Under the sea

We live 15 minutes from SeaWorld, but never felt ready to brave the crowds and theme-park mayhem until this week.

We chose a school day, packed snacks and took advantage of Anheuser-Busch's once-per-year free pass for military families.

We had very little invested in the day and went with low expectations. After all, I'm nearly nine months pregnant and our children are, well, small. The littlest one still requires a good three-hour nap and we certainly wouldn't be getting that.



The day started out slow. My belly and I were banned from all of the kiddy rides that L and C so wanted to try out. That left N with a queasy gut and me standing sentry next to the stroller with camera in hand. The sun was hot and we were working our way through the snacks well before noon.

After lunch we moved on to the animals, and my spirits picked up. We saw some amazing marine life, watched dogs and cats perform stunts on stage and were wowed by Shamu and company at the killer-whale show.

C was delighted by and pleasantly frightened by the "fierce" sharks and once during the day, L said we must be the happiest family in the whole world.

I think our kiddos are at last big enough and still small enough to be impressed by the magic of these massive parks. As we add an infant to the equation, we know we won't soon be returning to SeaWorld as a family, but someday we'll go back.

We haven't mentioned the "D" place that's just north of here to the children. We'll reserve the big guns for simpler times--perhaps when we're all tall enough to ride the really fun rides and no one is pregnant.