Make a Wish trip: Tuesday, Day 4! SeaWorld and a pool party!

We were up and at 'em at a good time on this fine (and very warm!) Tuesday morning. We knew we had the rest of our trip mapped out and it was a toss up between using our SeaWorld passes or the Universal passes. Can you believe it either? that they gave us passes for both of those parks? 

We would have tried both parks but we knew there was no way. They were so exhausted from yesterday's outing. I'm still a little sad we never got to visit Universal Studios but I know that one day we will. I think Natalie made a great choice picking SeaWorld for this day. The kids (especially James!!) were really excited about seeing some sea life!

So, as usual we started our day with breakfast-- the breakfast of champions. 

Then we were off to SeaWorld! It wasn't too far from our resort so that's a huge plus. 

 This dude was just sitting there... taking in the view I suppose.

 Well if the bird's going to so will we...

(I still think it's so funny to see fake Christmas trees in a tropical area)

 We prepared the kids ahead of time, letting them know that Florida is filled with lizards. Did you know that if a predator tries to snatch them they make their tail fall off and then they regrow one? Nope, I didn't know either!

 First animal stop.. PENGUINS! and a whole bunch of them!

 This dude was my favorite. He just stood there the whole time, not moving. 

 Lots more penguins!

 Natalie wanted to watch them for a while. : )

We managed to get into the amphitheater right on time for the next Shamu Show! 

We sat down in the front of the "splash zone" but it was like the "you're REALLY going to get soaked" zone. We saw a guy selling towels and loved the idea of sort of protecting ourselves but we also needed beach towels for tomorrow's trip (more to come). 

We bought 4 towels and then a greeter came over to us to tell us that we could sit in the special "Make a Wish area". We didn't even know they had one.. I couldn't believe it! That was so sweet. 

We ended up right smack dab in the middle front row of all the seats!

This awesome guy below was posing while we moved over there...

whale bath! seriously, we were THAT close! No zooming in required!

 I wonder if our bird friend followed us here onto the stage.. it's like he.. knew. 

 WHALE TONGUE HA! blaaaahhhh

 Rick silently caught this shot. She stood RIGHT in front of us for the show. It was kind of funny.

 The sides of the stage (where we would have sat) got SOAKED. They really did soak those poor people. Here's a whale headed our way to soak us. 

 belly flop!!

 ..and that was our awesome time at SeaWorld. awwwwwwww

After walking around a bit, attempting to get James to ride a boat ride with daddy (fail), seeing some dolphins, and a few other animals, our camera died. We headed back to our villa but stopped for lunch. We still pondered Universal (Ricky and I really wanted to go) but the kids were pretty adamant about going swimming that evening. Who can blame them? It was hot and a perfect evening to go swim!

And that's what we all did!

 Ricky and I were sitting there chatting away on the side of the pool, drying off while the kids played, and I look over to see the streams of water gushing out.. I swear it looked like water shooting out of his nostrils. I tell him this and then he pretends to sneeze. ; )

 Every evening at Give Kids The World, they have a themed party. We picked THE best time to go to the pool because we ended having a barbecue and pool party that evening! It was so so good. They even brought the Dippin Dots, ice-cream, and cotton candy machines over! 

 We stayed at the pool from 4 to 8:30pm. We had such a fun time. They even had a dance contest and the kids participated. 

So that was our Tuesday. It was really a great day. It was also the first night of Hanukkah and they offered us some pickled herring. It was the first time we learned that James loves pickled herring. ; )

Next up! Wednesday in Tampa/ Clearwater beach and seeing some very special people!