Aquarium with Luke.....

Last December we took our "not-so little" Lukie to celebrate his birthday. I posted it back in December if you want to check out our disaster date. Basically he fell asleep before we could actually get him to the place that we had planned for the night. Well it definitely did NOT turn out the way we had planned. With all of the problems that we ran into we really felt that Luke had been "Short-changed" as far as the time spent with him. We decided to do an additional daytime outing to try to make it up to him. It is pretty pathetic that it took us 4 months or so to finally make the time, but TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

We had heard about the Sealife Aquarium and thought it would be a great activity for the three of us.

He was so happy and excited when we picked him up. ALL SMILES!

This aquarium is not far from our house and I didn't even know that it existed! I was amazed when we went inside that it was a BIG as it was. From the outside it didn't look that SPECTACULAR! But it was pretty cool inside.

As you walked through they had a LOT of different displays with FROGS, SNAKES, and FISH. Some of them were so "cool looking" that they almost didn't look real. Especially the frogs and toads. Some of them looked exactly like the plastic toy frogs that I used with my school friends. PRETTY AWESOME!

They had rock walls and a little rock ledge that Luke loved to walk along. I loved watching Luke and his Papa Howie checking out the displays. They are so cute together. Here they are looking at some cool fish. Where is my fishing pole when I need it?

Luke playing on the frog....

Ribbit....Ribbit!

We had heard that this place had a stingray area where you could be up close and you were able to actually touch them.

WELL....Luke was so excited to see them but the moment we got close, he was EXTREMELY hesitant as far as putting his hand ANYWHERE close to the water. In fact when he first got there, he had both hands clasped tightly in front of him and he would only briefly poke his head over the edge to take a quick look. He was convinced that the stingray would bite off his fingers. I think he got the SHARK and the STINGRAY confused.

We could see it swimming closer and closer towards us and once Luke realized he was coming our way he kept asking me if we could leave!!! You can't tell from this picture but his hands were tucked WELL BELOW the wall for safety! He refused to even hold my hand or try to just touch the water!

Once he saw Papa Howie softly touching the stingray (without his fingers getting munched on) Luke loosened up a little. He still refused to even touch the water but I think he enjoyed watching the two of us interact with the stingray. They are soooo cool. I love how they feel.

Later on in the day we found this teeny tiny stingray which was on display BEHIND a glass window. Luke loved to watch this one swim around. The moment I asked him if he wanted to touch THIS stingray Luke quickly said, "NOPE, I am outta here!"

I absolutely LOVED the ocean aquariums they had there. They were sooo bright and colorful. It reminded me of snorkeling in Hawaii and Tahiti. SO BEAUTIFUL. Some of MY favorites were the octopus, the anemone, and the jelly fish. The jelly fish section was so calming and mesmerizing. I think if I was on my own visiting this place, I could have sat down and watched them swim and float around for hours. THEY ARE SO COOL. The only thing that is NOT cool about jelly fish is their sting!!! Man does that ever hurt!

This aquarium also had sea turtles. It was neat to see them up close and watch them swim around. Luke LOVED it.

It was also amazing to see a shark up close. WOW! They look pretty scary. NOW I HAVE MY FINGERS HIDDEN. Those sharks could cause some serious damage :)

One of Luke's favorite displays were the PENGUINS!

It was really fun to watch Luke enjoying the afternoon. He was so interested in all of the penguins as they swam back and forth in front of him.

We loved it too!

LOOK I AM AS BIG AS THE PENGUIN!

Of course we needed to get some FOOD! We had decided to get just a little snack to hold us over. Luke loved his CHEESE and CRACKERS. He had more fun smearing on the cheese than he did actually eating it. I wanted to take a picture of him because while he was "coating" his cracker with cheese he was being so DAINTY about it. He actually had his little pinky finger standing straight up so delicately. Just as the picture snapped his pinky bent down. BUMMER! It was really cute.

He even thought his chicken nuggets needed some of this yummy cheese.

We usually like to give the kids some type of souvenir from our date together so that they can remember the time spent with us. Luke really wanted to get one of those "SMASHED PENNY" souvenirs with the aquarium animals embedded in them.

He also got a RACING tree frog that he had fun playing with.

And a really cool "Lightning Shark" that lights up and changes colors when you squeeze it.

We really had an enjoyable time with our grandson. Steve and I really LOVE the time spent with our grand kids. They have become such a major part of our lives together. We look forward to each of their birthdays so that we can get to know them even better and spend fun, quality ALONE time with them. Luke is a pure joy to be around and such an adorable boy.

Happy belated birthday celebration.

WE LOVE YOU A TON!!!