excellent adventures: day 2

we woke up relatively early the next morning, found an ihop to eat at for breakfast, and made it to the park by late morning:

this time the girls were ready for the water park portion of sea world:

logistics proved tricky, especially when you toss in this enormous play area and monkeys for children:

see what i mean?:

there was only one staircase on one part of the monstrosity for the parents to use while trying to keep their kids in sight. but there were all of these tubes to climb through, leading to other further-away areas. more difficult for parents to keep track of the wee ones, but not if you're grant. he's in the tube by the blue tents, trying to catch the girls:

after we were all together again:

we headed down to a semi-shaded playground:

hazel took over picture taking and spent ten minutes chasing lucy around trying to get a photo of her:

eventually hazel gave up and took a series of feet pictures:

and then we lost lucy. she took off as soon as we said it was time to head somewhere else and we couldn't see where she went. grant ran one way and i went the other with hazel. it was a scary 5 minutes. grant found her and she actually seemed a bit scared. lesson learned, i hope. 

we next headed to a show we hadn't seen the day before. it had divers, synchronized swimmers, an acrobat, a beluga whale, dolphins, and parrots:

hazel talked us into going to the sea lion show again and while we were watching, it started raining:

half of the audience left but the actors completed the show. we waited out the rain under a pavilion while the girls played in the puddles:

once the rain stopped, we walked across the park to visit the shark aquarium:

and were just in time to see scuba diver feed the rays:

outside again, grant and i made good on our promise to feed the dolphins again:

lucy says she was afraid the dolphins would bite her fingers, so she didn't try very hard to touch (though she did eventually, i think):

hazel was braver:

and managed a small touch:

once we'd used up all our fish, we had to move out of the feeding area (which usually means no more chances for petting the dolphins) but luck was on our side and we got a freebie: 

we grabbed some late lunch to kibosh the tantrums that had begun:

and caught one last show:

 where we didn't get splashed. again. on our way out, grant spotted his favorite animal:

a predatory bird!

the end

excellent adventures: day 1

on the 7th of june, we started to go west (because "life is peaceful there, in the open air..."):

several hours later, despite some, ahem, misread directions, we made it to sea world:

we grabbed a map and made our first stop the shamu express rollercoaster:

hazel wasn't a fan (this is before it even started moving):

we went for something more hazel-friendly next:

after the carousel, the girls spotted a playground and decided they needed to give it a go:

it was pretty hot (though much cooler than houston):

so it was nice to sit for a few minutes in the shade:

eventually, grant moved us along so we could attempt to get our money's worth:

this whole trip happened because lucy had asked to go to the "penguin zoo", so of course we had to actually visit the penguins:

after the penguins, quickly headed to the next air conditioned attraction:

a 4d sesame street movie. the girls weren't big fans of the jolting seats and the spraying water but we all enjoyed cooling off. 

hazel, lucy and i had a good time riding the ferris wheel together:

as we continued wandering, we stumbled on a "live" performance by the sesame street characters:

lucy loved it and even made her way to the stage to get a high-five from cookie monster. she was also game for taking pictures with them when the show was over:

i'm sure you deduced from the photos that hazel was not a fan of these huge monsters and refused to take a picture with any of them.

our next stop (the sea lion show) ended up being hazel's favorite. this time lucy was the less enamored one:

we zig-zagged back to get to another show and on our way passed the alligator alley:

brazos bend is better.

we made it to the shamu show just before it started and hesitantly sat in a "splash zone":

not a drop hit us though. lucy has since decided that when she grows up she'll be a "kiwwer whale take-care-of-er."

by then it was getting late and close to the park's closing time. on our way out we stopped to feed the dolphins: 

we did it wrong and the girls weren't able to touch them so to quell the tears and tantrums, we promised to try again the next day. we left the park, ate dinner at freebirds, drove to our hotel, swam in the outdoor pool, watched some telly, and collapsed in bed.

end of day 1

memorial day & graduation

on memorial day, grant talked us into braving the holiday traffic and taking him to some new bike trails. traffic wasn't too bad until we were south of the city:

eventually the cars thinned out and we made it to:

grant re-assembled his bike:

and after checking the air with his valentine's pump: 

he was ready to go:

the girls spent their time playing on the playground:

i sat in the shade reading (rhett butler's people [i don't recommend it. if you're curious, i'll save you from an overlong explanation and tell you that the first and third reviews cover the bulk of my objections.]) and listening to my music.

lucy hammed it up for the camera:

a lot:

and played with sticks:

hazel quickly decided it was too hot and came to sit by me in the shade:

i was feeling kind and shared my tunes with her: 

once she cooled down, she took a couple pictures:

by then grant had finished his ride and we packed up:

check out that beard. hubba-hubba!

at home again, we gave the girls a bath and an impromptu haircut. i trimmed about an inch off of lucy's (she wanted it really short but i didn't have the heart to chop all of that hard earned hair off) hazel again requested to have her hair cut up to her eyes and again we compromised with her chin. i tried to do an a-line and it turned out pretty cute: 

here we're at the park having our preschool co-op graduation. hazel gave me that smile and then did this: 

she was not feeling well.

lucy felt fine and had a good time playing:

we had a little ceremony where each child received a certificate and m&ms. i tried in vain to get hazel to stand by the others but she was not having it so here are three of the four students:

hazel kind of cooperated with this one:

it was incredibly hot so after the girls picked at their lunches:

we headed back to our air conditioned cave to hibernate through the summer.