May 16

The day we've all been waiting for has finally arrived!!

 

 

We were there bright and early, before the gates opened, because we had a plan

 

 

We had read that you have to be the first ones to feed the dolphins!! They are eager, playful, and ready to eat first thing in the morning, so we headed there as soon as we could

 

We let Grayson feed first and not long into it, a couple of dolphins started wrestling right in front of him. The splashed really big and then swam off, leaving Grayson soaking wet and completely stunned! He didn't know what to think. Overall, he was a bit skiddish to lean over too far and drop the fish into the dolphin's mouth. He preferred the stand away and toss method!

 

Then it was Neylan's turn

 

He was much more enthused and did a pretty good job

 

trying to tame that bed head with sunglasses

 

The Shamu show was pretty cool. We ended up sitting in the "soak zone" with some friends. We had heard that there is "wet" and there is "Shamu wet,"  and we didn't go prepared with ponchos. So, during the splashing part of the show, I just barely got my camera put away when I got completely soaked. The rest of my row (with the boys and our friends) barely got wet at all! I was sitting in the wrong seat!

 

 

I loved this show because it had so many fun photo ops. I think Neylan felt the same way!

 

 

After Shamu, we headed to Azul, the dolphin and Beluga whale show. There was a bunch of diving and synchronized swimming in this show. It was also very fun to watch

 

 

After our morning of shows, the boys were ready to play! It was so fun having older boys for Grayson to hang out with. They all wanted to ride the rides

 

 

and Neylan preferred to stay in the little kids area where he could splash around and climb

 

 

He was so in his element

 

 

The kids' splash area was in the Sesame Street Bay of Play, so throughout the afternoon some of the characters would walk around and do little shows. The boys didn't want their pictures taken with any of them, which surprised me a bit

 

Neylan held on until about 3:30 and then passed out in the stroller for the rest of the day

 

 

Our last ride was the river rampage. Not sure why we decided to do this at the very end of the day after we had dried off, but we did, and all of us come off soaking wet!! Grayson wasn't tall enough to ride this and it broke his heart to see his friends on it without him :(

 

We ended up staying until the park closed and had so much fun that we upgraded our tickets to season passes and plan on coming back tomorrow!