We're still coming down off of vacation exhaustion, so I'm going to let the pictures tell most of the story. Let's just say we had a busy, exciting, wonderful family vacation (probably the last big one we'll have before our family grows by one). I soaked up every minute of Connor's excitement.
Our first stop was the new Disney Cars' Hotel. We didn't get a room there, but we enjoyed strolling the area & checking out all of Connor's best pals.
Lightning McQueen :)
Sally
Mommy's favorite--Fillmore
Guido!
And Peewee's fave--Mater!
We headed to our hotel next to find out to our surprise that the water park was still open (yes--our hotel had a water park & Connor didn't know anything about it until we got there...I was PUMPED to show him). You literally stepped out our hotel room door to see water slides and more water slides. Connor & Matt suited up & ventured out to the pool area. Matt was a trooper all weekend, since I couldn't go on anything with Connor. The boys probably did the slides a good 100 times this weekend.
Big guy went down the slides all by himself.
Then we headed into the other pool area to try some more slides out. It was great with no one to wait behind in line! My little fish could have stayed there all day & night if we let him.
We convinced him we had more fun planned for supper time & peeled him away from the slides. Our supper date was the fabulous Auntie Katie! We chose Dave & Buster's for supper/game time. It was a little over stimulating for all of us, but Peewee had fun!
Connor tends to be a ham when Auntie Katie is around, so he was all over the place at our table. He was under it, he was in our laps, he was all over Matt...pictured here is Connor playing with Matt's earlobes. It was pretty comical because you couldn't see Connor behind Matt's head---just these little hands flying about & wiggling Matt's ears! Oh my child...
We played many-a-games & when we got back to our room, we all crashed! Connor slept soundly until 9:45am on Mother's Day morning! I was able to get up, get ready on my own, and then wake him to tell him it was Seaworld day!
*I was having anxiety about deciding on Seaworld. Connor has such a fascination with characters (Disney, Superheros, etc), so the fact that Seaworld only promoted having Sesame Street characters (Connor's almost out of the whole Sesame Street phase)--I was worried he would LOVE it. I prepared him that we'd only see Sesame Street characters (just like we did at Busch Gardens) and got him all into seeing Cookie Monster & friends! We headed into the park, checked out the sharks first....then C was asking to see the kid area with the Sesame Street gang (which only happened to be on the far other side of the park).
We made our way to the kid area & I was cautiously preparing him incase they didn't have all the Sesame Street characters he wanted to see (the Seaworld website makes it appear almost identical to the Busch Gardens set up where all the Sesame Street characters do a character show together & then there are random ones to get a photo with afterwards). We trotted on over to the kid area & Mama asked a kind Seaworld employee about where we could catch the Sesame Street characters. She nonchalantly muttered, "Oh, yeah. The Sesame Street characters are usually only here for holiday celebrations."
My stomach dropped. Oh dear God! The Sesame Street characters won't be here & I got my child so excited to see them... As much as I wanted to argue with this homely looking Seaworld employee, telling her that Mother's Day is a holiday celebration, I knew it wouldn't bring Cookie Monster running out from around the corner to greet my sweet boy. She did mention that we can probably find "Franklin the Turtle on the other side of the park." Oh great! Who in the h*ll is Franklin?!? If he's not related to Big Bird, I don't give a hoot! I braced myself for telling my boy his Sesame Street friends may not be here today.
I grazed the topic gently. "The woman said she hasn't seen the Sesame Street friends today. We'll have to keep an eye out. Maybe they're driving here still. Maybe they're on vacation." We distracted my little guy with a few kiddie rides. Stop #1 was the Shamu rollercoaster.
The boys rode this about 3 times before we decided to head on over to the Shamu show. I was thinking 15 minutes prior to show time would allow us enough time to get a seat, but oh my... it was packed. We made our way to a not-so-close seat & waited patiently for the show to start. Connor wasn't too amused. I'm not sure if he still had his mind on his character friends or if our seats were just too high to get into the show. Whatever it was--the view of the whales wasn't thrilling him. After the show, we thought we'd grab some lunch nearby. Peewee exclaimed he really wanted to see his Sesame Street friends now. I had no choice, but to bite the bullet & break the news to him. It wasn't so much a tantrum, as it was just heartbreak. There were tears. There were boogers. Mom did lots of hugging. Poor kid. We did a lot of talking and finally got past the "I'm angry" phase. I knew we were in the clear when my little guy says "You know what Mom?! Its ok that Sesame Street friends aren't here. I still like Seaworld. I have a great idea. Wanna go on the giant playground?!?" This was my Thank you Jesus moment of the day.
We watched Peewee through the giant kiddie play area (where I freaked out sending him in by himself, since I couldn't go in with him, in fear that he'd get to a point where I'd lose him or wouldn't see which direction he was going.). I stationed Matt at one end and I stood at the other, staring at him like a hawk. There were tunnels & rope ladders everywhere where kids could end up on anywhere from level 1 to 5 stories up. I was able to breath easier when we left that area. I hated feeling helpless, not being able to do things with him while I'm pregnant.
We caught a funny sea lion and otter pirate show which held Connor's attention the entire time. We did a few kiddie rides, visited the Artic to see beluga whales, polar bears, and walruses, then headed to the stingray petting pool before leaving. I was so glad we saved the stingrays for the end of our trip, because we were able to end our day on a high note before leaving! Connor loved touching them & even fed them shrimp.
The only regret I have for the day was not bringing a stroller. I talked myself out of it thinking that Connor was big enough to walk. I mentioned the idea of a stroller to Matt, since I wouldn't be able to carry Connor at all & it would all be on him. I told him I really thought we should rent a stroller when we got into the park, but Matt figured we'd be fine. Fast forward through the day of Connor on and off Matt's shoulders or back...and I got a "You were right. We should have used a stroller," out of him! I love when I have 'told you so' moments! :) When we got back to the hotel, Connor turned to me at about 7:00pm and said "Mom, I'm gonna take a little nap now for a little bit." For the child that never ever admits to being tired, I knew he was completely exhausted. I talked him into getting a shower, reading a book, and then just going to bed early. He was sound asleep by 8:00pm.
We then woke this morning & had to check out. We were able to utilize the water park area even after checking out, so that is where we were! My little guy mustered up the courage to go on this slide (the giant yellow one pictured below). If Matt wasn't able to go down with him, I wouldn't have been okay with hit. They tried the slide out one time to see how Connor would do. When I greeted the boys at the bottom, Connor exclaims, "Can we do it again?!?!" Glad he wasn't scared :). Matt tried to talk me into sending Connor on the yellow & blue slide (the freakishly high one seen in the picture below) and I couldn't do it. He'd be all by himself and it was too much for me to accept. The boys rocked the yellow slide a good 4 times.
The boys enjoyed some more little slides in the pool (and Connor talked us into a few more of the big ones again) before hitting the road.
Our trip was wonderful! Having a water park at our hotel was a great choice by yours truly. Nice work, Mama :). I'm a little sad its all over, but loved it while it lasted!
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