California Day 2: Sea World

We wanted to spend our first day at Disneyland, since that was the whole reason we planned the gigantic trip in the first place... but the weather in Anaheim didn't quite want to cooperate, so with groans of understanding disappointment from the kids (because who wants to spend a rainy day in the Magical Kingdom? That would tend to dampen some of the magic) we headed south to San Diego where the sun was promising to shine all day. It was at this venture that we started to discover I have a talent with road maps. On approaching a freeway split, "hey, babe, don't we want that one? Shouldn't you get THREE lanes over?" "Oh crap!" followed by swift lane changing. The thing I started to see here was that West didn't nit pick at me or ignore that I was actually not only contributing to our progress, but greatly aiding it and saving us a lot of frustrations later down the road. And he would tell me so. Wow. A man who can see that I'm capable and appreciates that.
On to the ventures of Sea World! Sunblock on in the parking lot. What should we do first? I know! Let's scare the pants off the kids with a ride! Yes!
A very cold and wet ride I might add. But you can expect nothing less from Sea World, and that was just the very beginning of our cold and wetness. Only this was fresh water where the rest of it would be salty.
We must have some pretty cute kids because they kept getting picked for the show volunteers. While we were sitting in the stands waiting for the dolphin show to start a worker came up and asked if Tayler wanted to be in the show with the dolphins. Tayler refused. Shyness. Plus she really didn't want to get wet again so soon after that dang ride. So she asked Sean who jumped at the chance. West was asked to come with him.
"Let me introduce to you the Withers family, West, Sean, and Tiffany..." yup. Tiffany. I caught on pretty quick to what was going to happen, Suzann on the other hand was extremely confused. For a minute she thought somehow I'd gone too with out her knowing, and then thought those crazy Sea World employees were confused. Sean was fearless and had no stage fright what so ever. West went first with Bubbles who's some kind of whale (sorry I can't remember that detail). Hey Bubbles how's it going? West, why don't you show her how to wave. Sure thing, no problem. "Ahhhhh...."
Now, West, make this particular motion with your arm and... (oh man she's going to get you SO wet! West turns and high tails it) she's going to give you a nice wave. LOL they tricked him.
Sean's turn.
"What does that feel like Sean?" "A hot dog."
"When she does a trick for you, you have to feed her some dead fish. Go ahead and squeeze them, they like them best when the guts hang out. Good job.
Now smell your hands... gross? Just wipe them on your shirt." Ugh! Suzann and I balk at this. We have a long car ride back the hotel at the end of the day with that shirt!
"Splash and have a water fight. Don't stop until there's a winner!"
"OK, now dive into the 42 foot deep pool and the dolphins will come and rescue you and swim around the pool with you." Sean just about did too. She grabbed him last second. That crazy boy. One last picture. Oh yeah... somewhere in all of this West's "wife" Tiffany proves to be klutz a few times and eventually falls in right before the end. "Oh no!" Don't worry folks. She's a trainer and it's all part of the show.
After the show we met up with West and Sean. He smiles at me and I reply, "I see how you are." He shrugged. "What can I say? You're easy to replace." "You didn't have to drag me all the way to California to tell me you were going to marry someone else!" All smiles between us of course.

Cali decided to put her own sunblock on her face after lunch.A necessary stop for us!
The kids found the giant catfish more interesting the the manatee it was in a tank with. Go figure.
Want to know how to freak Casidee out? Tell her you're going into the shark building. What are you pointing at Cali? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Don't look Cas.

Brynn's favorite part of the day.
You can't go to Sea World with out seeing Shamu. (who is actually named Corky at this point in life). Those who don't want to sit in the splash zone... And those who are... oops. Zoomed in from the last picture again!
Let's try that again. And those who are... Cali was pretty gun-ho about sitting in the splash zone until Shamu (who's actually Corky) splashed us with all his killer whale tail might. She didn't think he was anything too special after that. West and I were shameless and hid behind the kids. It didn't help though.Since we were all wet from Shamu we decided to get the river ride out of the way before we dried up again. Only my kids refused, after the first terrifying ride. Chickens. This picture isn't any of us, I'm just showing the ride.
The girls and I checked out star fish instead.
Sea World takes a lot out of you. We were exhausted when we left. The kids were quiet at Denny's for dinner (somewhere between San Diego and Anaheim), but would you believe it? As soon as we got back to the hotel they wanted to swim. Not tonight guys... tomorrow's Disneyland!