How a squirrel cost me $9

We are a mere week into school, and we already played hooky and went to Sea World. Besides getting out of the house later than I wanted, the morning went well. I made PB&J to take with us, rounded up drinks, had the kids put on bathing suits under their clothes, grabbed sunscreen and sun glasses, checked my wallet for our passes...oh, there was the first glitch, Scott's pass was missing. I'm not sure how that happened. Usually they go through the gate, and I collect the tickets and put them right back in the holder. So after grilling him about what happened to a pass we haven't used since April (not the smartest parenting moment, I know...I can't even remember yesterday), I gave up and we headed out prepared to pay whatever it cost to replace it.

Got to SW in an hour, got primo parking, and went to pass precessing, where they scanned one of the other kid's cards, and printed out Scott's new one FREE of charge! Oh, and did I mention all the people in the parking lot smiled? SW is not known locally for their friendly guest service, but today was a shining moment!

We went in the park and spent a ridiculous amount of time watching flamingos. Mimi is fascinated by birds of all types, but the boys...well that's another story. About 2 minutes of flamingos is plenty for them. 10 is pushing it-even for me! Below is one of her many, not-quite centered pictures of them, LOL. We have some picture taking lessons still to go over obviously!

We made a leisurely stroll in a very not crowded park back to my favorite hidden treasure, the aquarium under Journey to Atlantis. This is a MUST GO place that is very easy to miss.

They have moon jellies...

and comb jellies...

both of which are way-cool under the special lights in the tank that you can turn on by pressing a button on the wall.

Oh, and did I mention the small sharks swimming overhead, and the fish and rays underfoot? For Sari, it was just this side of paradise to be face to face with "fee-fees" (fish)

Anyway, after that, we caught our favorite show, Odyssea, and when we came out at 12:15 we were hungry, so we decided to eat our PB&J. As we walked up to the stroller, I could see the basket and could tell something was amiss. But it wasn't until we got much closer that we realized clearly the critters thought it was time for lunch too, and they had had a go at our PB&J before we could. Oy!!! The people next to us told us the same thing happened to them at SW a few months ago. So that was my homeschooling lesson for the day...pack everything in a squirrel proof cooler. It was not a total loss though, as they only got one sandwich. I tossed the next one, but the last three were totally removed from the squirrel invasion, so we shared those, but later I had to spend $9 on snacks to make up for the missing 2 sandwiches. (My kids actually gleefully picked out those "Little Chugs" full of milk as their snack. Chocolate for the boys, Strawberry for Mimi, and plain for Sari who didn't know any different since the containers are not see through. LOVE that!)

Finishing off the day was fun at Shamu's Happy Harbor where they have added three new kid rides since April, including a carousel. Too cool. The kids had a blast. They loved playing in the water area, and we even got so see Shamu (the walking one, not the aquatic mammal). I love that in this picture, Sari looks happy to see Shamu when in real life she was terrified that they were trying to get her to go closer. She's Shamu's biggest fan...from 4 yards away, LOL.

Tonight, I asked Scott what his favorite thing was, and he said it was the last thing we did as we were leaving the park. We stopped by the baby dolphin nursery and got to see a 2 1/2 week old baby dolphin. There are 3 more expecting dolphins, so there should be lots more babies coming!

That's the baby on the left and mom on the right in the photo.

I'm blessed that we had such a nice day at the park. And despite the fact that I'm not fond of Florida, I am thankful for the many opportunities we have to go to the theme parks and make learning fun. I love that I can take my kids by myself and we can have a nice time at a theme park without any of us getting overwhelmed or "losing it" as I have seen happen to soooo many families while working at WDW.

until tomorrow,

obm