Sea World

We had always planned to take Braedyn to Sea World in the fall, but after really wanting to go now instead of waiting 6 months, I had to hatch a plan. Armed with the knowledge of "the way to Ben's heart is through cost-savings" - I explained how it'd be beneficial for us to take advantage of the Florida Resident Sun Pass, which allows you to pay once and go free for the rest of the year. And guess what, it worked!!

So this past weekend, Braedyn took his first trip to Sea World. He did very well and was as interested as a 16-month old toddler could be (I think). When we took him to the Shark Encounter, he was in complete awe and stared at the water tank with fascinated eyes. While others believed he was staring intently at the sharks swimming around him, only Mommy and Daddy truly knew that he was actually staring at the flourescent lights inside the water tank, rather than the sharks themselves. But that'll just be our little secret!!

Above is Braedyn and myself, and true to Braedyn's form, he's looking directly away from the camera. But on a sidenote, I've realized if I face forward as much as possible, you can't tell how pregnant I really am. Okay, maybe that's just me fooling myself, but whatever, just go with it!!

Braedyn's favorite part of Sea World was most definitely the area where you can feed the sea lions, which is where the picture above was taken. He was able to get close to the sea lions and they made loud noises that made him laugh and laugh. I mean, this is literally the purest form of entertainment for a Little Boy.

The carousel was Braedyn's first theme park ride. As you can tell by his face, he wasn't quite sure what to think about it at first, but after going on it a second time, he seemed to really enjoy himself. However, I've realized the huge drawback to carousels is that it takes 15 minutes to make sure everyone is buckled in correctly (at least that's how long it took for the 72-year old man in charge of this one), and then the ride only lasts for 90 seconds. So trying to keep Braedyn entertained prior to the ride actually beginning was the most we had to work all day!

And finally, the underwater viewing area of the dolphin tank. These dolphins swam right up next to the glass - which really caught Braedyn's attention. In fact, the only thing that captured his attention more was the other toddler that came up to stand next to Braedyn, and the umm... lights in the tank. I mean, hey - my child loves lightbulbs, what can I say?!?

So overall, it was a great first theme park trip. The only downside was the toll all the walking took on my sciatic pain in my ass. That was a bit difficult to deal with the next day. But don't worry, once I started to complain about the pain, Ben was quick to offer up his pep talk that goes something like this... "suck it up woman!!" Love is grand, eh?