Our first trip to the Aquarium

We had our first trip over to the local Aquarium today. I had high hopes, given Baby's penchant for animals - but apparently sea animals are different. Perhaps if the Aquarium hadn't been so darn busy with some school field trips. It was awfully loud, and it was hard to get to many of the tanks because they were swarmed with kiddos.

On the bright side, we wound up outside at the Explore-a-Shore outdoor area - complete with splash park, huge shaded sand box, and outdoor restaurant. We wound up at the sand box, where Baby had an awesome time. He even started to grasp the concept of putting a shovel into the sand, pulling it out and having sand on the shovel. Smart boy. He even managed to connect the sand in the shovel to a bucket a few times. He loved watching the other kids, who were mostly bigger than he was, especially when they were running around. The best part about the sand box was that it was fully shaded, so it was totally comfortable, even though it was bordering on 90 outside. They had fans with misters throughout the outdoor play area, which was nice for us moms...except for those of us who didn't notice the fans with misters and parked our strollers directly under them (yes, me!). Whoops. Oh well, Baby didn't seem to mind.

Maybe if it had been quieter and less busy, Baby would have had more of an opportunity to check out the animals, but all the same, he loved watching the bigger kids. He's such an observer. He's a total people-watcher, everywhere we go. I think he still had a great time - no, I'm sure he did. I'm such a dork, I still marvel at the things that he enjoys and the new experiences he has. It just makes me see things in new ways, too, which I think is kind of cool.