One of "THOSE" days

Alright.  I want this blog to be about honesty and to paint a realistic picture about our family life.  So...here we go.  If you've ever thought that our lives could not possibly always be full of sunshine and rainbows, today I have complete proof of hail stones and mud puddles (I mean this figuratively AND literally) to demonstrate just this.  Fortunately, this is NOT a typical day for us, but perhaps for some of you it will be helpful for me to share.  I'm not going to go into complete detail about all of the minor things that continuously stacked up on each other to make this a frustrating day.  That's really not the point.  What I want to point out today is that no one's perfect.  No matter what a situation looks like from the outside (whether good or bad), there are always the unseen.  Come join me as I make a confession about what "one of THOSE days" can be like in our home. 

Day 3, 4, 5 (who really knows how many) of getting very very VERY little sleep can really play its toll.  Yes, I am fully aware that I'm writing this while my children are asleep upstairs and I could possibly be in bed myself.  However, this is definitely a form of reflection and therapy for me, therefore, here I am.

First of all, I need to mention that I think I've got myself a teething baby...who not only whines all night long (poor girl), but gnaws on her fingers and squeals at a high pitch frequency creating a struggle for everyone to get a good night sleep.  Max "sleeps" through it but obviously isn't getting the deep sleep that he needs.  Complaining continuously throughout the day that he's tired.  We played "musical beds" most of last night with the two most restless (Nico and Belle) ending up with me in my bed.

Do you ever have one of those days when you wake up and you can just feel like it's going to be somewhat "off".  I tried not to dwell on that this morning at 5 a.m. with a two year old tossing and turning on my left and a baby, who finally passed out after being uncomfortable all night, on my right.  I would say that my queen size bed wasn't big enough to fit us and that's why I felt crowded, but I'm not so sure that's what it was.  These two little ones were snuggled up so close to me that I couldn't even move.  It's like I was wedged in between them.  I don't know if it would do any good, but I would suggest purchasing a king size bed to anyone who is on the lookout for bedroom furniture.  If I could do it all over again, I'd pay the difference in a heartbeat just in case there would be a chance of having more space.  Then maybe I could spread the babies out from me and not have to worry about them rolling off the bed. 

You know, I really feel for my poor kids today because Mamazilla reared her ugly head a good five times at least!  And I will tell you this, in all honesty, I'm only slightly ashamed.  Please just hear me out before you judge me on this.  No, I do not want my kids to ever have to see the mean, nasty side of me just because I'm tired and grouchy.  I don't want them to learn to be negative or to walk around in a foul mood all day.  But every now and then isn't going to hurt them.  Actually, I think that they will learn from it.  If they see that even Mama has bad days, then maybe they won't feel as bad when they have bad days.  Sometimes Max will have an "off" day as I call it, and I can tell that he feels bad for being grouchy, but at the same time he just doesn't feel like he can do anything about it.  I want him to realize that everyone deals with this kind of thing from time to time.  Besides, if he doesn't learn it at home, he'll learn it somewhere else and I don't want him to learn the hard way.  The important part is to not let it carry over into the next day and the next, and the next.  Get it out of your system, but it in the past, and leave it there.  Now, Mamazilla came complete with glowing red eyes, rotating head, and a deep monstrous voice.  Okay, maybe not really, but it might as well been like that.  I think my kids knew I meant business...No I'm not proud of it, but it's the truth.  I know I'm not the only one out there that this happens to so if any of you would like to fess up to me, not only might I feel a little better, but you might too! 

It might sound strange, but I'm actually REALLY REALLY proud of myself.  These Mamazilla days have gotten rarer and rarer.  It's a process and I'm working on the whole patience thing, but when a prolonged lack of sleep comes into play, it's just inevitable.  So I will say:  Sorry kids!  Sorry babe!  Sorry to the family we were supposed to meet up with for our play date, but arrived over an hour late and missed you guys!  Sorry GAC workers for letting my kids play on a wagon that wasn't actually a toy (I got tattled on).  Sorry neighbors who may have heard strange growling sounds coming from our home.  Sorry to anyone else I may have missed.  I'm sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings, but I'm not necessarily sorry that it happened, because I had to get it out of my system so that it wouldn't just keep building. 

And now I'm going to touch on the blessings of the day so you can leave on a positive note, because I do believe there are blessings even in the most depressing of days. 

1.  Belle napped twice! It may have taken her a little while to get to sleep, but she did it! She so needed it.
2.  The boys actually played quietly after lunch and sat watching their "quiet time" movie without fighting long enough for me to switch out laundry and sew a little (another form of therapy for me).  This helped turn my day around a little and in turn also the boys' day.
3.  I didn't strangle anyone!!!!  And the boys were still talking to me at the end of the day.  Nico even wanted to sleep in my bed with me again tonight (as tempting as that may be...I don't think so.  Mama needs sleep!)
4.  I made it until Fer got home without completely losing my mind.  There were some points in the day when I seriously didn't think this was going to happen.
5.  I ended up focusing on my "To Do" list as a way of trying to redirect my frustrations and anxieties today and marked off just about the whole list!  Whoop whoop!!!
6. Although it may not seem like it, the boys and I had plenty of laughs and play today that did not involve the need for an exorcist.
7.  I have the most supportive husband in the world who only judged me slightly for my Oscar the Grouch demeanor. 

One of Max's favorite activities today.  Nico wouldn't put the basketball down.  He LOVES basketball!

Before my head could explode from hearing the boys fighting, I stopped them, handed them some bags and said, go look around the house for as many blue items as you can find.  On your mark, get set, GO!  They ran around for about 10 minutes giving me just a long enough break to breathe and calm down.  Ended up it was super fun for all of us to lay out all the items and talk about them.  They even decided to do more colors after that.  We just might have found a new fun game, and I came up with it in a matter of seconds.  Max even told me it was his favorite part of the day.  Maybe I am doing something right... 

They enjoyed the bounce house this morning.

I try to dress my kids in either matching or color coordinating clothes when we are out so that I'm clear on what color I need to look for as my kids run in all different directions.  Of course...I think today was green day because everyone seemed to be wearing it!

I know there are more blessings in this day, and I am aware of them.  However, I'm cutting it short tonight to finish cleaning up and to get to bed at a more decent hour.  I realize this blog post doesn't follow the same exact theme as posts of the past, but to make my blog an honest one about family life, I really needed to make this confession today.  And now I have an unbelievably huge weight off my shoulders and I think I can get some rest.  Thanks, friends for listening.  May tomorrow and every day be the best day ever...even one of "those" days....

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an awesome Memorial Day Weekend filled with family and friends, and only a few minor mishaps!!  We swam again on Saturday, creating a rather painful sunburn on my part.  Mommybrain is horrible in our house.  I lined up my kids and slathered them with sunscreen like I usually do, but I must have done something out of order on the sunscreen applying routine because I completely forgot that I hadn't covered myself yet...let me tell you...OUCH!!!  I managed to make it a whole vacation and first swim of the season (for Belle and me) unharmed because I've been so careful about applying, reapplying, and reapplying again.  To the point of paranoia.  I don't want any of us suffering any harm (present or future) from the sun's rays.  But it's crazy that I just completely forgot that I hadn't put it on.  At least I'm on the mend and perhaps it happened so that I will remember in the future when it's even more imperative that I use it. 

Saturday evening sure was eventful!  After being out of routine with vacation and with her Papa being home for more than two days in a row, Belle was completely off schedule and struggled to fall asleep (STILL struggling with this...today nap time was a huge ordeal, but we'll get it).  Finally I got her to sleep...and the electricity goes out...On a normal day, Belle's room is the warmest in the house due to the position of the sun at the end of the day.  The bright sunlight toasts her room all afternoon, so when the electricity went out (and she goes to sleep before the sun is down) her room got hot fast.  I had to strip the poor baby down to just her diaper and she was still drenched in sweat.  The boys were all wound up about no electricity and refused to go to bed.  I guess they were too excited or curious about what was going on.  We tried to make it an adventure so they wouldn't be freaked out when the sun went down and it was pitch black in the house...but they were having none of it.  Took us hours to put them to sleep, and they would only lay down in the living room where we were.  After they finally conked out, Fer and I try to make the most of the evening by playing cards by candlelight.  I was enjoying this because I was, of course, winning, but it got old fast when the candles failed to provide enough light as well as letting off all different scents (YUCK), and it was so incredibly hot in the house.  After hours of waiting it out, we discovered that we weren't going to get the electricity back until the wee wee hours of the morning.  Since we planned on visiting my parents the next day anyway, at 10 p.m. we packed our bags in the dark (more like scooped up a load of supposedly clean laundry hoping there were clothes that we could wear in it) loaded up our babies, and headed north for the night.  Belle of course decides that she's going to stay awake the whole car ride and continue to hang out until 2 a.m.!  But in the end it really worked out.  We were able to spend the entire day with my family and not worry about two long car rides for the kids in one day.  They had enough of that on vacation. 

Sunday was spent outside on my parents' amazingly wonderful covered deck.  I wish I had pics of this to post, because it is just like going away for vacation.  Imagine a cabin getaway where you can sit out back on the deck (that has a bar and grill) complete with a backyard playground out in the country away from the city....yea, that's what we get to do when we visit Pops and Mema....awesomeness!!!  The breeze was just right to keep it from getting hot.  What a great weekend it turned out to be! 

Memorial day was just as great.  First of all I want to recognize those who have served and are serving our country to allow us to have these wonderful experiences and freedoms.  Without them we would not be able to enjoy these luxuries.  So here is a big THANK YOU to them and their families.  We spent this final morning of Fer's vacation doing things at the house.  I got to sew for 3 hours while my amazing husband single parented the two little guys.  Belle hung out with me and then napped for 2 of those hours.  Then right after lunch we decided to finally surprise our guys with their SUPERHERO CAPES!!  We made them stand side by side and close their eyes while I put the capes on them.  When they opened them they could see each others.  It was so cute to hear them say "Hey, you're Batman!" and "Superman!!!" 


The afternoon and evening was spent with some wonderful friends.  They have a water bounce house!  My kids' two favorite outdoor things!  They played in that thing for HOURS while Fernando and I got to enjoy actual adult conversations with our friends.  Couldn't have been a nicer day!  And I was honored to be my husband's designated driver on the way home.  He so deserved to have a little extra fun.  He's only the BEST HUSBAND EVER!  I have to mention that on Sunday evening when we got home from my parents' and while I was trying to assist our struggling baby to fall asleep, my sweet husband (without me asking or even hinting) swept and mopped our floors, unpacked our bags, folded laundry, and straightened up around the house the things we couldn't get done (and the mess that we made) during the blackout.  He's definitely SUPER PAPA!  I think he deserves a cape of his own.

Attacking the "Bad Guy"

Favorite parts of the weekend:
Max and Nico:  Playing with Danny and Anthony
Papa:  Spending time with family and friends, and of course "Making Beans" (Fer made his very first big pot of pinto beans.)
Mama:  Seeing my boys play with their superhero capes, spending time with amazing family and friends, beating Fer at cards, etc....pretty much everything because it was

The BEST Memorial DAY weekend EVER!!!!

Super Exciting Day O' Fun

Busy day around the Castañeda house today!  We (boys included) have been working on 10 days worth of stacked up laundry.  Oh the good times.  At least the little guys asked me if they can help, and it's actually helpful!  All before lunch today we not only got the laundry going, but played remote control cars, dress up, dance party (a personal favorite of mine, and yes I dance with them), made a Happy Birthday video for our BFF, Ashlie, put together a puzzle, and played with our "craft box". 

Our craft box is just a clear storage tote that I let the boys decorate with stickers.  Most of the stickers are the square "Cars" stickers that they get at their visits to the doctor's office.  We've got lots of "Toy Story" stickers on there too.  Anyway, this box if filled FULL of craft supplies, coloring books, markers (of all kinds, even with "wacky tips"), a billion crayons, construction paper, water colors, finger paints, stickers, stamps, etc.  At least once a day Nico will come up to me and say, "I want to play with the craft box, okay?!"  His favorite is stickers and markers while Max's favorite is working on maze puzzles, word searches, color by numbers, and hidden picture puzzles.  We LOVE the craft box.  I just wish I could keep it a little more organized so that they can more easily find what they need without pulling everything out of it and creating a disastrous mess.  Ah well, it goes with the territory!        

This afternoon after spending almost 2 hours trying to get a fussy baby girl to nap, she finally fell asleep and I got the boys to spend a little bit of "quiet time" watching The Muppets.  It's a great movie if you have yet to see it.  If you enjoyed them as a kid, definitely check it out.  I was pleasantly surprised that they enjoyed it.  Perhaps it was because any time we saw a preview on the Disney Channel I would tell them how much I wanted to see it because I had loved them so much as a kid.  By the time we took them to the theater to watch it, they were excited about it!
       

Then it got really exciting around here.  We built another bed fort and then we got the Wii going and played Just Dance 2.  The boys would tell me which songs they wanted me to dance to.  Nico prefers to watch, Max likes to join in for a few songs...then he always says, when I try to encourage him to do just one more dance with me, "I'm just sooo tiiiired!"  He'll flop himself on the couch and just stare at me while I do a few more (per Nico's persistent requests).  I got an awesome video of him dancing to "Proud Mary".  Priceless!  But the best part of the afternoon (my favorite part of the day) was when a neighbor who had locked herself out of her house came by for help.  My almost 5 year old was such a hero!  He took off his Luigi costume and went right next door, crawled through the doggie door and unlocked it for her.  He didn't think anything of it, did it, and walked right back home like it was nothing at all.  He's so cute.  Then Nico said, "I can do it next time." and he ran to catch up with his brother.  Oh my goodness, I love being a Mom!!!!!!

Belle LOVES Abuelita.  The doll sings sweet lullabies to Belle in Spanish.

 

Mud Run Fun

My nephew, Jack, and Max running thru the mud

Hundreds of kids released lime green
balloons to signal the start of the races.

Muddy Max

Look at those Muddy Buddies

Last Saturday our little guys participated in the first annual M-O-O-Ving Thru' the MUD with Landon.  It's a Non-Profit Organization benefiting Hope for HH.  If you are interested in learning more, you can find them on facebook or on their website http://www.mudwithlandon.com/  The mud run was located at the family dairy, Circle N Dairy (http://www.circlendairy.com/).  We've never had so much fun playing in the mud.  It was an amazing fun time and we hope to participate every year!  Our motto is the dirtier you get, the harder you've worked or the more fun you've had.  Either way it's a win!  There just isn't anything that's more enjoyable than letting loose and having fun.  At first Max wasn't too sure about the mud.  I think he was concerned that he wasn't supposed to make a mess.  After I reassured him that he wasn't going to get in trouble, and I encouraged him to get as messy as he could, he really had a blast!  I ran alongside him on the course making sure he got as muddy as he could!  The little guy just wouldn't crawl through that mud though.  My nephew on the other hand, he was awesome!  He had mud from his hairline down to his toes.  Nico was so uncertain about what was going on.  He was so cautious that he had to have his Papa hold his hand pretty much the entire time.  But they went through the course twice and would have done more if we hadn't asked them to stop to eat lunch.  We also got to enjoy a hay ride, barrel ride, and helicopter visit.  They also had face painting, but we never made it to that.  We were in the mud too long! :) 

Nico and his favorite obstacle on the course.

And of course, nothing is tastier than ice cold raw milk right off the dairy on a hot (or any) day!  Making myself thirsty for it as I write.  Wish I had some in my fridge right now....no, not in my fridge, in a nice frosty mug...I think I've mentioned this before...Anyway, we had the best time sharing in the fun with our family.  My parents, my sister and her two boys, many cousins, aunts, uncles, and my maternal Grandparents were there, of course, considering it's where they live.  What a blessing of a day!  Growing up, my siblings, cousins, and I spent a LOT of time on the dairy farm.  Back then it was run by my Grandpa.  Some of the BEST times in my childhood were spent right there.  I could reminisce ALL day about that place and about my family.  During the mud run festivities, Belle got restless and was ready for a break out of the wind and the sun so I walked her over to my grandparents' house.  It's just like it was when I was a little girl.  All of the smells and sounds are the same.  So peaceful and so full of love, even when there's no one in the house, you can feel it.  Belle and I spent some time over there alone with all the windows open, the breeze blowing through, the sound of the wind chimes clinging on the front porch.  Seriously, in that moment I couldn't think of a more peaceful place.  God truly blessed me with that family and now he's blessed me with the most loving husband who has given me three amazing children.  Sure, not everything is perfect, nor would I want it to be.  But it sure is GOOD with family like this.  

Best Cousins next to the store.

Muddy Nico

Anyway, we are all looking forward to next year's mud run.  Not only is it a great time, but it's for a great cause.  Another opportunity to teach the kids about giving back and helping to bless others the way that we have all been blessed.  

BEST muddy DAY EVER!!!       

Day of Recovery and Swimming!

Today was one of a couple of recuperation days for us.  We spent the day at home playing with toys inside and the garage.  Belle had a three hour afternoon nap, then the three guys and I took her swimming for the first time!  She LOVED the water. Towards the end of our time in the pool, she started to kick her legs.

Our beautiful Belle




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        Papa, Nico, and Max enjoying their time in the water.

Nico swam all by himself for the first time today.  He's really growing up.  At dinner tonight Max gave Nico a thumbs up and told him that he did an awesome job swimming on his own today.  Nico rolled his eyes and in a deep voice said "Thank you!"  I LOVE watching my little boys turning into little guys!







Mama, Belle, Nico, and Max playing in the water.
 Nico has his blue noodle and Max has his orange. 
They picked out their favorite colors.

For all of us our favorite part of the day is swimming together!

BEST SWIM EVER!!!

BEST VACATION EVER!!!

The last week has been filled with so many amazing things.  It's so hard to decide which things to discuss.  If I hit every wonderful moment this post would go on forever and well, I honestly would rather be with my kids than write about it forever.  But don't worry, I've got a lot of great stuff I will take the time to write about.  We just got back from our very first "family of five" vacation.  We, of course, had the BEST TIME EVER!  Not without our fair share of hiccups though.

We left Sunday afternoon to start our journey towards San Antonio.  For our very first "family of five" vacation, we decided to head out to Sea World!  Fernando nor I had ever been there so all of us would be experiencing something together for the first time.  Now, for those of you who don't know this about our children and I, we are a car sick family.  I was very very nervous about someone or everyone getting sick in the car.  But it NEVER happened!!!!  A while back I'd asked the doc what we could do about car sickness because it was happening too frequently.  We implemented pretty much every single tip from the doc and it was a success!  I'm sure there are some of you out there that may need these simple tricks to help ease your or someone else's car sickness, so here are the things we did. 

1.  Do not ride on an empty stomach. Believe me, from experience I know this, do NOT try to give a snack when the child starts to complain about stomach ache.  Get out of car as soon as possible if this is the case.  CRACKERS are NOT the answer!!!!!!

2.  Stop every hour for some fresh air and stretching/exercise (yes we did this and it actually saves time rather than takes time since you aren't stopping to clean up a sick kid, car seat, and have a yucky lingering smell that you are desperately trying to mask....enough said) 

3.  Keep the child from sitting and constantly looking out the window, instead have books to look at (warning...the books do not work for me, but make me more sick) or more successful in our car, watch movies.

4.  Have ice cold water to sip on constantly.  This makes for more potty breaks, but we just added that into our stop once an hour.

5.  Keep it cool in the car, even if you need to keep blankets for those who get too cold.  The cool air definitely makes a difference. 

We decided to break up the trip down to San Antonio into two days.  That way we could take our time and enjoy ourselves, not break our backs and go insane trying to get somewhere.  As much as I try to schedule our time to make the most out of it, I try to be really flexible and go with the flow on vacation.  Perhaps, almost too a fault, my hubby would probably say.  (He's a vacation planner!) We balanced each other out and it was perfect!  We made sure that we had some special things hidden under our hats to pull out at just the right time (like when a melt down was sure to occur or when boredom in the car or hotel was setting in).  Here are some tips and tricks that made our vacation go even smoother.  (Disclaimer:  We do not claim that these tips or tricks nor the tips or tricks listed above regarding car sickness will work for everyone.  Every child and family are different.  Variations to these suggestions or completely different actions may need to occur.  These are just based on our experiences and our successes/failures.)

1.  We had a bag of entertainment for each child.  Most of the entertainment were forgotten story books or puzzle books that the kids loved when they got them, but had long since forgotten and just needed to be rotated back into play.  We got them each a superhero hat that we knew would obviously come in handy being outside for the entire vacation.  Other goodies were from a dollar store.  We found things that would go along with the theme of our vacation such as toy killer whales.  Over the course of the trip we would pull something out when necessary or when we felt like the kids had been extra specially patient (although rare for our little guys.  Unfortunately patience does not naturally run in our family, it is a slowly learned skill.)  This also saved us lots of $$ since we didn't need to hit up the souvenir shops because they knew that when we got back to the hotel there would be something waiting for them. 

 





Belle inside of one of the chambers
of the human heart. The "beating"
sound was creeping her out.

   

       

Fer thought he was being clever

letting his organs all hang out.



2.  We planned (or planned as we flew by the seat of our pants at times) little activities like a hotel room pizza party, trip to a local park (that just so happened to be across the street from our first hotel), Popsicle treats on a car stop, an hour long pit stop at the new Buc-ee's (check it out, it's awesome!), breakfast outside at the hotel, etc.  But the absolute BEST little treat was courtesy of the best hubby ever.  He found this museum in Waco called the Mayburn Museum Complex.  It is awesome!  Not only did the kids enjoy it, Fer and I enjoyed it too!  I would strongly suggest checking it out some time.  There were sixteen different discovery rooms for kids from things ranging anywhere from science, to music, to trains, to culture, allowing for unlimited imagination play!  AWESOMENESS!!!  We only intended it to be a short stop, but ended up spending 2 1/2 hours there, but wishing we could spend more.  There is potential for a full day of play there (at least for our family).  I would love to take the kids back there someday.  Totally worth it.  VERY INEXPENSIVE for what it is.  If you like the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History's Children's museum, you will LOVE the Mayburn Museum Complex.  It's cheaper and it has MORE!  Wish we had one closer and we would get a season pass!  (but then again we'd love to do that with Sea World too!) 



There were several rooms where it took an army to get the kids
to move on to the next one.  The water/bubble room was one of them.





3.  We also invested (from a great dollar store) plastic baskets in several colors.  One basket for toys for Belle, one for snacks (a MUST in the car, but once again, stay ahead of the extreme hunger.  This keeps away or minimizes the crankiness and car sickness.  Do NOT resort to the snacks to cure carsickness!  Can't say this enough!), and one for books.  The boys also had a small bag that they could use for their personal toys that they got to choose ahead of time for the trip.  We also had a bag of plastic ware, paper plates, plastic cups, etc as well as a cooler with ice cold water and 100% juice boxes for the kids. 

4.  On the way home we had a car picnic with the foods we had purchased while in San Antonio to eat in our room (instead of eating out every meal and to cut back on costs).  This consisted of lunch meat and cheeses, carrots, dried fruit, etc.  The kids really enjoyed this. 



5.  I cleared out a spot in our van's middle row (and moved the middle child to the back with his bro) and that's where I parked during the entire trip.  This way I could tend to the kids quickly to deter some meltdowns (oh we had plenty, but imagine how many there could have been had I not sat there to pick up dropped toys or hand them snacks, drinks, etc)  Our youngest who does NOT enjoy being in her car seat did rather well with me sitting there to entertain her.  My hubby didn't feel too lonely since I was sitting close behind rather than all the way in the back like I've had to do in the past.  Besides, someone had to handle the constant DVD change.  

6.  We borrowed movies that our children haven't seem a million times recently.  That way they would catch the kids' attention and keep their minds off the long drive.  I tried to get some animal themed ones to kind of go along with the trip...you know Sea World has animals...I know it's a stretch, but we did have Happy Feet that we watched on the way home.  They really enjoyed it since they had just seen Penguins at Sea World.  We also enjoyed Madagascar and Madagascar 2, etc.  Nico has an obsession with safari animals. 

7.  This being the first week of the kids being out of school, it was time to implement the alphabet game we are doing this summer.  Each week we will focus on two different letters of the alphabet.  The beginning of the week we used the letter "V" for Vacation.  We pointed out things that started with the letter along our drive and while we were out.  The word of the week was "vacation".  This means that any time that someone would use that word we would scream AHHH!!!  The second half of the week we used the letter "H" for Home.  Same went for this letter, we pointed out things that began with H, we sounded out the letter and talked about all of the things we could think of that started with that sound.  Of course as we drove home any time that word was used, we would quietly say AHHH!!!  It's good times.  


 More pictures from our museum stop:

Putting on a show demonstrating the customs of the Waco Indians.

    

WAY TO MUCH FUN making a large bubble. 

It was awesome fun!



He was definitely in the role
of Oscar the Grouch
during several occasions on our
stop at the museum,
but we made the most of it!

  



We spent an afternoon plus two full days at Sea World.  It was a great adventure for the kids.  We saw the Shamu show, sea lion show, 4D Sesame Street movie, rode carnival rides, played on a playground, played in the water, saw penguins, fed dolphins, etc.  There was so much to do, but we got it ALL in!  We didn't miss anything.  We even did a few things more than once.  The first time we did water play, Nico wasn't interested so we let Max play and the next day Nico was super excited and all about it!  Belle was such a good girl.  She just went with the flow.  When she was tired and needed to nap, I would take a break with her in the shade and let her rest.  I can't possibly put into writing all of the lessons we learned, all of the awesome experiences had, and the pricelessness of seeing the kids have so much fun.  Nor can I add enough amazing pictures to demonstrate what a wonderful time we had.  It is just impossible.  But we do have some potential helpful tips in case you are considering a trip to Sea World:

1.  If possible, make your trip before the major schools let out for summer.  It wasn't 100 + degree temps yet and it was not crowded at all.  Also, go on week days, weekends you have to fight crowds as well.  We had no more than a 5 minute wait (if any wait at all) for any game or ride.  For shows we had no wait. 

2.  Go early in morning when the park opens.  At the season before all of the schools let out the park is open only from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. but it's plenty of time to get everything you want done.  Of course we spent a couple of days there.  The kids were worn out by 5 and so were we.  We couldn't have gone longer than that if we had the option. 

3.  Stay at a hotel close by that has a shuttle to the park.  This was awesome because we didn't have to pay for parking, park a mile away, or get into a blistering hot car when we were done for the day.

4.  Take a shuttle early before the park opens to get all of your stuff together at the entrance, take pics out front, get in line for security and tickets BEFORE the school buses or charter buses.

5.  Take the shuttle back to hotel or to a nearby restaurant to get a break from the sun and get cheaper tastier food.  We left for an hour one day, had lunch in our hotel room, and went right back.  It was just the refresher we needed.

6.  Wear hats and TONS of sunscreen applying often all day.  Bring sunglasses for everyone, even if you don't normally wear them.  This was especially helpful during the shows on the water where the sun would reflect brightly.      

7.  Wear bathing suits, get wet, forget the towels if you want to limit what you carry around.  We didn't use them once.  It was so nice letting ourselves dry out.  It kept us cooler longer.  Forget worrying about what you look like, just HAVE FUN and be a kid!!

8.  Just pay the money and feed the dolphins.  I know it can get expensive to pay for a large family to get into Sea World (we opted to get season passes so we could go more than one day...totally worth it!), and then when things cost more on the inside it can get pricey, but feeding the dolphins was very cool.



9.  This one was a very hard one for chickens like Fer and me, but let your little kids ride anything that they are tall enough to ride, if they request trying it.  This was definitely outside of our comfort zone.  Neither one of us ride roller coasters...ever!  With my fear of heights and car sickness tendencies it's a nightmare.  But kiddie rides...we did it for the kids....now when it's the big roller coasters, they can forget me going along, but Max and Nico will have each other to ride later on.  I'm not going to lie, these kid rides still made me nervous, but in the end we enjoyed them.  I was so proud of my little guys, being 4 and 2 (Nico's a big 2 so he got to ride most things with Max) they wanted to try everything and they loved it for the most part.  Nico not as much as Max, but they were fearless for the trying!  More than I can say for myself!!! 

10.  Spend some time either at the end of the day or on your last day to let your kids pick their favorite activity to do it again.


11.  Ride the carousel 15 times if your kids want to.  It's shaded and it's a break from walking

12.  Fork over the money to rent a stroller (it's a life saver)

13.  Let your kids eat that extra bowl of chocolate pudding.  They'll burn the fat calories, and they'll feel treated.

14.  Sit in the splash zone of shows towards the back.  You won't get a fishy smelling soak, but you'll get a nice cool sprinkle. 

15.  Bring LOTS of water bottles and snacks.



Along the way we had some meltdowns and boo boos, from all of us.  But those things just go along with the great, right?  We actually had a rocky start with  two cars colliding ahead of us on the highway, having to say goodbye to a laptop, me forgetting my wallet so being unable to alternate drivers, etc....but there's ALWAYS going to be things like this that we can either let get in our way, hinder us from having the most fun possible, or we can learn from it and count our blessings that things are as great as they are.  I'm not going to focus on any kind of bloopers or really reflect on anything that may have been our favorites and just end with this.  We are such a blessed family who got to share one of the best experiences we could possibly have.  We loved each other through every moment of it and we made memories that we won't forget.

BEST VACATION EVER!!!