Thanks to our good friend Scott, we were able to get free tickets to the Shedd Aquarium! I had never been there, and neither had the kids....we were all very excited to check it out. Kris even took the day off so that we could join us. Unfortunately, due to a sick & feverish Shane, Kris ended up staying home with him and the big kids and I went to the museum on our own. The day wasn't how we had originally planned it to be, but fun nonetheless.
Since I wasn't allowed to use my flash near any of the animals, a lot of these pictures turned out a bit blurry and/or weirdly colored - I know that there's probably some sort of manual settings on my camera that could have worked better, but I wasn't sure what to do...will have to read the manual to figure that one out! Anyway, here are some of the highlights of our day (though we saw many more things than what's documented here).
One of the exhibits focused on the coral reef in the seas surrounding the Philippine Islands, which was extra cool since that is where Daddy is "from"...
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| Checking out the coral being harvested... |
Both kids loved all of the interactive computer stations each exhibit offered.
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| Meredith's favorite fishy - the "pink one". |
The Wild Reef...SHARKS!
Meredith loved walking on the glass floor above the stingrays...
...so much that she started crawling/belly crawling across it to be closer to the rays! She kept saying "they're so cute!"
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| Biggest crab I have ever seen...it had to as big as Meredith! |
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| Up close with to the Cuban Iguana. |
We went to the dolphin show, which had an extra special Christmas-y component to it...very fun!
In The Polar Play Zone, the kids got to see sea otters, penguins, and more fish. They also got to touch sea stars (no pictures of that, unfortunately, as I had to hold the kiddos over the water so they could reach in and touch them). There was also a "touch pool" that the kids could play in.
They also got to dress like penguins and "play" like penguins!
Caleb's favorite part - the yellow submarine.
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| He quickly made friends and they transformed into the "crew" of the sub... |
Posing for a quick picture before heading home...
Scott & Nancy - thanks again for the tickets!
