aquarium

I took the boys to the aquarium, which is run down here by the Smithsonian. It's such a neat little place, and the morning of our visit it was packed with a group of homeschoolers out on a field trip. There was everything from babies to teens, and they were all really nice to us (including the mommies). I was impressed.

Anyways, my little ones were sooooo excited. They wove through the other families, pointing and calling for me to come see what they had found. It was great!

This is part of the touch tank. You can put your finger in the little holes and the peppermint shrimp will tickle you while they clean your fingers. Levi thought that was really cool.

Micah was really excited because the lady watching over the touch tank (who was super friendly and great with kids) picked up the starfish and let him touch it. It curled over one of its legs and ran its little feelers all over his fingers, which made him laugh (and Mama too)!

I have to explain these (if anything, just so I'll remember): the tank to the left of Levi's hand has two seahorses (they're so big they look like toys in the pic), and the tank to his rock looks like it holds a rock, but it's actually a young giant hermit crab. They get up to a foot long. Which is nothing to leatherback sea turtles: up to 1600 lbs, and 6 feet long. That's a turtle as long as my father is tall. A. turtle.

Here's the flower my Levi picked for me...

And here's the view from the museum. Do you think the Smithsonian employees in D.C. get jealous?