Aquarium

On Saturday we borrowed our nephew Josh to go check out the new exhibits at the Living Planet Aquarium. They have improved A LOT since the last time we were there. Sadly between Josh being totally against posing and the aquarium's request not to use flash, most of my pics didn't turn out. We had so much fun though! All of the animals seemed very healthy and happy plus you could actually see them! In the touch pool they had rays. Josh had a good time watching me pet them as they glided by but had no interest in feeling them himself. They also had a great exhibit that looked like sea rocks that kids could crawl around on and under to get a better view at all the little aquariums that were embedded in it.

Josh's favorite exhibits seemed to be:

the seahorses (they had 4 or 5 tanks with different types)

the penguins (so fun and lively! I think they knew we were there and just showing off)

the shark tank (well the little ones anyways, with the big ones it was more of a love-hate relationship for him)

and this really fun tank full of toads.

One of the employees had a crested gecko out that we got to touch. It was so cute and nice, we still couldn't convince Josh to pet it but we had had a similar experience with him and our geckos so that was't very surprising.

Richard especially loved this turtle:

She was severely bitten by a large shark and then hit by a boat! Shortly thereafter she was rescued by The Turtle Hospital in Florida. After a year of care she was still unable to fully submerge and therefore would not survive in the wild on her own, so now she travels the country in aquariums. In order to assist with buoyancy, she got air under her shell when the boat hit her, custom made lead weights have been applied to her shell with marine epoxy and Velcro.

There was a pretty good sized octopus and an awesome coral reef tank. In the Amazon area there was an anaconda that I'm sure weighed more than me! There was also an exhibit with a lot of fun tropical frogs with a button you could press to hear what types of sounds they make.

On the way home we had lunch in the park and played on the Jungle Jim for a bit. We stopped by our house for an ice cream cone. Josh kept doing the head nod thing and almost face planted into his ice cream twice. We loaded him up in the car seat to take him home and before we even got to the freeway Josh was dead asleep!