Sea World

Last week we took a family trip to San Antonio to go to Sea World. We went for the Memorial Day holiday and to celebrate our ten year anniversary. It was a fun trip with our two cutie pies. But, I can't think about Sea World without reminicing about our trip to Sea World in San Diego two years ago. I think it will remain the most special trip I have ever taken for my entire life. The feelings we had and the healing we experienced can not be duplicated. Look at the joy and excitement on her face...it is hard to describe how much that meant to David and I.

This is one of my favorite pictures. She walked up and just stood looking with anticipation. Besides Shamu, feeding the dolphins was her favorite thing. Isn't she beautiful as a baldy? After Stephen was born we had to go again. He's itty bitty here...just three weeks old.

Look how far she has come.... And now look at her... Both kids enjoyed the hotel, or as the cousins always call it the show'n-tell. Stephen felt like such a big boy getting in the elevator all the time with no stroller (we always keep him trapped in the stroller for containment purposes at the hospital...the usual place we encounter elevators). Examining the map! I actually got like five pictures of him smiling in a row, usually I'm not that fast! I loved these pictures, I had to include all three. Looking so Jackie O... ...and a little bit of Natalie. Aren't they cute together? Daddy waving to us on the ride...

Here is a video of Natalie's response to her Daddy. I made her repeat it for me. Blowing kisses and hugs. Then she sent kisses and hugs to her friend Alexa in heaven...we were a little closer after all.

Then she sat back in her usual cool style...she is getting to be such a pro on rides. Hugs for brother. If Natalie loves Scooby Doo, then Stephen is head over heals fanatical about Scooby. He saw this and got sooo excited pointing and saying Scooby that he would not stand next to it to take a picture. He had to keep pointing at it. This was right next to the entrance for a Scooby Doo ride and the Scooby Doo Mystery Shop. Both were huge hits. We could not get The Colonel out of the Scooby store. It was full of Scooby merchandise (which he loved and was sooo cute with) but it also had a t.v. playing a scooby episode. Leaving elicited quite a scene!! One of the first things we did was TRY to pet the dolphins, but even with fish Natalie couldn't get one to let her pet it. The shamu show is always a big hit. We were so excited to see The Colonel's reaction to seeing Shamu for the first time. Natalie's reaction the first time she saw Shamu was THE BEST. The Shamu show is called Believe...it is the same show they were doing two years ago. I can still remember two years ago sitting with anticipation and listening to a neat (some may say sappy, but at the time it was NOT sappy to me) narration. The narrator said something along the lines of, "there comes a time in everyone's life when they stop wondering and begin to BELIEVE." At that moment Shamu suddenly jumps out of the water for the first time. This is Natalie's expression at that exact moment the first time she saw the show.

Here is a video clip of the moment Stephen saw Shamu for the first time. Cute, but then he just began chewing on the spoon from his frozen lemonade. He continued chewing on it without much reaction, besides the occasional pointing and clapping, for the rest of the show. His face remained mostly expressionless. So funny and so different from Natalie.
The first time Natalie saw the show, she smiled and clapped like this the whole time. I know I cried the first time Natalie saw the show...her reaction was so special. So, I was glad I was wearing sunglasses because the memories and seeing her now, looking and feeling so good, brought on tears again. And, of course the music..Believe...has special meaning.

There is a special chant to get Shamu to splash everyone, you make a fin shape with your hands and chant Shamu. I have special memories of my little bald two year old doing that. The first show on Memorial Day did not include the Shamu chant. I was disappointed. We saw the show again on our last day there and they did it!! It was so special and once again I was glad for my sunglasses. Here is a video of Natalie doing the hand thing. I love it...somewhere I have video of her doing it before too.


The really cute thing The Colonel did do, was give kisses everytime we left a show or animal exhibit. This video is of his kisses to say goodbye to Shamu. So cute, yes and somehow I am getting past the fact that he was kissing germy hands (but not too germy since I of course had hand sanitizer in the stroller).


This was Stephen's favorite thing of the trip. He was crazy about feeding the birds. He loves our bird Kramer and always wants to hold her. Natalie was scared of the birds, but Stephen didn't want to leave. We got like 10 shots of him just feeding the different birds.
David even splurged and bought the photo just because it was Stephen's favorite and the guy actually got him looking at the camera, which we rarely capture. He has such serious expressions, it makes me laugh because he isn't really very serious.
Feeding the sea lions. Ewww, slimy fish.
He's got quite the throwing arm.


Funny girl! My little firecracker.
A face shot!
I LOVED this. This picture says a lot, Natalie did not feel well enough nor was she strong enough to do this before. They went all the way to the top (needed a little help from Dad to get to the platform at the end), but then they played and played for 30 minutes until we made them go.
Two years ago it was just a posed shot on the ropes. I have so much to be greatful for.

And you know she couldn't get wet with her central line before. They both loved this. They are so cute. Natalie is wearing the pink skirt and white shirt. Neither of the kids really wanted to swim much at the hotel pool even though it was warm and inside. They just wanted to sit with their feet in the hot tub. Silly kids.
This is Natalie's very first roller coaster ride by herself. It is a little Shamu coaster, but it goes pretty fast. With her tall blue sparkly flipflops she was tall enough to go by herself. David told her since she was going to be alone to make sure and hold on. Then when he saw her going by she was holding her face making this goofy smile for the camera. The funny thing is that she doesn't know where the camera is, so she just makes the face for the ENTIRE ride. We were laughing and laughing. She went on it a second time and I went up near the exit to wait for her. She saw me when she was loading and got her funny smirk on her face and without saying a word, she just pointed to tell me to go away...little miss independent.

The last thing we did before leaving Sea World on our last day was go over to the dolphins. They are my favorite and I wanted one last look. Amazingly enough, a trainer was feeding them and letting people get near and pet them (without having to buy the fish ourselves). It was their big nightly feed and they were very active, it was so cool to watch. This is video of Natalie finally getting to pet a dolphin.
Natalie posing on the River Walk. She keeps doing this soulder thing when she poses. Earlier, David asked her not to do it and she got offended and said that was her ONLY smile she could do. Talk about drama, boy she reminds me of myself.

I love this video. It is the kids walking out to the car after checking out of the hotel. They are so cute. These are the best moments. It wasn't our last thing of the day, but it seems a good way to wrap things up. It was a great trip...

All that was missing was the beach...