Something's A Little Fishy

Last Friday was Vince's birthday and he took the day off of work.  Mom and Dad, a.k.a. GrNanny and Granddaddy, took us to the Aquarium.  Jax, Hoss and I had never been.  It was a gorgeous day and GrNanny snapped this family picture while Granddaddy was buying the tickets.

We headed into the River exhibit first.  Now let me just say that I had a completely different expectation of our Aquarium in my head. If you're from Chattanooga or have been to our zoo, that's what I was expecting, but on an aquatic foundation.  Not to knock our zoo, it's just not in the same ballpark as the aquarium.  Right off the bat we stumbled into Ranger Rick's live show.  There was a really cool gecko that we got to touch.

And a legless lizard that we could have touched but chose not to.  I don't care what you call it, it looks like a snake to me. (Don't look JeanJean)

Jax jumped right in the middle of things, literally by climbing inside this fish tank.

We watched a demonstration about hedgehogs...

Watched otters playing - they were pretty cute

and we saw lots of catfish, poison dart frogs, giant turtles and small ones too.  Mom and Vince even touched some fish in one of the exhibits.  Jax was not so sure about that.

After the river exhibit, we headed to the ocean exhibit.  I think I could have stayed in there all day long!  There were beautiful stingrays, macaws and macaws on the top floor in the tropical exhibit.

Next came the penguins.  Oh my goodness.  I really could have watched them all day.  Their exhibit was being cleaned and they would line up to be sprayed with the hose, then jump in the water, swim back to the other side of their enclosure, hop out and get in line again.  They were a hoot and have so much personality!  I swear they were posing for pictures too.

Then came the rest of the ocean, you know, the giant sea turtles, sharks, giant crabs, and myriads of fish. It makes me wish I snorkeled, but my one attempt at snorkeling left me traumatized and half drowned while my mother and brother just about had heart attacks from laughing at me.  Another story for another day...I love the pictures of Jax next to the walls of fish.  It really puts their size into perspective.

There is also an amazing jellyfish exhibit, but my pictures don't do them justice.  The last exhibit is the under sea caverns.  This was Hoss' favorite part.  There was a lot he couldn't see because it was higher than the stroller, and he did enjoy the walls of fish, but I think you can tell by the look of awe on his face, that being surrounded by the fish was his favorite part.

After the aquarium, we grabbed some lunch then headed home for a nap.  That night we met up again with GrNanny, Granddaddy,Aunt Audi, Uncle Bubba, Honest Mike and Connie for a birthday dinner at Amigos.  Vince and Jax call each other Amigo, so when I asked Jax what we should out on Daddy's cake, he said, "the three amigos".  So, that prompted a theme for the night.  Mexican food and an Amigo cake by Christie Turner.  Yum!  Nobody made fun of me for cutting small slices of cake this time.  In fact, no one came back for seconds because I got it right the first time.  When your piece of cake is bigger than your plate, it's a Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday, Vinnie!