Sea World

Last weekend we took our first family vacation. Now, we've gone places since the kiddo {mostly just Galveston}but never as an intentional family-only kind of thing. There's always been an ulterior motive - like celebrating our anniversary or going to see Reba {and crying like a little school girl because of it}. So, since we only planned on us 3 going {the husband, the kiddo and the me}and us 3 spending time together and us 3 sharing the cost of the hotel {Wait, what? You mean that's all the same bank account? Shit.} So, as the mother I am proclaiming it our first family vacation. And my word is final. Just don't tell the husband.

My job offers discounted tickets once a year to Sea World San Antonio. We've never partook in it, because well, if we wanted to see fish we'd just go down the road and fish.

{Yes, I work in Biology so I know dolphins are mammals, but they swim...so, uh, fish. I've never claimed to be smart, people. I just work with smart people.}

Dance moves courtesy of Bud Light.

We also were too busy being preoccupied with drinking too much and just being our kind of 20-something stupid. Good times, my friends, good times.

It's nearly a 4 hour drive from our home, so I was concerned about the Lillie-kins, but as she gets older she's able to withstand her carseat for longer periods of time. Provided we make a lot of silly faces and distract her with Goldfish crackers, we're usually golden. I was worried about Alfred as well, but I just let him touch my boob every so often and he was fine. Men. So Easy.

We finally made it to the gates and of course, we had to pay for parking. I was all about the cheaper $15 parking that's a good 20 miles away from the gate but Alfred said, "No, my beautiful wife, we shall park as close as possible. You deserve only the best!"
...
Fine, that's a lie. We did buy the closer parking permit for $10 more despite my protests we could just walk and save the money, but the husband really just did it for himself. But at the end of the day - totally worth it. I was done walking. Done. We were back and forth trying to catch this show or watch that thing or trying to find somewhere shaded to sit down, I nearly wore the bottoms of my flip flops through. So, once again, I have to admit that he was right and I was wrong. Sometimes marriage sucks. Unless I'm right. Then, it is amazing.

Dad showing off Lillie's Baylor Bears tat. She's such a badass, didn't cry or nothing.

It was really hot. Like, just standing there and you could feel the sweat dripping down your back to your crack. {I'm pretty sure I just made up a new rap song with those lyrics y'all.}Not sexy at all..

Never fails that when you want a good family memory, 2 out 3 people aren't looking at the camera.

With our tickets, lunch was provided so we got our free meal, looked over the show scheduling and scadaddled our way out of there. Of course, only after filling up our free water bottles and trying to cool our daughter down by throwing her as close to the shade as possible.

Dad is 6'5", so technically all he has to do is raise her above his head. No need to throw her up. She's already touching the sky. Sheesh.

Watching Azul.

The 'dork' who was trying to ski like the big dogs.

We enjoyed a lot of the shows. I definitely recommend Sea World as a destination for families. And it's geared that way. There are plenty of places to park your strollers (yes, you can bring your own) while watching a show and they even have a water area to cool off. We didn't really pack for that, but no matter, it was so dang hot (Hello Texas weather!) we didn't care. We were dry by the time we got back to our vehicle anyhow. And we'll know better for when we go back in the future.

Lillie even managed to convince us to buy her her own fan (above left). It didn't take much convincing though, have you seen her eyelashes? We should have just named her Bambi. We filled the fan up with ice water and once she found the button to spray herself, she was golden for the rest of our trek through fish country.

First time trying Dipping Dots!

Our last show for the day was...you guessed it - Shamu! We had tried to go earlier in the day but it was already closed. And even when we made it back for the later showing, we had to sit in the splash zone. And seriously, it was a splash zone. Lillie was not impressed with the amount of water that managed to get on her and how little dad got on him. {I can't be for certain, but using your baby as a water shield isn't illegal, is it?}

It was a good little getaway for us and we were both pleasantly surprised at how Lillie survived the day. She had a small 30 minute nap on the way up to San Antonio at around 10am and then kept on trucking until we left Sea World around 5pm. She didn't even have enough time to snooze in the car ride to the hotel because I booked at one that was only about 2 miles away. It was the Hilton Sea World if anyone is interested in it. It was really nice, I only booked there because they took our points from our credit card. The restaurant sucked balls {totally not worth the price}, but it did have 2 larger pools and small one specifically for young children.

We'll definitely adventure out that way in the future (but make an actual weekend of it, so we can enjoy some of the sites San Antonio offers) and the fact that Lillie was so well-behaved in the hotel and for the 3 1/2 hour car ride really helped. I was seriously worried that something would just be ape-shit crazy and for the next 20 years anytime I brought up going on a vacation I'd hear, "Well, remember that one time when Lillie screamed like a banshee for 4 straight hours and then somehow pooped on the ceiling and it dripped in my mouth??" But, luckily, I won't. At least not this family vacation. We'll see how the next one goes...

Who's ever had themselves a memorable family vacation?