Monterey Bay Aquarium

This past weekend,  we headed over to Noah's Happy Place.  We were blessed with beautiful weather, a fantastic place to stay, and some special family time.

We took all the photos on our phones because Kc left his camera at home and I had some fun playing with a new app.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium was hosting their annual event, Cooking for Solutions.  It was a fun, if not busy, event. 

Kc was taking close up pictures of jellyfish...I took the opportunity to take a picture of him.

Do you see the sea turtle at the top of this picture?  Noah just loved to watch him.

Kc took some pretty great pictures on his phone.

Here's my Little Pearl!

And, of course, our traditional picture in front of the tidal pool.

Gotta love the love.

We headed over to our favorite restaurant for lunch.  Isn't the view from The Fish Hopper simply amazing?!?

On Sunday afternoon, shortly before we climbed into the car and made the long drive home, we headed over the Dennis the Menace Park for a bit of fun.  It is an amazing park, right on the water, filled with so many things for a child to play on.  Noah had so much fun!

My Little Man, who is quite terrified of slides because they are "too fast", braved the rolling slide at the park.  Notice, however, that he has slowed himself down so much that the father behind him had to stop his son from running into Noah.

 So many fun places to climb and run and slide.

What a fantastic way to end a fantastic weekend!

Sea World

Over Spring Break this year, we headed down to San Diego for a bit of family fun and to attend a wedding of a dear friend.  The very first thing that came to our mind when we decided to go to San Diego was Sea World.  We knew our little fishy boy would LOVE it...and he sure did!

After arriving at Sea World nice and early, we started walking straight over to the turtle reef exhibit.  On our way, however, we had to walk through the carnival games.  I spotted a a cute game where you throw a ball into a colored tube and you can win a plush Angry Birds Star Wars character.  I know these games are rigged but my Little Man is OBSESSED with Angry Birds Star Wars and I thought it would be fun.  Wouldn't you know it, I actually threw the ball in the tube and won the most enormous Han Solo ever.  We convinced the game attendant to give Noah two smaller birds in exchange for the large one.  Han Solo and Chewbacca are great additions to the family.

The Turtle Reef exhibit was so fun.  Noah loved looking at all the turtles swimming so gracefully.

Our first show was, of course, the Shamu Show.  It was truly amazing.  Noah didn't quite know what to think about it and spent the entire show on my lap.  He was pretty quite and even buried his head in my chest a few times when the orcas would splash the crowd.

 

Once the show was over, however, Bubs talked all about the orcas.  He loved to see them jumping and splashing.

 

The second show we went to was definitely our favorite.  It is called Blue Horizons and it has dolphins, birds, pilot whales, and a large cast of performers. 

It was so impressive to see all the dolphins (there were 16 total) doing tricks in unison.

There were amazing aerialists, divers and bungee performers very reminiscent of a Cirque du Soleil show.  There were even trainers who rode the dolphins.

 How can you not love these animals?!?

In addition to the dolphins, there were two enormous pilot whales who performed.  They had a baby whale who would swim around with them and try to do the tricks.  So cute!

We finished up our day with a visit to the Sesame Street Bay of Play.  This was Noah's first time on any sort of ride so we were not sure how he would like it.  Our first stop was Abby's Sea Star Spin and Mr. Man LOVED it!!!  He kept telling Daddy to spin faster and faster.  Next, Noah and I went on Elmo's Flying Fish. 

We went up and down and 'round and 'round and had a blast!

We had a great time at Sea World and are trying to figure out how we can go back in the near future.

Cousin Photo Shoot

While in Monterey, I thought it would be fun to try and get a few pictures of the two cousins.  While sitting on a cute little bench, I made the mistake of telling Noah to put his arm around Jonah.  I was thinking of this picture and thought it would be cute.

Well...Jonah was not in the mood.

He quickly removed Noah's arm.

Now we have a happy Jonah and a sad Noah.

Oh, well...I guess we'll just have to take a picture of Noah alone.  

Cheese!

Monterey Bay Aquarium...with Cuz Jonah

Shortly after Christmas, Cuz Jonah and Cuz Noah headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.   They were joined by a gaggle of parents and grandparents...Uncle Drew, Auntie Nessa, Mimi and

Pop-Pop {Jonah's grandparents}, Nana, Papa, Kc, and myself.  

Gotta love the kelp forest!

The two boys were so fun to watch.  They loved running after each other trying to be the first to find the next tank.

 

Noah just had to show Cuz Jonah how to be his very own sea creature.

 

Noah and Jonah got such a kick out of climbing on the large seahorse.

Noah tried to get an "up close" view of some seahorse eggs.

One of the highlights of the trip was the Jellies Experience.

 I just love watching the slow, undulating movements of the curious creatures.

 

I even got to be kaleidoscope jellyfish.  Noah got quite a kick out of it.

Noah got a pelican who flew all around the aquarium.

And, of course, we had to take the token picture at the tidal pool.

It was so fun share one of our favorite places in the world with some of our favorite people in the world.  A great big THANK YOU to Grams for making it all possible.

Mama & Noah at the Aquarium

Just because a few of you have been asking for all of these pictures...

December 2012

September 2012

 July 2012

 December 2011

 August 2011

We're Famous!

Our recent post about our latest trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium was picked up by said Aquarium and put on their blog.

How cool is that?!?

This adorable picture was posted along with a link to our tiny little blog.

How special is it that Noah's "Happiest Place on Earth" knows how happy it truly makes him.

Monterey Bay Aquarium...again

In order to get away from the unbearable Fresno heat {I mean, seriously, 101 on the first day in October?!} the Jacksons headed over to Monterey for the weekend.  Bubs was super excited to visit his most favorite place in the whole wide world...The Monterey Bay Aquarium! 

We started out by visiting the tidal pools and taking the obligatory picture.  Noah just loves the anticipation of the tidal wave.

He got such a kick out of watching the water crash down into pool.

 

Bubs continues to LOVE to touch and feel everything.  Fortunately, the aquarium has loads of things to touch.

I think we spent the most time at the Flippers, Flukes, and Fun exhibit that fay.  Bubs fell in love with the humpback whale and dolphin fins and flippers.  He walked around with the fins on his arms

and made whale sounds.

He was so proud of himself.

We finished Day 1 with a quick trip to the Splash Zone and Noah, once again, loved the clam.

You heard that right...Day 1.  After a lovely walk along Cannary Row, scrumptious appetizers, a mediocre dinner, and a restful sleep in charming hotel, we headed back to the aquarium for Day 2.

Bubs requested {quite forcibly} that we immediately visit the Flippers and Fins again.  He was such a ham.

He loved to watch himself in the mirror wearing the fins while "swimming" and "bellowing" like a whale.

That is his "fishy" whale face. 

I requested that we visit the Jelly Fish Experience and Bubs agreed that he needed to show his toy jelly what the real things look like.  There were some amazing jellies on exhibit including some upside-down jellyfish {notice toy jellyfish is upside-down}

and white spotted jellyfish {notice toy jellyfish is swimming slowly}.

Mr. Man even got to play on a larger than life version.  He decided that his toy jellyfish might be feeling a bit inferior compared to all the amazing {and live} species we saw so Ice Bird {from Angry Birds} came out and took it's place.

We also spent some time with the seahorses.    

Shortly before leaving the aquarium, we headed out onto the deck and looked for sea otters in the ocean.  There were at least four that we could easily see floating amongst the kelp.

 

After a fantastic lunch {which certainly made up for the mediocre dinner the night before} we headed down to the beach for a bit of "sand time".  Bubs was more than happy to take his shoes off but wanted to keep his socks on...thank.you.very.much!  We all know that Noah is NOT a fan of the beach, so I was willing to accept anything so that he'd venture out onto the sand.

Who knew that the beach was so much fun in socks, long pants, and a long sleeve shirt?!?  It turns out that if Bubs is fully covered he is able to enjoy the sand.

Noah rolled in it, dug in it, had so much fun!

 

What an amazingly fun weekend!  The perfect little get-away for our little family.