Sometimes you eat Sea World. And sometimes Sea World eats you.
The morning started at 3 AM when both boys woke up crying because they didn't recognize their surroundings. This is the first time they've been in a hotel, plus it's the 7th day that we've been away from our house, so they weren't having any crying themselves back to sleep. We tried to let them cry it out, but it just didn't work. They ended up in bed with us around 4, then we all woke up around 6:30. Lots of non-sleep in between.
Breakfast was an adventure mainly because Max didn't feel like eating. I think he has some sort of one-food-at-a-time OCD so when I overloaded his plate from the buffet, I think he immediately turned it off. He wanted to play more than sit in his chair and he let the whole restaurant know it.
Those two red flags were not going to deter us though!
We were at Sea World when it opened and here's what we did/saw, in order, too:
1. Steph and Gracie rode the little Shamu roller coaster. The boys and I played at the kiddie splash area. Well, Nick played. I kept Max wrangled just outside the play area.
2. We all went to the water park and played for 1 1/2 hours. Hands down the best part of the day. Max and Nick didn't like the lazy river, but they all liked the little slide.
3. Lunch in the van. Max wanted chips, not the sandwich. Steph was dead set on him having the sandwich and not the chips. That was the beginning of the end. We also did a quick change into dry clothes in the van here.
4. Dolphin time. Only $6 to feed them, which Gracie so wanted to do. Only problem - I left the money in my swim suit in the van. Steph hoofed it back to the van while I took all the kids to the Shark aquarium.
5. Shark aquarium where no strollers are allowed. Everyone was on foot. Max does what Max wants to do. He marches to his own beat. He understands everything I'm/we're saying, but he pushes it to the last moment. By this time, it's 2:30 and no one has slept (normal nap time is 12:30.)
6. Shamu. The only problem was it was 1/2way across the park. Hot. Cranky. Tired. Sweaty. Max fell asleep in the stroller. When we got to the stadium, I got paranoid that he was having a heat stroke, primarily because he was so hot and lethargic. We took his shirt off of him, but in doing so, woke him up and as Steph said, "we woke the sleeping giant." The good thing here is that the whales were not cooperating so the show ended up getting cut short. Our kids certainly weren't cooperating with us. At that point, I threw in the towel. It was enough. 3:30.
We got back to the car around 4:15 and no sooner than we drove out of the parking lot were 2 out of 3 asleep. They all ended up falling asleep and got about an hour nap.
For dinner, we met the Mallards - Dan and Lindsay, Peyton and Alannah, at Rudy's. It was really good to see them. I like Dan so much. We usually only talk during fantasy football season. I need to do a better job of keeping in touch with him. They have a wonderful little family. Gracie and Peyton hit it off and talked and played the entire time.
We got home a little after 8 and got everyone down. Here's hoping that we get a solid night's sleep - everyone.
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