SeaWorld - Wednesday, June 25th

We were suppose to go to SeaWorld the last time Hannah was off track from school, but Steven was unable to take time off from work due to deadlines. So this summer break is filled with extra adventures. The girls had never been to SeaWord and as it was, it's been almost twelve years since Steven and I have been. Not only were the girls excited and looking forward to our trip, but so was I!We arrived just as the park was opening and hit a few exhibits before the first show of the day.There's been the addition of a few rides since our last trip to SeaWorld. Journey to Atlantis is one of them. The line was short and we figured we'd best ride it before the park got too busy. I rode the ride first, while Steven sat out with the girls. It wasn't until after I got off the ride and told her it was fun and okay that Hannah decided she'd give it a try. So she and Daddy rode the ride together, while Rachel and I sat on the sidelines, Rachel sad that she couldn't go on it. When Hannah got off the ride, she said she'd loved it!!After the ride, we hit some shows. First, we went to the Shamu show, followed by the Dolphin show, which Hannah absolutely loved!!! The first several rows of seats were marked "splash zone". I thought to myself how wet could you get with dolphins?? Hannah wanted to sit in the splash zone, and thankfully we found seats in the last of the rows designated 'splash zone'. Later in the show, I found out just how wet you can get at this show when they bring out a whale! Another show that Hannah really enjoyed was the Sea Lion show. Not only did we catch the daytime version, but we also caught the night time version as well, which was hilarious!!The rest of the day, we spent going from exhibit to exhibit admiring all the sea life and visiting the tide pools, where Hannah was brave enough to touch a starfish.Sometime in the mid afternoon, we made our way to the Sesame Street Bay of Play, where it was obvious a lot of parents were using this time to take a load off their feet and let their kids run free and play about the rope bridges, the bouncing areas, as well as the area of water ssplishing and splashing. Someone had warned me of this area ahead of time, so I came prepared with their crocs and a change of clothes. And boy was I glad I did, Hannah and Rachel were soaked!!!! After some fun in the water, we made our way to the restrooms and changed into drier attire! They had sooo much fun and I'm so glad I came prepared.All day long we would peek into the gift shops. Some exhibits actually exited you through a gift store. The backpack we were carrying was already too heavy, so we waited until the end of our day to let the girls pick something out. For those of you who know me well, know of my strong dislike for stuffed animals, and you'll be happy to know that I put aside my dislike and let each of the girls get a stuffed animal as a souvenir of our time at SeaWorld. We had seen these little purses that had stuffed animals in them, and Hannah was determined to find one with a dolphin, but when we did, she changed her mind and went for the polar bear. Rachel picked Shamu of course.After walking for two days straight, miles and miles I'm sure, we were all pretty tired. I managed to capture just how Hannah was feeling as we made our way to the car.We had such a great day! The weather was beautiful, we saw everything we wanted to see and then some. With the ticket we got, we can actually go back to SeaWorld once more before the year is over. It was no surprise when Hannah started asking when we'd be back, before our day was even over. LOL.

Check out more of our SeaWorld Pictures.