Friday, April 10, 2009

Spring Break, Part 1

Yes, I know it's been almost a month, but hey...at least I'm trying, right?


So after I got off of work during spring break, we went to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's (well, Tatum and I joined the males of the family, who were already there). On Thursday, we HAD planned to go to the zoo, but considering they had every entrance blocked off becuause it was so busy (we must not have timed it well and arrived too late), we switched gears and reversed our initial plan.


Downtown Aquarium it was.


And the kids had a BLAST! It was Tatum's first time there, but Kellen had been there a few times. He acted like he didn't remember it when we were discussing it, but I think he remembered it once we arrived there.




This particular exhibit was fairly close to the eels, which Tatum absolutely did NOT like. It was interesting to see her intense reaction to certain things, both at the aquarium and at the zoo (stay tuned for Spring Break, Part 2). I wonder what causes a child, with no prior history with an animal, to have an intense reaction to it - one way or another, really?


At any rate, she wanted NOTHING at all to do with the eels. And made it well known to anyone within ear shot.



Petting the sting rays at the discovery zone. For some reason, Kellen was a little nervous this time. Tatum was excited about seeing them, but wasn't sure about actually petting them. She wanted to get her hands in the water, but was wary about actually touching them.







We timed it just right to be able to watch the tiger show, which was really the changing out of the tigers...They took one back, cleaned up the area, brought out some 'entertainment' in the way of some food for the next one, then brought the next one out. During the cleaning portion, one of the workers did an educational bit on the tigers, their interaction, etc. It was really interesting. Kellen and Tatum were enthralled. While the first tiger was still inside, Tatum and I were next to the glass, but she's pretty quick at backpedaling, and did so when the tiger got up and ran past the glass. Bless her heart, that frightened her and she wanted to be NO WHERE near that glass! Yet, she was still fascinated and wanted to get close again once the tiger was a little further away.




We also took the train ride to see the sharks...I am just in utter amazement of those creatures! None of the pictures turned out, so you don't get any of those...sorry!




And luckily for us, the weather was WONDERFUL for the splash pad. I had packed the swimsuits and towels already in preparation for the day, so we were adequately prepared.
Kellen loves the splash pad. Tatum, on the other hand, has to be convinced to play...she does NOT like to get splashed in the face without warning and well, it's a splash pad. Needless to say, she was slightly less enthusiastic in her playing than her brother, but she still enjoyed herself!




And as we were walking out, we decided to get a picture here on the bench. Kellen decided he was going to be monkey-man and started climbing on the shark, and I'm sure it wasn't the first time that had happened, so I just let him go. You can see the exhaustion on both of their faces!

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