Spring Break Part II: Sea World

For part II of Spring Break, we got to take the kids to Sea World!  Even though I went (and I think Erik too) to Sea World once, it has been a loooong time and we've been hearing good things about it, so we took the opportunity to go.  Somehow we managed to get free "preschool" season passes for Gabe and Eesa, and discounted ones for Erik and I.  That was lucky!  We stayed in the Drury Inn for two nights.  It is a nice hotel with free breakfast and dinner.  Our Sea World visit was two days, plenty of time to get everything done that the park had to offer!



The pictures are in mostly random order:

All three of my beautiful babies on 1 bed.  Elisa and Gabe shared a bed.  She had a hard time the first night, but the second night she was all for sharing!  Ian slept between mommy and daddy.

 Getting our park tickets

Checking out the dolphins.  We didn't get to do the Dolphin encounter, it is expensive anyway.

I'm not sure what alligators have to do with Sea World. But we thought the turtle riding the alligator was pretty cool.

Checking out a duck.  Or was it the other way around?

Gotta love those golden curls!

   The Beluga Whale show.  I don't know what else to say about it other than it was neat!  The kids loved the dolphins in the show.

For souvenirs that weren't ridiculously expensive, we went ahead and played some arcade games with the kids to win one.  Erik played with Gabe and one him a stuffed blue Shamu, and I played with Elisa and won her a pink Shamu.  So, $6 for a souvenir that they just LOVE, not to mention playing a fun game to get it! It sure beats the $16 Shamus for sale in the shops!

 

So happy to "win" a prize!

The kids really loved these shamus!

This is what Ian did most of the trip.

 

We did get a couple of happy 2-month old smiles though!

 

Taking a break to eat, while the kids played at the park.




The big Shamu show.  It is really neat.  A must-see if going to Sea World.  In fact, its one of the only things I actually remember about going to Sea World 15 years ago.

 

The first show we went to.  Erik was up top with Ian.  I sat in the "splash zone" with Gabe and Eesa.  They got splashed by the Killer whales and they absolutely loved it!

We went to two shows in one day.  Or was this the next day?  I can't remember.  We didn't get as much splash the next time, which was okay because Ian wouldn't have thought as much of it as these two did!


More rides in the Kiddie park.  They are really quite tame. 

 

 

 The kids favorite--The Shamu Express!  A very very very short ride, but they kids just love it!

This ride was only fun when we were up on top and I could swing the car from side to side.

And there's this very anti-climactic ride.  The kids were expecting a little more than an elevator ride.

 

The Abby-Cadabby Ride.  This ride was actually pretty fun!

 

 

What kid doesn't love a merry-go-round?

 

We all had a great time at Sea World!  The drive wasn't too bad, although Ian did scream and cry so hard on the way back that we had to stop. The kids held their Shamus all the way home!

Spring Break, Part I

Erik was able to schedule his vacation time at the same time as Gabe's Spring Break.  So we tried to make the best of the time off by going on a couple of mini-trips.

The first of our trips was to the Blue Bell ice cream factory.  They offer tours, and better yet, free ice cream at the end!  Here are some pictures:

Ian is really easy when worn.  And also full :)

It was also St. Patricks day.  Here are my two cuties posing just outside of the factory.

A statue of the famous Blue Bell girl & cow

More posing

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the tour itself, but it was short and fairly interesting.

I love that face!

My cute family just before the tour started

 The best & yummiest part!
 

  All of the ice cream flavors were delicious!!

It was a nice little trip (only an hour or so away) and we all had fun!

On the way back we went to IT'Z pizza and Arcade.  We will never go back again.  We had fun, but the food barely passes as food and they always seem to have a problem whenever we present them with a coupon--not worth going without a coupon! The kids enjoy the soda and of course all the games.

Some cute pics of buggy-eyed Ian.

The grossest food money can buy

Nope, we didn't get the ball :(

Gabie and Elisa really enjoy going.  Unfortunately this will be the last time, but we're glad we got to go while we could!

Life With Ian

Ian is just so precious!  He's been a sweet baby since day 1.  We have all enjoyed having him around.  I have hundreds of pictures I could post (I can't get enough of that sweet little face!), but here's some highlights of Ian's first month:

He's got a beautiful doll face!

When he is content, Ian will make this cute noise (turn up volume to hear; there is not much to see)

Ian was born with this patch of white hair.  It is a birth mark--Gabie has one on his chest.  These particular kinds are called "milk cravings"--an old wive's tale that says all birth mark marks come from some maternal craving.  Which is completely false since I don't like milk!  But I think it looks cute on Ian!  He has since lost all that hair in the back so the patch is barely visible as of now

 Ian got the "goopy eye" as I call it, aka clogged tear duct around 3 weeks old.  It lasted until Ian was about 3 months old.  He was a one-eyed pirate for a while. Arrrr!

 That cute grumpy face of his!

 2 week old smiles!  Not the real deal, but just as cute!

 Ian loves his mommy (me!).  We enjoy our snuggles.

 Another cute grumpy face!

 So little!

 Yet another grumpy face!

 Ian didn't like whatever it was here, obviously

 We think Ian looks a lot like Gabe did!

 And kind of like this creepy doll

Elisa can't get enough of Ian.  No, really...she just can't.  It drives me CRAZY.

 He loves his fingers!  He likes pacifiers too, but can't seem to get them to stay in his mouth!

 His umbilical cord stump took forever to fall off.  Ian's was waaay stinkier than any of my other kids'.  I think it was the humidity here that made it stinky and not dry out as much.  I was ever so glad when it did fall off!

He is a good, sweet sleeper!

First Bath!

 Sorry, full-frontal nudie pics, but I don't have the software to black out "the way it be".

Ian was born in January.  His first bath wasn't until February, exact date unknown.  Sorry 3rd child, but the days go by so fast and Momma is so so busy, therefore baths tend to get put on the backburner too frequently!  Even now, with Ian being almost 4 months old, Ian has had fewer baths than I care to admit! But in my defense (at least for the 1st month), Ian's umbilical chord stump didn't dry out as quick as it should have, so I was advised not to give him baths.  So Ian has had lots of head-washings, and isn't that the part that gets dirtiest?!  I mean, someones always gotta be rubbing his head or kissing it. Anyway, obviously Ian didn't care for his bath the first time, but he doesn't seem to mind them anymore.  I think babies are hard to bathe when they can't sit up on their own yet.   Until then, I will struggle to remember to give my poor 3rd child baths more often!  Then its baths in the sink...lots easier than pulling out this awkwardly-shaped tub!  

Elisa enjoyed giving her Ariel dolly a bath after Ian was washed!