Aquarium Adventures

Ready for a fun-filled day!

Pardon the blurriness, but this is Hays trying to touch the penguins

I'm not sure if Hays is trying to touch a star fish or dive in!

Driving the shrimp boat!

Hays, Matt and Aunt Bea

This is sooooooo cool!!!!

Will's trying to figure out a way to get in there....

Will was petting a sting ray

Hays thought the fish were totally cool

So, we've already established that Matt and I are total slacker parents when it comes to taking our kids places, especially if it takes more than 15 minutes to get there. And if we have to go all the way to Atlanta to do it, we generally don't. The Georgia Aquarium is no exception. It's been open for several years, and we've always said kind of vaguely, "Oh, we should take the kids to the aquarium." But, of course, we never did. Until this weekend!!!

Rather than buy the kids another piece of plastic junk for their birthday, my parents decided to give them a trip to the aquarium instead. They bought tickets for all of us, themselves, and my sisters, and Matt and I put on our big girl panties, and took the kids to the big city. I knew it would be kind of crowded, but I figured we had six adults for three kids, so it would be a piece of cake, right? Well, sure, for most families. But most families don't have Will.

Will loves to go places. He loves to explore, and if we had just turned him loose and left him to his own devices, he would have been happy as a pig in mud. Obviously, that wasn't an option, so we encountered more than a few battles of wills (or battles with Will.) Yeah, he liked the exhibits- for about five seconds- then he wanted to climb on the rocks, pull on the plants, run as fast as he could in the opposite direction that everyone else was going, anything and everything except what we wanted him to do. That led to lots of us scooping him up, much to his displeasure, which he made clear by kicking and screaming. Or us trying to take his hand, to which he would respond by going completely limp so we were forced to drag him along. It was lovely.

Mason and Hays, on the other hand, LOVED the aquarium. Mason declared it, "the coolest place he's ever been," and that's coming from a kid who's been to Disney World. Hays loved the animals, especially the penguins. He tried desperately to touch them through the glass, and when another child dared to put his hand by the penguin that Hays had claimed as his own, Hays rebuked him with a stern, "No!!" He wasn't quite so fond of the shark tunnel. Whenever one would swim by, he would back away saying "No, no, no!" I guess he was afraid he'd become a shark snack!

All in all, it was a cool trip, even with Will's shenanigans. We got to see some amazing things. I wanted to take an otter home with me, but Matt said no. I was really glad we got to take them, and REALLY, REALLY glad we had my parents and sisters to help us with the kid wrangling!