The Shamu Chronicles

I survived! Two almost three year olds, one three year old and one seven year old versus three adults. I knew it was going to be crazy when we were entering the park with the three baby girls in matching hoochie mama bathing suits (don't tell the baby's daddy about that!) holding each other's hands and chanting "Shamu, Shamu, Shamu"; a seven year old boy, one stroller (more about that later); a bag full of waters, cokes and Kool-Aids, another bag with pita bread sandwiches and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids; two bags of clothing, pull-ups, wipes, panties, sippy cups, and snacks; and a 2 gallon thermos of ice tea.

My friend, looked at me laughing, and asked " Are we nuts?".

Yes.

First stop after all our bags were searched and we entered the park was the stroller rental place, where we rented a double stroller. One thing about rental strollers, they never have enough storage space. So we did some creative loading of all our stuff into these two strollers. Needless to say the one stroller we bought from home carried most of the load. In retrospect, not the best idea...

And off we went to see the dolphins swimming. Then we did baby swap and the four of us who could, rode Journey to Atlantis. And then the Blue Horizons show which was nice and the kids really liked, except the girls' attention span gave up about half way through the show (hey, Sea World, does the show have to be soooo long?).

Then we went to eat lunch. Afterwards, my friend loading up the strollers asked the innocent question: "Do you smell something?"

The baby, the dear sweet baby, had an accident. Of the poop variety. So we found a family restroom (thank God for this invention) and we all loaded into the small room with the seven year old boy insistent that he stay outside to "watch the strollers". We all had jobs to clean the baby up. My friend's sister pulled her suit down. My friend took the bottoms and held the corner and stuck it in the toilet and flushed. And flushed. And flushed. After three flushes the water had done a great job cleaning it off. She then rinsed the bottoms off with soap in the sink. Since they were pratically clean and if we changed the baby into something else, all the girls wouldn't match...well... let's just say, no poop was going to keep the girls from matching!

Oh and my job in the poop incident? "Hello, my name is Jody and I will be cleaning your butt today."

Onward to the kid's park, because honestly we sensed a mutiny coming and although the kids don't know it, if they had banded together, they would of won. Of course we were lost and ended up back toward the entrance of the park near the stroller rental shop again, which was a good thing because about a block away from passing it, the loaded down stroller we had brought from home lost a wheel. The wheel just fell off. So we rented another double stroller (because one seat was for a little girl, the other for all our stuff!).

Finally making it to the kid's park with the girl's next in line for the Jumping Bouncy thing, they closed the event and everything else because of a thunderstorm in the area. So we went to the picnic tables under shelter by a huge sand area and the kids played in the sand area for an hour while we waited for the rain to stop. Finally the thunder did stop but not the rain, so we let the kids play in the rain. And then we decided to leave, since it was already four o' clock and I-4 would be terrible to be stuck on in rush hour traffic.

The best thing? The baby says, "I had so much fun, mommy!" Who knew? I wonder if a sandbox and a waterhose would entertain them as well?

The funniest thing? We never saw Shamu. Oh well. Next time, we have annual passes. That means I get to go again and again and again...yay for me (groan!).

Posted by Jody at August 13, 2005 10:20 AM | TrackBack