Vacation: Part One--Sea World

Grandma and Papa Allen treated us to another family vacation to kick off the summer. This year we headed to San Antonio, TX for six days. We left Wednesday afternoon (5/26) and drove to Fort Worth, TX and spent the night. The next morning we loaded back in the van and made it to San Antonio around 1:30pm. The boys did surprisingly well considering they were cooped up in a vehicle for 12+ hours, but splitting up the trip helped a bunch...that along with lots of snacks, toys, and DVDs! Our trusty GPS led us straight to our rental house and as we pulled into the housing development, driving past all of these huge, beautiful homes, we knew we would be living the good life for the next week. This was our rental...beautiful. And tons of space inside for all 15 of us to spread out. Good choice Grandma!We got our stuff unpacked, hit the grocery store and grilled out for dinner that night. We got up bright and early Friday morning and packed our bags for our first adventure--Sea World! We made time for a few family pictures before we left (minus Papa, who was behind the camera)...We got to the park a few minutes before it opened, so we lathered up with sunscreen and took a few more pictures. Grandma and Papa.We'd heard and read that the dolphin feeding stations were the most crowded, so we headed there first thing. That worked out perfectly because there weren't many people there yet! The kids got their plates of fish and walked right up to the dolphin pool. We got the fish for Carter, but he wanted nothing to do with holding that thing! So daddy got the pleasure...yuck!

Asher on the other hand...he wanted to check it out!The dolphins swam right up to us, and they were hungry!!Carter enjoyed the view from a distance...we couldn't convince him to touch them though.Beautiful creatures...

Next we visited the aquarium...

Asher was in awe...Throughout the day we stopped to see a couple shows including "Believe" the Shamu show:The "Cannery Row Caper" show featuring a very smart sea lion and otter:And my favorite, the brand new Azul show showcasing the beautiful beluga whales, dolphins, tropical birds and human divers...it was very similar to Cirque de Soleil...incredible to watch!And of course we had to ride some rides!! Carter and his cousins loved the Shamu Express--a mini roller coaster.The big "kids" also enjoyed the Journey to Atlantis, a water ride...Chris, Ryan and Morgan braved the front row for this one.

And here are a few more random shots throughout the day....

And by the end of the day, little Asher was worn out...we all were!