Sea World at Christmas

On Christmas Eve, the Scout Master and I had a crazy idea to surprise the kids with one last trip to Sea World in San Antonio before our passes expired.  We have never been to SA in the winter, and we were pretty intrigued by the thought of Sea World at Christmas...."where the season meets the sea."

The weather forecast looked hopeful, and about 15 degrees warmer than Dallas for the weekend, so we happily loaded the van and drove off for our adventure bright and early yesterday morning.  

Sea World is beautiful during the Christmas season, and until it got dark, the weather was pretty darn perfect, too.  The Scout Master and a couple of the kids managed to get on a the roller coasters, and we hit all three of the big shows.  Unfortunately that's about all we were able to do because the park was completely PACKED with people.  Who knew Christmas was such an ideal time to visit Sea World?  We had forgotten about the Alamo Bowl scheduled for this afternoon, so we ran into A LOT of football fans, including both the UT and Oregon State bands!  Despite the crowds, we had a really great time.  Lots of togetherness,  and a really great way to break up the monotony of a two week vacation from school.  We stopped at a few of the outlet malls on the way home and zipped through the UT campus in Austin so that I could breathe a little orange blood into my children, and we made it home by 8:30ish.  

Here is my favorite part of this weekend and every other family vacation that we've ever been on...

I absolutely LOVE having all of my chickens in one space.  I'm not crazy about sharing one bathroom, and I'm sure the lack of privacy would be irritating after awhile, but to be stuffed in a hotel room for one or two nights is the most peaceful, content, joy-inducing thing I can think of.  I woke up at 4:00am because Mack is getting a pretty bad cold.  I gave him some water and then walked the two feet back to my own bed and hopped in.  For a minute, I just sat there in the dark and counted four little blessings and one larger snoring one beside me, and then I went back to sleep.  I love these guys so much!