Having Fun in the "Hot" San Antonio Sun

Dan and I decided on the spur of the moment to take the family on a much needed vacation two weeks ago. We had not been on a family vacation since going to Disneyland when Will was two and Cici was five months old, so it seemed like a good time. Plus, after hearing their cousin Devri tell them how much she loved going to Sea World three weeks earlier, the kids really wanted to go. Good thing Sea World is only five hours away! We spent three fun filled and very hot days in San Antonio, Texas but at moments asked ourselves if we were crazy for embarking on this adventure with three small children on our own. Did I mention it was hot!

The first day of our trip we spent at Sea World attending all the shows and visiting the shark, penguin, and dolphin exhibits. After only three hours in the park I was more than willing to pay $15 for two souvinour mugs of soda so the family could try and cool off. Poor Weston was such a trooper barely making a peep even though I know he was very uncomfortable from the heat and the sunburn he got on the corner of his left eye where we missed covering him with sunscreen. The shows were amazing, but what was even more fun than watching them was watching Will and Cici's excitement as they watched. That made the whole trip worth it! Dan and I didn't get to go on any of the big roller coasters they have there since we didn't have anyone to watch the kids (which was sad because I love roller coasters), but we were able to take turns going with Will and Cici on the log ride. Will loved it! If the line hadn't been so long we would have done it over and over again. The kids also loved the little kiddie rides their dad went on with them while I fed Weston.


The second day we spent at Sea World's water park where we stayed much cooler than the day before. Before going to the waterpark though we promised the kids they could feed the dolphins, which they say was their favorite part of the whole vacation. The most traumatic experience of the trip happened that evening when we lost Will for about ten minutes. Dan had been playing with the kids in the large rope and net play area while I fed Weston. When I came out to meet up with them, I found Dan frantically looking for Will who had pulled away from his dad's hand and ran away (he had a problem during the vacation insisting that we needed to do what he wanted to do). He had decided that he wanted to play in the sand box area instead of coming to look for me and his baby brother. Luckily we found him pretty quickly, but it scared me to death because of how big the park was and we didn't know which way he went.

On day three we found a Mimi's Cafe to have breakfast at (we have missed this since leaving Utah) and then went to visit the Alamo and the Riverwalk. Before going to downtown San Antonio I had explained to the kids that the Alamo was where an important battle in Texas history had taken place. The whole way there they discussed amongst themselves about how they were going to go see a battle take place. They were sorely disappointed when there was no battle nor any soldiers at the Alamo. Instead they chose to fight their own battle with sticks in front of the place. Dan especially found it very interesting and we were glad that we took the couple of hours to visit it before heading home.

( The above picture is the only one we have of the whole family from the trip)

Things I learned while taking three children ages four and under to San Antonio on a family vacation:

1) Soda is worth $15 when you and your children are hot, cranky, and thirsty

2) Make sure you put sunscreen on the corners of babies eyes

3) Theme Parks are fun but even more fun when you go with other family members or friends, so that adults can ride adult rides and kids have other kids to hang out with

4) Now that Sea World is out of the way (which is more fun to do with little kids anyway), I am going back to San Antonio with only Dan to experience the #1 water park in the world Schlitterbahn and Six Flags (maybe the kids can come too, when they are older, much older).