Sea World

Sea World has a promotion each year that when you go there early in the year, your pass to get in becomes a fun pass and you can return all you want for the rest of the year so its basically an annual pass for the price of one day and there are only a couple of blockout days the whole year. Well we went in February this year and I was pregnant at the time. We had every intention to go back a few times to make the price of admission worth it but with the pregnancy and then with having an infant it was hard to find time to drive down to San Diego and use the pass. We finally decided to go ahead and go again because it expires at the end of the year so we went this past Saturday. We had a really good time. I've never been there at Christmas time before and the whole park was decorated for Christmas and there was even an area where it snows like it does at Disneyland but it does it all day at this location. They had night shows for Shamu and the Clyde and Seamore show and we were able to catch the night time Shamu show as well as the regular day show. The night show was truly amazing. It was a special Christmas program and there were live choirs and people playing musical instruments incorporated into the show. There was special lighting and even the whales seemed to enjoy the special night show better than the day show they do all the time. They performed to many of my favorite Christmas carols so it was really neat to see. Our trip was extra special because my mom bought us all dinner at dine with Shamu. The food was decent it was buffet style but of course the special part was being up close and personal with the whales while we ate.

The day did have a big down side. My parent's house was robbed while we were there. My dad was working that day and didn't get to go with us so when he got home from work around 2pm he noticed my nephew's window was shattered in his bedroom and it turns out his Xbox that he got for Christmas along with his Ipod and Ipod accessories were stolen. A couple of cameras and a few other things were stolen as well. Most of the stuff stolen was from Andrew's room so he was pretty upset when my dad called and broke the news about what had happened. I tried to explain to him that it is just stuff and can all be replaced at some point but that's hard for a 14 year old to understand especially when all your Christmas presents from the past two years have just been swiped. Andrew thinks a kid he has problems with in the neighborhood was the one that did it. I guess this kid doesn't like Andrew much and he may even have ties to a gang so that's not good. Apparently this kid's name was found written on a white board in Andrew's room along with a gang sign. I'm praying Andrew doesn't escalate things with this kid because Andrew can be pretty hot-tempered and we can't prove this kid did it but he does sound like someone to stay away from. All this was reported to the police but it sounds like they aren't being very helpful. They took a report but didn't try to get fingerprints and didn't seem interested in the fact that whoever broke in wrote that kid's name down along with the gang sign. My parents are getting a new security system today. I hope they don't have anymore problems. 2007 is ending on a low-note for them so I hoping things turn around for them in 2008.

Tonight is New Year's eve and Doug and I have decided to stay in this year even though some friend's invited us to their home for games. I just hate the thought of driving around on this night when so many people are drinking. I bought some special snacks for us to enjoy tonight and we even got a bottle of Champagne even though we don't drink much or enjoy Champagne much. I just thought it would be nice to toast in the New Year in the traditional way. So we are all set. I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe, and blessed New Year!