The Living Planet Aquarium

Griffin, Andrew, Crew, Ava, Blythe, Brandt

Tuesday is normally our "go to the library" day.  We participate in story time, we check out books, and then we go have lunch, usually at McDonald's because they have indoor play equipment.  We are all eagerly waiting for it to not just get warm, but stay warm, so we can follow up story time with a picnic in the park instead of McDonald's.

This month, however, there is no story time, leaving Tuesday mornings wide open.  What to do?  Today we went to the Living Planet Aquarium which is a delightful little aquarium.  It is not so big the children get bored, but not so small that they only have two fish and a turtle.  Oh no!  There are plenty of tanks filled with all sorts of creatures: fish, turtles, jelly fish, frogs, caimans, more fish, a manta ray touch pool, star fish, and even an octopus.

Blythe was enchanted with the whole thing.  She raced from tank to tank saying, among other things, "More fish!" but excited, not bored.  She was far better at actually looking at what was in the tank than Brandt was. He was in a hurry, rushing off to the next tank before really seeing what was in the tank we were looking at.  We had a great time as we always do with cousins.

Brandt, riding a giant frog.

Or is it a toad?

And speaking of toads, here are six, looking at tank holding six toads.

Aunt Tysen accommodating Blythe so she can get a better view of a bullfrog.

Blythe looking at "more fish!"

And the sweet girls, Ava and Blythe, peering out from behind the coral.

The aquarium has a new penguin exhibit that just opened last month.

I am a sucker for penguins. 

I think they are just cute birds.  

There are probably a dozen or so and we stood and watched them swim for a long time.

Brandt took pictures.

A great shot of penguin belly and feet.  

Brandt kept complaining that the penguins wouldn't hold still.

He was hampered in really capturing the shot he was looking for.  

 

It turns out Brandt is just shorter than an emperor penguin

and Blythe is just taller than a rock hopper penguin.