Day 4 started like the others. Lazy morning, breakfast at Starbucks and a last minute trip to Trader Joe's grocery store for snack throughout the day. Then, off to the main attraction...Sea World! After Nate's prediction that Elle wouldn't like Sea World (since the whale in the Dora video scares her) and Ken's concern that the shows would be above her head, we were starting to wonder if this was a bad idea. We couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. It always helps to start with low expectations.

From the first steps inside the park, all went smoothly, including the weather. Elle was eager to see the penguins, probably because her favorite stuffed animal is "Penguiny", a little animal Nate bought her at the Aquarium. We went through this exhibit twice. Then, we headed to the first show, the dolphins! She was absolutely mesmerized. She sat on Ken's lap smiling, dancing, laughing and thoroughly enjoying herself. From there, we made our way to see Shamu in the whale show. The whales were very cool and, again, Elle was totally into everything. Tag was also a happy camper hanging out in the Bjorn with me. Ken and I were a little turned off by all the conservation gobbly gook (c'mon, we just want to see the animals perform), but some of the technology in the show made up for this. Following this, we saw flamingos and ate pizza before watching our third show of the day, Pet's Rule. Here cats, dogs, a pig, ducks and pigeons entertained us for 25 minutes. Again, Elle was in heaven. At the end of the show, many of the stars were on stage for the kids to pet and meet. Here, Elle took the only picture of the day (she took the camera away from Ken and insisted on snapping photos). She pet a dog and a pig named Rafael (see picture).

It was difficult pulling her away from this area even when all the animals were gone. But, we had to get to the best show of the day, the Sea Lions. The show was pretty funny and the 2 sea lions and otter were entertaining enough, but the highlight for Ken and I was at the end. At the very end of the show, one of the newer trainee animals, the 950lbs walrus made his entrance. After the show was over and all the other animals have gone away, he went back into the water. First he propped himself up against the glass saying hi to his many human fans. After this tired him, he jumped out of the water and over the wall to get even closer. The Sea World staff were fantastic. They quickly cleared the immediate area and lucky for us, we were high enough to enjoy his antics for quite a while. Shortly after his little jump, an official Sea World person announced that people needed to stay clear of their newest trainee and that he'd "bet 5 cents that this would all be on YouTube in 30 minutes!" (we checked and it's not yet). The walrus continued to move around a bit, even climbing a few steps in the stadium before walking out and around the stadium. Apparently he did something similar last week and took a 30 minute walk around the stadium before they could coax him back. This was clearly the best show of the day! We ended the day with the octopus, sea turtule and a promise to Elle that we'd be back before we return home. There's still a lot to see!

Once again, we ended the day later than planned. Elle crashed in bed at 10 and Tag was right behind her.

One more note. Elle's new favorite game - Runaway stroller. We pretend the stroller gets away from us and that she's going to crash. She thinks this is hysterical and constantly wants to play it. Yes, today we had both strollers with us. We knew better than to try to make her walk everywhere. Besides, I think Sea World may be the stroller capital of the US. We fit in well. And some how having each of us (Ken and I) assigned to one stroller and one kid just felt right.