Sea World today...

As we only have 13 days before we leave, we've been milking our passes to the theme parks that will expire while we're away. Twice this week we were at homeschool events that were held kind of close to Movie World so we went there afterwards. Monday, Summer had her hs drama class, then Wednesday we went to a hs social gathering where one of the Mums had arranged an elaborate 'world explorer' treasure hunt kind of thing complete with little challenges at each station with a theme from a different country. The kids got stamps in their little passports she'd printed up for the day and really enjoyed the activity. I'd told the kids in the morning that, seeing as how we'd only be one exit off the motorway from movie world, we'd go there afterwards. AJ was still keen after several hours of playing but Summer said "do we have to go to Movie World?" Nicholas wasn't very keen, but once we got there, we all had a good time. Summer has been enjoying some of the bigger rides and has been a regular on the batwing which involves her and 15 other strangers sitting, facing out, four a side around a 60 meter pole. They are lifted up the pole at 4.5G's. Then dropped and lifted up again and dropped, gradually getting less high each time. I tried it once. And that was enough for me.

So as Summer and AJ go on some of these kind of rides, Nicholas and I just hang out. Sometimes we go on the carousel, or one of the other little kids rides, but mostly he'd prefer climbing on the fake rock decorations they have, or just watching his brother and sister.

So as time is running out, we decided to make one last trip to my favourite park - Sea World. For a long time I had a 'thing' against sea world and the whole 'animals in captivity and being used for human amusement' argument. But, I've relaxed on that. Sea World does do a lot to help rescue animals and to educate the public to be more aware of the effect of our choices on the environment. As well as more awareness about the animals and marine life. I've spoken with some of the staff that are directly involved with the animals and marine life there and their dedication and affection towards even the oddest looking fish is heart warming.

So today we went to Sea World with beautiful weather. First up, a trip on the skyway:

Gosh they can be so cute!

Nicholas climbing on some of the fake rock things.

Summer, Nicholas and I on the flume ride, that my kids call the 'Viking ride' because of the shape of the canoes. Nicholas surprised me by wanting to go on this - 3 times!

I was bummed that the Corkscrew roller coaster was not working today as they were repainting it, but we were offered free entry into the water park to make up for it. The water park has a large pool, a fun play pool for little kids, and several big water slides. There were not many people there, probably because we're half a month away from winter and the water was pretty chilly. But hey, once you got numb, you didn't really feel it! No, it wasn't that cold, and we did get used to it. Summer and I didn't have a change of clothes with us, but were just wearing 3/4 pants and a t-shirt anyway. I just splashed around with Nicholas while the other two went on the big water slides. Then we all lounged around and got dry before heading back into the Sea World park and going on some more rides.

Had to include a photo of a dophin because they are so beautiful!

And then this is what happens to tired little boys who play hard all day:

Dear Little Monkey - couldn't even make it until dinner time.