Aquarium Visit

It seemed fitting to take a trip to an aquarium considering Olivia's recent science focus of the ecosystems of rivers, lakes, swamps, estuaries, oceans, beaches. It was encouraging to hear Olivia use the vocabulary she has learned and have a better understanding of what she was seeing because of her studies. We will be doing coral reefs coming up. And of course this was great fun for all 3 of the big kids.

Rivers:

Identifying scales and fish skins with the ones in the tank. Olivia had no trouble with this. Ezra was reaching for my camera. He is very hard to get a picture of because he just wants to come get the camera from me. He is into buttons and loves taking things apart and messing with them. :)

Swamps:

This was Olivia's second favorite animal of the visit. She was standing there watching him when it snapped at her and totally freaked her out. Gabe thought that was quite funny too and enjoyed telling people that the crocodile had snapped at his sister. :)

Waves and Sand:

Oceans:

Gabe and Ezra loved this part of the aquarium because they were "in the water with the fish" in Gabe's words.

Olivia thought she wanted to touch the rays but quickly changed her mind. She did say this was her favorite animal of the day.

Gabe was the one that caught on to what was happening in these displays. I thought that was funny. He said right away, "Look that Turtle is laying it's eggs in the sand. And the babies are coming out." :)

turtle nursery

Once we got home we watched, Turtle, The Incredible Journey, which is a documentary about the sea turtle and how it survives incredible odds.

Outside observing the Bay:

Sometimes I look back at pictures and wonder what i caught them doing at that moment. Their body language and facial expressions are too funny. I am not so good at posed shots if you haven't figured that out. ;)

Jets flying over. A big hit with the kids. Very loud though too.

Trying hard to convince me that he must have the camera. He likes to say, "I need it" or "mine"(in a very matter-o-fact way).

And Finally:

It was an exciting (and tiring) visit. She didn't have a lot to say about it (well, at this moment anyway). :)