Seaworld

After visiting The Alamo and eating ice cream with friends in San Antonio, we got up the next morning and went to Seaworld. Piper takes after me as a child and makes faces in pictures :) I don't know if she was actually mad here, or if she was just making a face.

Seven is such a good big brother to Rilian. I noticed Seven was holding Rilian's hand while we waited in line to get into Seaworld. I just had to capture the sweetness in a picture!

Piper, Finn, and Seven wanted to ride the Steel Eel. Rilian was not tall enough. Jeremy rode with them. You could only fit 2 to a seat, so Piper and Finn rode together and Jeremy and Seven rode the next time.

Piper and Finn loved it and wanted to ride again. Seven got scared and didn't want to ride again. It goes pretty high and fast!

We watched a sea lion show. In the story line, the sea lions and humans were trying to figure out who was eating all the fish.

They finally figured out that it was this big guy! A walrus!

The we went to feed the sea lions...there were cute little baby sea lions, too!

Piper thought it was cool that she got to hold a squid and feed it to the sea lion!

Finn fed the sea lions a squid also, but he wasn't as excited to hold it as Piper was. He was a little grossed out by it.

One of the water rides we rode was The Journey to Atlantis. Seven was scared to even get on it, but we were mean parents and made him ride. I think he was mad at us for a little while after that. It went really high and when it was time to come down, it was almost straight down! Finn got scared when we were coming down. Piper loved it. Rilian got a little scared, but said he wanted to do it again. I was really surprised, because of Seven's personality, that he got scared on the Steel Eel and The Journey to Atlantis. We promised Seven we wouldn't make him ride it again.

There is a place where you can stand at the bottom and get splashed as the ride comes down the steep hill. The kids were waiting to get splashed...

I love how Finn raised his hands as they got splashed!

Shamu!

Finn wanted us to take a picture of the orca that had a fin that was laying down.

When we got to the dolphins, it was their free time. They get free time every afternoon. This means that they are not putting on any more performances for the rest of the day and they get to just swim and play.

I guess they noticed the trainers at the end of the pool and went to get a treat...

This one swam right in front of us and jumped out of the water.

Looking at the fish in the aquarium...

It was dark in the aquarium. Unfortunately, the flash made the kid's eyes red.

We took another picture and their eyes weren't as red, but Piper was being silly and closed her eyes. 

Rilian was so interested in the fish! He sat there for a long time and just watched them!

This Shamu made a great picture spot!

Here's a great laugh for you...this was our "LifeProof case" for our iPhones. We knew there was a big chance our phones would get wet, so we saved some money and made our own "LifeProof case". Laugh if you want, but it really works!!! This isn't the first time we've done it. We rode a couple of water rides and got soaked and our iPhones were just fine!

So, if you don't want to buy a LifeProof case or can't afford to buy one, just use a good 'ole ziplock bag. You can thank me later for it :D

San Antonio

We made a trip to San Antonio this summer. Rilian was enjoying looking off the balcony from our hotel room on the 5th floor. We stayed at the Marriott Plaza.

Seven wanted their picture taken by a fountain that was at our hotel. I'm not sure what Rilian was doing and I guess Piper thought she was too cool for the picture.

The hotel we stayed in was within walking distance from the Riverwalk and the Alamo. After we got settled in, we set out for the Alamo...however, Jeremy looked at the map on his phone wrong and led us in the wrong direction for about 5 blocks!

 It was hot...

We finally made it to The Alamo!

Inside The Alamo area...Rilian was upset because he wanted to keep looking at the huge fish in the stream.

We ate dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. If you've never been, it is as if you are actually in the rainforest. There are all kinds of animals inside (not real, of course) and it actually storms and rains (you don't really get wet, though). Rilian was watching as it stormed.

Thanks to Facebook, I found out one of my friends from high school was in San Antonio the same time we were. We met up for ice cream. Piper and Rebekah are the same age.  

 Finn and Josh. Josh is about 3 years older than Finn.

 Eating ice cream...

 Sara and I...

Seven flipped his hat from The Rainforest Cafe upside down and he looked pretty funny!

 Rilian enjoyed his ice cream like he always does!

Dallas World Aquarium

Piper's Girl Scout Troop took at trip the last week of July. The first place we went was the Dallas World Aquarium. If you have never been, you should go if you get the opportunity!

If you have never seen a sloth in real life, they truly do move as sloooooooooowwww as they are shown to move on tv! This is the female sloth they have there. An employee brought her out and stood by the tree. The sloth moved as slow as possible and reached for the branch and climbed on. It was really cool to see! 

Piper with Sea Turtles swimming behind her...

It's a manatee! Reminds me of "I'm a Manatee" by John Lithgow.

Little worms in the sea...they were actually kind of cute. They were marked like a clown fish...orange with white and black stripes.

Penguins...

In the Dallas World Aquarium, there is a tunnel that you can walk through and you are under the sea...sharks and stingray swim above you...this is a sawfish. It was cool to watch it eat. It actually used its saw to "saw" the food and then eat it!

Shark!!! Piper's expression in the glass is funny! Her expression is like "whoa!"

More sharks swimming...Piper is looking through the glass.

Little sea horses...they were cute!

Have you ever seen a sea horse swim?

Flamingos...

 In the gift shop, there were octopus fingers....

 Jaguar sleeping...

This man was planting some new plants in the water. Do you see what is down below him? An alligator. We told him we'd be back to check on him after the shark feeding...

I didn't actually catch any sharks on video eating, but I did see them eat. It is still neat to see them swim above you.

We did go back to check on the man...he was gone, red bucket and all! Notice the alligator was still there...

So, if you do make it to the Dallas World Aquarium, don't volunteer to plant any plants near the alligator!