Part 5---SEA WORLD!!!

So in my opinion this was the BIG Christmas present from Nana and Papa.  We got so many other wonderful things from them but I hadn't been to Sea World in 10 years and it was such an awesome day.  Hadley STILL is talking about how she "saw the big whale jump."

Kissing "under" the super giant mistletoe at the front gate.

It turns out that our poor sweet girl is too short to ride any of the cool rides.  Andy is pretty excited because she is going to be his roller-coaster girl.  We did "sneak" her onto one ride but we had to skip the rest.....or enjoy them from the side-lines.

The first stop was the Sesame Street show.  My girls have never watched Sesame Street but they could not look away.  

It must be all the singing and dancing and Cookie Monster talking about cookies. 

 Then on to feed the ducks....

and touch the sting rays.  Ok, maybe just look at the sting rays.

 Checking out the penguins on the sweet little slow-moving sidewalk escalator.  Hadley and Joni both are big fans of penguins and Sea World has quite the collection, go figure :)

 Here she is on her first roller-coaster ride with Dad.  She was so so excited.  I know I said before that we had to sneak her on the ride but what I really meant was that the guy running this ride was one of the only Sea World employees not checking heights on the kids.  She wasn't the shortest one riding it either so we felt ok letting her enjoy this moment.  And did she enjoy it!

 She even got into it by lifting her hands and screaming (not a real this-is-terrifying scream, an I'm-having-so-much-fun-why-has-no-one-ever-told-me-about-these scream).

 and then a ride for Joni (which also had an employee not checking heights even though Hadley and Joni were too short to ride).

If you have never been to Sea World, they are famous for Shamu, yes, but also for their shows.  It isn't like a zoo where you can just walk by and see a killer whale or a dolphin.  They have shows throughout the day that are scheduled and you have to figure out what time you are going to see all the shows.  This is the seal and sea lion and walrus show.

That was one old fat walrus!  His "trick" was to roll into the water....very talented ;)

 Then Nana and Papa took the girls to feed the seals and sea lions some fish (also something Hadley continues to talk about) while Andy and I went and found seats for the Orca show.

 So for as long as I can remember dolphins and Orcas have been my favorite animals.  After seeing the show again, I remembered why.  They really are awesome creatures.  

You can't tell by the still picture but he is spinning.

I love this picture.....the "big whales jumping."

 The last show we went to was the dolphin show........which had a beluga whale in it......

 .....and was mostly a diving show (and a really good one at that).....

 with a couple dolphins.  Still fun.

  And since it was Christmas time, we were able to see Santa Shamu and....

Mrs. Dolphin Claus.  Don't ask because I don't know.  :)

And then some sweet family pictures.  It was a long day but so worth no naps and staying almost until they closed.

Family pictures in the candy cane forest.  

So fun!!!  Thank you so so much Janet and Kemper!  We love you!  We are almost done with Christmas stuff and then onto January!  Love to you all!