With grandpa and grandma coming into town, we had talked about spending the day at the zoo, but after some conversation, decided to go check out the aquarium instead. We had never taken the kids there, and it would be something different, whereas we have been to the zoo many times over the last several years.
The aquarium was dark in most areas, which makes sense when you think about how dark it must be in the depths of the oceans. And the kids loved checking out all the different kinds of fishes and other sea life.
There was a touch pool, where the kids could reach in and touch urchins and starfish, or they could wait until the ray swam up to them and touch their wings as they went by. Lydia thought it was the coolest thing….until you tried to help her put her hand in the water. 😛
The other kids loved it though and we spent quite a bit of time hanging out at the touch pool.
Dinah was most adventurous as always:
Grandpa took Adam out of his stroller so he could see everything too.
Jeremy has lately shown an interest in hermit crabs. We were at the pet store a few weeks ago to get supplies for our rescue kitty, and he found the hermit crabs, and I showed him the different fun shells that you can buy for the hermit crabs to grow into. So he was really excited to find a huge hermit crab here at the aquarium.
Ethan found the jaws of a shark and thought it would be funny to pose as though he were being eaten. I have to say that the lighting in the picture gives it an odd effect.
Then the kids found some coral and played peek a boo with us adults.
There was a big playroom that was set up to look like a ship, and Lydia loved pretending she was steering.
Lydia also really liked seeing the penguins. Grandpa held her up so that she could even watch them jump in and out of the water.
Then we got to walk around and check out some water snakes and other creatures like that, which was thrilling to Ethan but not so much to me. But before we were out of that area, Adam was all tuckered out.
Then grandpa let each of the kids pick out something from the shop (Ethan picked a 7 foot long snake stuffed animal), and Kyle and I let each of the kids pick out a smashed penny before we left.