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.

 

Texas Crafty Fun

While in Texas, we planned some crafty fun to entertain the kiddos and keep them busy.  Auntie Nessa brought some Play-Doh along with adorable mats the kiddos could create pictures on.  There were cookies, hot dogs, tacos, goldfish, octopus, guns, and flowers that were created...what a success!

 

Noah thought that all the cousins needed turtle shirts just like his.  It was so fun to help the kiddos create turtles that were as unique as themselves.

Thanks Auntie Mel for the pictures!

 

PopRo didn't want to be left out, so we also made a shirt for him with all the grandchildren's hand prints {including a belly print for Baby Jed}.

PopRo and all his little turtles!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Kc and I decided to surprise Noah on Saturday and head over to the Monterey Bay Aquarium for the day.  When we told Bubs about the special trip we were going to take in the morning, he ran all around the living room, climbed up on the sofa, and did a headstand.  Funny guy!

We woke up bright and early in the hopes that Bubs would sleep a bit in the car on the way over.  Ha!  Mr. Man was SO EXCITED that when I picked him up out of bed {ever so gently} he looked at me and said, "Hi.  We're going to the Aquarium today!". 

 

Being members of the Aquarium, we get to go inside an hour early.  Bubs just loves to say "Hi" to all the scuba divers who are cleaning out the tanks.  The divers are always so kind and patient and take the time to wave and show off a bit for my Little Man.

Noah was really into touching EVERYTHING he could get his hands on.  Almost every tank and exhibit has some sort of sculpture or decoration around it and Bubs couldn't wait to find them.  Who want's to touch a real starfish {all cold and wet} when you play with a brass one to your heart's content.

 

After visiting the sharks, octopus, starfish, and kelp forest, we headed up to the Splash Zone which is designed specifically for children.  Bubs loved the tank with Nemo {a clownfish}, Dory {a blue tang}, and Gill {an archer fish}. 

What he loved most of all, however, were the tidal pools.  There were plastic starfish and sea anemones to play with and Bubs was in pure heaven.

Notice Daddy-O in the background holding Squirt.

Noah would "collect" all the starfish and sea anemones he could find and line them up along the edge of the tidal pool.

Then he would knock them into the water one by one.  He thought it was wickedly funny!

 

He stopped just long enough for me to take a quick picture with his treasure.

 

 

Once we finished in the tidal pools, we headed around the corner to an area that the kiddos can climb around and go in and out of tunnels.  Bubs loved the larger than life clam and kept asking me where the pearl was. 

He loves reading The Pout-Pout Fish in the Big, Big Dark by Deborah Diesen.  In the story, Ms. Clam looses her pearl and Mr. Fish decides to help her find it.  It is a sweet story and Noah loves to point out every time my jewelry has pearls on it.  Mr. Man was quite perplexed as to why this clam did not have a pearl.

Our Little Man is growing up quite a bit...although...he's not quite as tall as a blue whale.

Of course we had to take the traditional picture in the tidal wave tunnel.

July 2012

 August 2011

December 2011

Bubs had such an amazing time at the Aquarium that he fell asleep about two minutes after we got into the car.  He slept the entire ride home.