Field Trip

Today we went to the Downtown Aquarium with my cousin Alysia and her nice big brood. I had never been there, which is hard to believe since it's like a block from Wortham Theater and I used to be there just about everyday. I'm glad my first time was with them though, because watching the excitement of a 6 year old and an almost 4 year old run around freaking out at every little thing is pretty awesome. Look how excited lil'bub was to be there........

haha! she literally fell asleep the second we walked in! Granted, it was nice and dark and she had not had a morning nap yet, but geez..I know for sure that she would have liked to bang on some glass and scare some fishies!!

Here are Katie and Mackenzie getting ready
to pet a crab (it says use one finger!!!)

Here's Alysia's husband Chip being very educational.
Do you see the swimming sea turtle?

Does this photo freak anyone else out? It's very disconcerting to walk into a room with aquariums and see a human hand randomly swimming around!

My favorite part was at the end when we got to see the BEAUtiful white tigers. I got some funny photos...it looks like the tigers are just standing around us. And for some reason, their eyes light up like on fire, I guess (hope) from the flash---not their desire to devour us.

Alysia, Mackenzie, Katie....AND TIGER!!

WATCH OUT ALYSIA!!!!

wasn't he sweet to pose with me??

We ended with a carousel ride for the kids and then a train ride for everyone through the "Shark Voyage."

Katie on a dolphin

The humidity was terrible and we were all sweating buckets, so the train ride was actually nice. We went in a tunnel with various sharks swimming around, and random scuba divers, but it was air conditioned so I didn't really notice that much. Too bad they had to keep blowing the exceptionally loud train horn and totally freaking out our kids!

Here we are with the babies, Avery and Jack. They were born about two weeks apart. Here's a photo from almost exactly one year ago....

Aren't they cutie pies? They have grown up a bit I think.

Afterward we met my mom and Alysia's mom (the twinkies) for lunch at Spaghetti Warehouse. The last time I was there was in junior high or high school for some kind of school outing. And guess what? The food is still terrible!! (just in case you were wondering) The kids liked it though, and the sourdough bread was yummy, so it was good times. Here is lil'bub with her Nana.

Thanks Transous!! We had a great time. And today was the official beginning to our family summer vacation---Bub the hub let me start it with a nap from 3:30-7pm!!! woohoo what a great hubby. AND I NEEDED IT!! We leave next week for the beach ;)