Spring Break Staycation Day #1

Oh Spring Break snuck up on me this year. We decided not go anywhere this year because we are still licking our wounds from last year's vacation/sick leave time use. Between Josh's hospital stay, my hospital stay and Noah's hospital stay last year we used up quite a bit of sick leave and vacation. That means Aaron will stay at work while I will single handedly try to entertain my kids, keep them from not fight and try to have fun. A pretty tall order for sure!! Today for first day of our staycation I was either super brave or super crazy (or a little of both). I took all five kids down to The Living Aquarium down in Sandy alone...all by myself....me vs. 5 kids. Needless to say I was nervous!! We had never been the the Aquarium before so I wanted to check it out. It was really fun. I was starting to have second thoughts about going there when we arrived and I found Noah had had a blowout in the car seat. Great way to start out right?! Luckily I changed him and cleaned him up the best I could. I didn't think anyone would look close enough to see the poo stains on his shirt--GROSS! I didn't have a spare outfit in the diaper bag that would fit him. Doh!! The spare outfit in the diaper bag was size 3-6 months so I didn't think Noah would appreciate that seeing as he will be a year old tomorrow. Anyway, since we were already in the parking lot I decided to keep going. I was also worried about Sarah. She has a mind of her own and likes to wander off when she is not interested in things. I had the opposite problem today. She wanted to look at EVERYTHING for a LONG time. I had to pry her off the exhibits to move along with her brothers. Everyone was well behaved today and I got my sheep (aka kid) herding badge today. Instead of nipping at everyone's heels to keep them together I just had to call out their names all the time. By the end I am sure everyone in the whole aquarium knew all my kids' names. Oh well it kept everyone together so I don't care. I am glad that Noah is not mobile at this point, but watch out when he gets to walking that's for sure!! We had lots of fun. However, getting out the door this morning was crazy. We had to clean up the house and then make sure everyone was fed. Noah certainly enjoyed his oatmeal if you can't tell. (You gotta hate the 9 o'clock oatmeal shadows--instead of a 5 o'clock shadow). Then everyone had to brush their teeth. I think it is physically impossible for Daniel to brush his teeth without getting toothpaste on his clothes. I had to send him back two extra times to really scrub his teeth and each time he came back with even more toothpaste on his shirt. This happens every morning and evening, too.The kids loved looking at all the different kinds of fish.It was also nice because Matthew and Josh could actually read the signs by themselves and learn about the different fish, too.One of Daniel's favorite fish was the algae eaters. As Daniel put it, "The allergy eaters pick up all the rocks and eat the allergies off them." I thought it was too cute to correct him.I loved watching the jelly fish swim/float or whatever they do. I could sit and watch them move around all day. I find it relaxing.
They also had a touching area. You could pet/touch the sting rays as they swam by. Josh loved it!! He got my no fear/daredevil quality from me. Matthew and Daniel didn't even try to touch them. Sarah loved playing in the water until she actually touched a sting ray swimming by which freaked her out. After that she wouldn't touch the water.In the other petting area they had some starfish, sea urchins and a mini sting ray you could touch. Again Josh touched everything and loved it. Matthew tried touching the star fish, but nothing else. Daniel and Sarah refused to touch anything.The kids liked looking at the penguins. By looking at the penguins in their enclosure it is hard to believe the penguins are almost as tall and even taller than the kids!Josh the ham wanted me to take a picture of everyone.Sarah got her climbing fix in when she saw this "Ribbit". She calls all frogs ribbits.You can see Josh really enjoyed himself in the petting area. Look at how sopping wet his shirt and pants are:After the Aquarium we stopped by for some Pace Bars at Paces. All the boys wanted to sit on the barstools. Sarah was upset because she couldn't climb up on them. Josh was nice enough to lift her up and put her on the barstool. It was nice because once she got up there, she couldn't get back down until she got some help.Sarah enjoyed her Pace bar a little too fast and got a brain freeze which made her cry. Instead of a Pace bar I got a small shake that I shared with Noah. He LOVED it despite it's very COLD temperature.