Six Flags Marine World...

Monday, June 5th

Me, the girls, and my sister Lisa all went to Six Flags Marine World on Monday...a trip we'd been planning for a couple of weeks! It's only about a 40 minute drive so we arrived around noon, found great parking (miracle!) and began our fun filled day! Since school for most of the areas around here weren't out for the summer yet, the park wasn't too crowded. After checking the park map and daily schedule we decided to grab lunch then see the whale show. On our way to find lunch, we watched the tail end of the elephant demonstration. The girls were so excited and could barely stay in their seats! At the very end, the elephant was treated with an entire bunch of bananas for a job well done...this elicited a comment of "Mommy, she really likes bananas, like me!" from Samantha. Too cute!

Grabbed some lunch, but the girls were much too pumped to really eat much...I couldn't blame though (good thing I packed plenty of snacks). About then it was time to head over and get seats for the whale show, we decided to sit in the "Splash Zone". It was quite a challenge keeping those two occupied while we waited...Madison kept wanting to roam around, but with so many people I was not comfortable letting her out of arms reach which means she was not a happy camper. Finally the show started and the girls caught their first glimpse of Shouka, both were sufficiently wowed and sat still to watch (finally!). Unfortunately, Shouka the whale was having a bad day and decided she didn't want to cooperate so the show was cut short.

From there we headed to the land animal side of the park and caught the tail end of the tiger play time. Madison was pretty tired (normally her nap time) so she was content to sit in the stroller while Auntie Lisa and Samantha moved to the front to get up close to the action. The tigers were having a ball swimming and rough housing with each other and the trainers!! Samantha was in heaven, grinning from ear to ear and when she came back to the strollers she just couldn't get the words out fast enough! Next came the lions and other big cats, giraffes, butterfly exhibit, and finally a few rides.

Samantha really impressed me when it came to the rides! She was just tall enough (and I mean barely!) to make the 36 inch requirement. Poor Madison was too little and so badly wanted to be doing what her big sister was doing, I felt so bad. Samantha's first ride was a boat ride and I was convinced that she would freak out and they'd have to stop and let her off. Boy was I wrong! She climed in, buckled up and never looked back! I was shocked and soooo proud of her! Each time she came around I'd waive frantically so she'd know I didn't leave, but each time she'd waive back, grinning! Next up was the swings and once again she was a trooper. Since poor Madison was in tears we decided to find some rides she could do as well (with Mommy and Auntie Lisa in tow of course). Three rides later both girls were happy and Lisa and I had had enough of squishing ourselves into tiny seats!

We rounded out the day with playing in the "jumping" water play area, some ice cream and a walk through the sea animal portion of the park...sharks, sea lions, dolphins, penguins and Samantha's favorite the walrus! By this time it was close to 6pm and the park was closing so we headed back to the car. Both girls were fast asleep by the time we got on the freeway. We had such a good day and I'm so glad that my sister came. We don't get to spend a whole lot of time with her, so the girls are always giddy when she's around!

Here are a few pics from our day...
(ugh, I'll have to upload them later...Blogger is having issues)