Annual Aquarium Field Trip

Every year one of our 'At Home Preschool Teacher' friends organizes a field trip to the Houston Aquarium. You see, it's GROSELY over priced and a bit disappointing as far as aquariums go. (I mean, what aquarium includes, parrots, snakes, and a WHITE TIGER?) Don't get me wrong, there are some colorful aquatic displays including an octopus, a few alligators, sting-rays, sand sharks, a 'petting area', an electric eel and more. However, it's a real short walk through the aquarium, which leads your to a white tiger for the grand finale!? (Talk about a fish out of water!) To top it off the fair-type rides outside are quite enticing. For a whopping $4.33/ person- & a great way to spend MLK day- one cannot complain! (Which is why 263 people showed up to support the preschool field trip yesterday!)

First Stop: The Shark Train
Look at Willaim watching the sharks swimming overhead!
On to the carousel next... we did MANY rounds on this carousel!
Madisen was tall enough to ride the Big Shot (type) ride, but unsure at first. A little convincing from her peers & she was off. I actually wanted to ride with her, but had a few too many bodies to juggle. Maybe next year! She actually rode it a few more times, too.
Look at those smiles as they are getting ready to come back down!
After lunch it was time for our tummies to settle for a while (& the crowd had died down) so we headed inside to check out the fish. I LOVE the spotted sting ray below.
The petting area- can you spy Caitlyn? She's not so much of an animal lover up close!
Since the fieldtrip was technically for Caitlyn- I let her have the camera for a few minutes to capture a few of her favorite fish.
And William fell asleep in the stroller- what a dream baby!
The kids were entertained here for quite a while as they figured out how to push the red button, the camera would snap their photo & it would appear on the screen to the side. (Pictures of the real tiger from last year's trip & many of the same friends here.)
Then it was back outside to enjoy a few more rides before calling it quits for the day. These girls were being so silly- I think it's because they knew I was nervous- but I did it! I managed to ride the Ferris wheel with the girls this year! Last year I deferred my 'responsibility' to my friend Mona. And two years ago I nearly fainted while on it with her.