Emma's First Aquarium Visit!

Well, we had a pretty darn successful trip to the National Aquarium today!! I think Emma had a great time despite cutting teeth left and right over the past few days and she was really good! I think she was a little overwhelmed when we first arrived, probably because it was a whopping 15 degrees outside and we had to walk a few blowls from the parking lot but once we were in and all warmed up, Emma was ready to run!! Although we only live about 15 minutes from one amazing aquarium, I had forgotten how long it had been since I had actually been there.

Our first stop after getting in and checking our stroller and coats was this awesome little maze of green tubes with water in then that would shoot up bubble every few seconds. Emma LOVED these and we ended up stopping by this area a few times for her to run through.

We arrived just about 45 minutes before the Dolphin Show so we ended up going through a few exhibits first. Mimi is probably going to hate me for posting this picture but I think it's adorable. We were heading through the Australian Wild Extreme Exhibit and Emma was LOVING getting to see all the fish and snakes and turtles just to name a few! I love the expression on her face (not to mention Mimi's face too haha). :)

I love this picture too (although the aquarium was pretty tricky photography-wise) but while Mimi was saving us some good seats in the Dolphin Show Emma and I walked down a level and came to find a HUGE viewing window where we could see the dolphin's swimming. This was probably one of Emma's favorites because they came so close to the window. As you can somewhat see from the picture, her hands are covering her mouth in excitement!

Next on to the Dolphin Show!! Mimi and I were somewhat disappointed in the show and Emma certainly got bored during the middle because they would point to these two big screens on the side of the tank and we were watch a video, that not many folks would pay attention too. I did catch a couple of pictures of the beginning and end when the dolphins were out in force though!

By the end of the show, which was right around lunch time, Emma was getting pretty restless so out came the strawberries and Cheerios which she ended up chewing on the container more often then not. She has recently had two of her I-teeth (I think that's what they are called) pop through with the other two on the way. So you can imagine that pretty much anything and everything is going right in the mouth!  

After the dolphin show we hit up the shark exhibit and by that time, Emma was ready to run so both Mimi and Mommy were on high alert! She sure had a good time and even held out through lunch! We had a great day and I truly enjoyed spending time with both my baby and my mom! Thanks again for joining us on our special day Mimi!

I was just about hit "Publish Post" when I realized that not only did we have a great day, but how important days like this are to me. Even though tomorrow morning at work will be a nightmare going through the 200 emails that I got today, and I burned a day of vacation because day-care was closed, but how often do I get to spend an entire day with my little girl, showing her something that she has never seen before and watching her just soaking in every second. At first I was planning on taking the Blackberry with me to avoid the mass quantities of emails the next day but I didn't, and I am glad that I didn't. I also couldn't decide originally if I wanted to take my camera or not because sometimes you want to be IN the moment, rather then hiding behind the lens but I am glad that I did. I think I did pretty good balancing taking pictures and having fun with my baby, which is why you don't see pictures of a lot of the exhibits and things that we saw. It's easy to lose sight at how amazing these kinds of days are if you get caught up in the crowds and cost of parking and things like that. But it truly was an amazing day that I am going to always remember!