Surprise!

A few weekends ago, we woke Mr. Man up bright and early and jumped in the car. We were headed for a wonderful place...a truly awesome surprise...an "I can't even believe we're actually here" location...The Monterey Bay Aquarium!!!! 

Ever since our last trip in December, Bubs has been talking non-stop about the fish, and the sharks, and the kelp forest, and the octopus, and the scuba divers, and the tide pools, and the sea horse, and the starfish, and the sting ray, and the jelly fish, and the, and the, and the...

We knew that another trip was definitely in order.  Once again, we arrived early enough to see the scuba divers cleaning the tanks.  Bubs jumped up and down and got such a kick out of waving to them {notice that shark and Squirt got to come along on the trip}.

 

Mr. Man just kept pointing and waving at the divers and they were so kind to wave back.

Once again, the seahorse exhibit was a definite hit...especially the larger than life seahorse.  Bubs spent quite a bit of time playing with the seahorse statue. 

He was fascinated with the baby seahorse that was coming out of the father's pouch {yes, the male incubates the eggs} and kept trying to take it out.

 

The new Jellies Experience was spectacular and Noah loved to stare at the hypnotic jellies.

There were plenty of buttons to push and things to explore.

The touch pool was another hit.  Bubs loved to touch the kelp and starfish.

I got the chance to hold two hermit crabs in my hand.  Noah got a kick out of touching them...until...they came out of their shell and started to crawl on my hand.  He was NOT OK with things crawling around on his Mama.  He immediately started to cry and tried to save me from the terrible creatures.  I had to quickly place the poor, unsuspecting crabs back in the water before Bubs could swat them off my hand.  I'm so glad my Little Man is so protective of his Mama!

 

It was very hard to say good-bye to the ocean, but I know we'll be back soon enough.