Summer vacation, day 1

Summer is here, and the living is easy. Except for the kids being home all the time and this being the one week where we had no definite camp or travel plans. Emily was home yesterday, but we were still recovering from camping and basically moved in slow motion. Today Emily went back to work and summer began.

Decided to open with the Aquarium. It was on the list (yup, I had them make summer activity lists) and I had heard there was a new tank where you could touch a shark, so I dragged them along.

We had been there a few times before (we were actually members one year), but I'd don't think it had ever been this good. An albino alligator! That actually moved and swam and walked along the bottom of the tank, with his head resting on the surface of the water and his eyes blinking at us. He had really cool teeth, all craggy and jagged. And apparently they don't live long in the wild because of their color, due to both predators and sunburn! Really! Oh, the kids enjoyed it too.

Then we touched sharks and rays. Jack did, too, making him 36 years younger when he first touched a shark than I was. Kate didn't much want to and also couldn't reach unless I held her by her legs over the tank, which I feel would have been frowned upon.

Then we went to another touch tank, with starfish and horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs. We were lucky on the timing; the guy actually got to talk to us at length. He talked about how hermit crabs change their shells when they outgrow them, how horseshoe crabs use their tails to flip over (don't pick them up that way, their tails break). Jack told the guy he once scared birds away from a helpless crab; I am not entirely certain if it is true or not. Plus Kate touched a crab!

Then we saw the seal show. I don't think I had ever actually seen the whole thing (and didn't this time either because Kate got hungry and started whining about a snack), but it was pretty cool. Then we went to the play area and realized how long it had been since we had been there, because it was only for 5 and under and Jack couldn't go in. Kate played for 2 minutes and we left.

The day wrapped up with lunch, quiet time, workbook activities, baseball in the back yard, chasing balls over the fence into the neighbors' yards, frisbee, and helping them on the monkey bars. Jack made it to the fourth monkey bar, so just one away from the end. Kate did well as long as I held her legs from start to finish. We're working on it.

Funny Kate: she likes to draw pictures but (like me to Emily when I am writing a blog) she puts her hands over her work and says "don't look! You can't see!" then when it's finished she brings it out and says "close your eyes" before proudly displaying it. It's cute.

Oh yeah Jack also wrote a journal entry on camping, probably better than my blog, and concluded it by writing in bold and capital letters, I LOVE CAMPING. So we are going again in a few weeks.