Jellyfish, Turtles and Sharks! Oh my!

Last week, Jack and I met up with a bunch of our friends at the Long Beach Aquarium! Dave and I had taken Jack there a year ago, and it was so fun, so we were thrilled that we had the opportunity to go again-and thanks to Deanne, for free! Jack and I picked up Ang and Austin, and after a quick stop we hopped on the freeway and made it to the Aquarium!

The boys were very excited! They love sitting next to each other in the backseat!

Waiting for us there were Samantha and her girls, Abby and Hannah, and on their way were Nicole with Sofie and Micah, and Rachel with Penelope. I decided that Jack was old enough that I didn't need to bring the stroller, and I was so happy with my decision! He did such a good job! He'd hold my hand as we walked towards an exhibit, and then I'd let him go up to the front and look at the fishies (or whatever was in that particular exhibit).

Note the Giant Sea Bass swimming beneath Jack's notice

Then when he decided that he was done he'd turn around and look for me, I'd wave, and he'd come back and hold my hand as we walked to the next exhibit. Not one single meltdown about wanting to go one way when momma wanted to go another! He was such a good boy and listened so well, that I didn't even once regret my decision not to take the stroller!

I did get a little nervous how he would react when I said it was time to leave the little splash park that was in the outdoor portion of the Aquarium. Jack is a little water bug, and he LOVES water that he can play and splash around in. I think my salvation there was that he was playing there a little while before the other little kids came and started getting him wet, so he didn't realize that it was a splashground at first!

He was playing with the shark, and all the sudden noticed that something was splashing his feet!


Then he realized the source of the splashing


And, as usual, tried to catch the stream of water in his mouth!

Or perhaps the reason he didn't mind when I told him it was time to leave the splashground, was because of what he got to do next!

We also had a lot of fun in the Obnoxious Bird exhibit (aka, the Lorakeets). Those birds are so loud, and poopie! They're pretty, though, and the kids enjoyed it. They were expecially thrilled when Ang held a bird out for them to pet! Jack was so excited that he got to touch the bird!

Then, as we waited for our friends to wash their hands after seeing the birds, Jack and I checked out the precipitation exhibit, as he cannot resist anything that has falling/spraying/sprinkling/standing water! Have I mentioned he loves water?

After that, we headed back inside, because Jack kept asking to see a yellow fish. We tried to cut short our time in the Ocean Of The Pacific exhibit, since the whirling swirling wave-y water in that exhibit was so not helpful in combating my first trimester nausea, and headed to the tropical fish exhibit, where we saw a ton of yellow, purple, blue, orange and green fish. Jack was thrilled to see a yellow fish, finally, and I even managed to get a picture of Jack actually posing for a picture for a change!!!

And then, of course, he turned his back to the camera immediately. I get a lot of pictures of the back of his head.

Okay, last ones, just because it cracked me up in the moment...

This is Jack...


Trying to figure out how in the heck mommy sees a turtle in this picture...

He kept saying "Where is the turtle? I don't see it? There is not a turtle! I think it's not a turtle. What do you see, momma?" I don't know if it was the massive size of the turtle that made it hard for him to 'see' it, or if it was because the turtle was hiding in a hole, but I was cracking up at his confusion. Aren't you? No? Just me then. Okay...