Ingram the Conqueror: Friday January 4th, Sea World and iSky!

Rain rain go away; please don't come another day either! We weren't going to let the rain mess up our plans for today. We started out with breakfast in the Gingerbread House again and of course hit the Ice Cream Shoppe and the Enchanted Carousal; see any patterns to our days? Ingram tried a new way of having waffles and spread grape jelly on his waffles. He seemed to like it, but couldn't convince the rest of us to try it. We had a special surprise today too and got to meet Curious George and take some fun pictures with him in the Castle of Miracles. We were prepared for the rain, for the most part, and we even had clothes for the cooler temperatures for the day. By almost prepared, that meant that four out of the five of us had raincoats, but Daddy was so sweet and found a store to get a real rain coat, not a poncho, on the way to Sea World, so that meant Mommy wouldn't get as wet and beg to go home. The kids were great too and didn't complain about the hour delay in getting to the park.

Once we were at Sea World, it was a little cooler than we would have liked, but who's going to complain about it? No one did and we started in and even got a double stroller so that the kids could take turns riding since it wasn't very crowded because of the weather. First up, we headed to Dolphin Cove and were first in line for a dolphin feeding. With GKTW, we were supposed to get one tray of fish to feed the dolphins, but they were so sweet and gave all five of us a tray to feed the dolphins and it was great! The fish were definitely cold, wet, and icky but eventually everyone picked up the fish, fed the dolphins, and pet them too. Of course, a certain 10 year old girl kept squealing and raising her fish up too high when the dolphins would come to get it so we had this whole flock of pelicans diving in on us to get the fish! The crowds of folks around us were laughing and trying to help wave them away so the Sea World gals quickly came over and helped us feed the rest of our fish. It was an experience I don't think the kids will forget!!

Next we had just enough time to see the amphibians and go on Turtle Trek while we waited for the Dolphin Show to begin. Before we got into the actual show part, we were able to see all sorts of fish, turtles, and sharks along the walls from beside and underneath them. Turtle Trek was another 3D exhibit where we were on the floor and felt like we were the actual baby turtle being hatched and growing up with all the things it encounters through its life. Ingram got a little scared when the birds were "diving in to get him" so we took off his 3D glasses and he snuggled up with me for the rest of the show.

The Dolphin Show wasn't your ordinary dolphin show either! It was more like a water adventure with dolphins swimming and doing their tricks with people swimming and diving with them while these huge beautiful birds were flying as part of the show too. It was truly amazing and definitely worth sitting in the rain for because by then, all five of us had our raincoats on with hats on our heads! After the show since the popcorn and cotton candy wasn't enough, we headed in search of ice cream and to find Shamu and watch her show. On the way to Shamu's place, we found more sharks and stingrays and decided we needed to help Daddy conquer his fear of stingrays, after all, touching them earlier in the day wasn't enough, he needed to feed them too!

Shamu's show was super cool and very wet! We got there with 5 minutes to spare and still had our ice cream, but Madison and Lindsey picked seats up front where they could see not knowing they could possibly get wet too. We were already wet from the rain and cold too, but nothing could compare to Shamu and all her friends pretty much dumping water right on top of us! And it wasn't just water, it was freezing cold salt water that huge killer whales swim in and our raincoats only help so much, especially when there was no warning that the water was coming. Seriously, who's going to be on the lookout for the other whale's swimming around the sides approaching the crowds while Shamu is front and center doing the most fabulous jumps and flips in the middle of the pool? Those trainers are mighty tricky, but then again, we all loved it and love that we got to see and get soaked by Shamu!

In another attempt to dry ourselves, we headed to Shamu's Land and rode all the rides and played all over the playground with the kids and didn't lose anyone! I think their favorite ride was the "Swishy Fishy" which is the same as the "Tea Cup" ride if you know what I mean. Even Craig got in on the action and took turns spinning the kids and himself until they couldn't even sit up straight; oh the things that Daddy's do with their kids! On the way out of Sea World, we were sliding in our shoes because of the water and seeing how far we could slide. Yep, you know where this is going; poor Lindsey had on Tom's which had no traction whatsoever and she was sliding beautifully along the Boardwalk then all of a sudden her feet flew up from under her and she hit the deck! It was one of those falls that was totally in slow motion and was awful, but I've never personally laughed so hard at one of our kids getting hurt. Once she got over the fall, she too started laughing about it and was bragging about how long she slid. Lindsey had waited until today to get her souvenir and came out with a cute, cuddly, and pink dolphin that she loves!

But our night didn't end here, we went indoor skydiving and had a blast!! We all got decked out in our flight suits and had a classroom training with our instructor Mike. We watched groups going before us and were getting so excited (and nervous) about our turns, and especially Ingram doing it but they assured us he could handle it and they could handle him in the tunnel. If you're a fan of Scooby Doo and have seen the episode where they indoor skydiving, you can get an idea of what it was like, just trade the cartoon characters for real life characters! We each flew for 2 minutes but only one minute at a time due to how rough it is to have wind blowing directly at you anywhere from 80mph to 125mph.

Madison was first and she did great; she hovered around in the right spot with our instructor making adjustments as needed to get her used to it. Her second round was great! She flew around the tunnel on her own then flew up the tunnel with our instructor. Ingram was next and he was a hoot! He was trying to swim the whole time by kicking his legs and moving his arms the entire time; our instructor has a hold of him the whole time and just tried to keep him calm and get him to smile. He wound up flying easier on his back than on his belly until he flew up the tunnel a little with our instructor. Lindsey was next and she did great until she decided to move her legs the wrong way. Once she did that, she couldn't regain control and got a little nervous for the rest of her first minute. Her second round she did better and got to fly up in the tunnel with our instructor. Craig was next and of course he wanted to do it perfectly and do more than we were told to do...imagine that! He flew by himself with our instructor making minor adjustments to his legs and arms at different times then flew up in the tunnel super fast with our instructor. I was last and a tad bit nervous! I think I smiled the whole time because it was so much fun and the best part was actually doing it by myself. It was fun to go up in the tunnel with our instructor real fast, but it was super cool knowing what it was like to free fall. We all wanted to do it again, but time just ran out and it was time to head back to our place so that we could attempt to have dinner and showers so that we could be ready for another day!