Awesome Afternoon At The Aquarium

A few days ago Deb sent me a text message asking if Autumn & I wanted to do something w/ them to celebrate the last day of summer before the kids have to go back to school.  We’re always up for spending time w/ them!  They came & picked us up at 10:00 and we headed down to downtown Dallas.  Deb is so awesome b/c she let Autumn pick the movie that the kids watched on the way down there & she even brought me a cold diet Coke!!!

The aquarium is pretty small, but it was perfect for us b/c the kids were able to see all of the animals and enjoy looking at them.

The highlight was the sting ray tank where we could touch the sting rays.

At first the kids were apprehensive, but after they saw me touching them, they got more brave and eventually tried it.  They loved it, and laughed when the sting rays all saw by them and splashed them and got them wet.

After we spent about 30 minutes w/ the sting rays, we went to check out the rest of the aquarium.  We had to get a picture at this obvious photo op.

All the kids enjoyed touching these simulated octopus tentacles and had to pretend to be attacked by them.

You can’t see them in this pic, but Autumn really liked the eels.  Especially the one that looked like it had giraffe print skin.  She’d get one exhibit ahead of me & yell for me to come look at the newest animal she discovered.

Autumn & Ben kept going back to the octopus to see if he had moved.  This pic of them just chillaxin’ in the alcove where the octopus was makes me laugh.

I really liked this bright & colorful fish.

At 12:00 we went back over to the sting rays so the kids could feed them.  They had to hold a sardine between their fingers and the sting ray would swim over the top of it and suck up the sardine.  Autumn held the sardine, but chickened out when it came to actually feeding the sting rays and she gave it to Ben to do it.

By this time we had seen everything and the kids were ready to go b/c they were hungry.  It was an awesome afternoon at the aquarium.

On the way out of Fair Park we saw this Indian symbol & Autumn had to get a pic by it.  We got back up to our part of the metroplex and stopped for lunch at Chick Fil A so the kids could play.  The place was PACKED!!!  After they played for a while, the Dakins dropped us off at home.

We were hot & tired, so I laid down on the couch & took a little snooze while Autumn played w/ her Barbies & watched Disney Jr.  Then we went over to Mom & Dad’s to let Emma out, eat some dinner, and clean up the kitchen before Mom & Dad get back tomorrow.  Dad & Nate & Uncle Robert & Aunt Sandy all rode in the Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred.  I’m glad they finished it safely, b/c people die every year.  It was a great day.