underwater adventures (finally!)

this is for that annoying sod at work (trainspotter-usa, is that what i was supposed to say?!)

yes, finally, i am doing our underwater adventure post!!

on wednesday (1/28/09), we treated ourselves by sleeping in. once we were up & dressed, we headed for MOA (that's mall of america for those of you who don't know!)

one quick stop for some seriously greasy breakfast, & we were on our way. we waited long enough for morning rush hour traffic to subside, so the trip was actually pretty fast.

although the kids were distracted by nickelodeon universe, we herded them toward the aquarium....underwater adventure.

we checked out the koi

and the gators ( i LOVE her face!)

we learned how to tell the difference between male & female turtles (the color of their spots!)

we waved at scuba steve

checked out the sting rays

and the shark teeth!

and the looooooooooooong tank

beast & i gave our 2 thumbs up to the old scuba gear (that's his version of the thumbs up anyway)

i was tempted, but didn't steal the gold

rae loved the piranha b/c they were "sparkly"

we found nemo

and the kids got eaten by the shark

we played in the shipwrecks

the kids each took a turn on the big turtle

they wouldn't touch anything in the little tank, so i did it for them!!

when they'd had their fill of all things under the sea, we walked around the mall for awhile.

after all the walking we were starving, so we headed to kokomo's. we hadn't eaten there before. it was really pretty darn good though!! then rae tried her hand at the picture taking (giving daddy a break since he'd done most the photography all day) she snapped the photo of the marlin!

and i took a turn with the cool scenery in the restaurant!!

after finishing up dinner & dessert we walked around a bit more....all part of our attempt to royally tire the kiddos out! our little planned worked! we hopped in the car & within 5 minutes both of them were out cold. when we got home it was just after 8. we put both rae & beast in bed assuming they'd wake up...but they were SO tired they slept until the next morning!!!

i'm getting used to these family wednesdays! :)