become the first child in our family to lose both his socks and shoes in an amusement park and us not be able to find them. So our little redneck had to ride in the wagon the rest of the excursion.

The highlight of every sea world trip tends to be the Killer whale show. We sat down low this time and the kids loved how they were able to see everything so well. I (having watched black fish) was more creeped out then ever when they introduced their 9,000lb killer whale. Their pod of whales went on to splash everyone and although we all got pretty wet...Miles got soaked. As a result our increasingly red neck family had our children take off their shirts, hang them over the side of the wagon and wear their dry jackets over their naked chests.

Miles barefooted, shirtless and in salt water soaked jeans promptly fell asleep in the wagon. I took the two older boys to see the penguins. As Ian noted repeatedly the penguins are really stinky. He also enjoyed in a very little boy grossed out way when he saw them pooping in the water. After that mildly gross encounter is it any wonder that Ian insisted on getting a penguin stuffed animal as his souvenir?  Liam picked an ocean rescue set, and since Miles was asleep I picked out a dry t-shirt for him.

One of our favorite things about going to Sea World this time of year was how the whole park was lit. It was almost like being home at Temple square. The boys enjoyed the festive lights as well.

As it got dark and Miles was going around in only a t-shirt we decided it was prudent to head home. We had a really great time...most likely our last time at Sea World since I don't relish the idea of taking a newborn there. Going to Sea World each year has been one of the highlights of the last four years in Texas. So thank you Sea World for supporting the soldiers and giving our little Army family something to look forward to each and every year!