Annabel has been begging to go back to the beach so she can “meet all of the fish.” I knew that wasn’t going to happen (at least, not the way she wanted) so instead my parents and I surprised her by taking her and James to the aquarium.

Annie ran up to the first tank, all excited, and a big fish swam right up to the glass where she was standing.

not so sure about this

She was like, “MOM! IT’S GOING TO GET ME!” But as soon as she realized the fish were behind the glass, she was in love with the aquarium.

fish face
“Look Mommy! I have a fish face, too!

I can’t remember the last time I went to an aquarium, and I really enjoyed seeing all the beautiful jellyfish and other sea creatures.

jellyfish

sea horse

jellyfish

Annie kept asking over and over to see the sharks. “The sharks, Mama! I wanna see the sharks! Where are the sharrrrrrrrks?!” I looked on the map and found their habitat (or as I called it, Lake Sharknado), knowing that as soon as we got there Annabel would be scared. And she surprised me. She wasn’t scared…at first.

oh hi

sharks

grrrr

She did well with the sharks until it was feeding time. When the husbandry workers started feeding the sharks, Annabel wanted out of there. Too bad, because I thought that was the most interesting part!

As a palate cleanser, we went to a penguin meet-and-greet.

penguins Heidi and Capone

They were freaking adorable, and of course Annie wanted to touch them (it wasn’t allowed). I kind of wanted to touch them, too. We had to be satisfied with the fake penguins.

have you hugged a penguin today?

Cute but not as cuddly.

I really liked that there were other interactive things. She was able to touch these plants:

touch pond

And she loooooved this display that had a moveable magnifying glass.

looking at the sea worms

She kept yelling, “Mama, look at the sad worms!” So I looked closer, and there were worms coming up out of the sand, like the movie Tremors but scarier because this is real life. No. Thank. You.

When we were ready to leave, I braced myself because (of course) the gift shop is right next to the exit. Luckily, Annabel spotted one of these bad boys and begged me to let her make one.

pressing a penny

Hell yeah you can have a pressed penny! You can have alllllll the pressed pennies.

On the way home I asked Annie if she enjoyed meeting the fish and she said, “Yes! I loved it so much! Mama, next time can the fish go to the beach with me?”