Newport Aquarium

On Friday, Scott, Maddie and I took our first trip to Newport Aquarium. We had LOTS of fun and can't wait to take Liam when he is a little bit older. Here is Maddie checking out some fish swimming over top her head.

Maddie has been intrigued by turtles ever since my mom caught one last summer at my grandma's house and put it in a bucket to take home to their lake. Whenever, she sees a turtle she equates that to her grandma having one in her minivan.
We all enjoyed watching the octopus go from room to room in his tank. We couldn't believe how such a large octopus could squeeze through such a little tube to get to the other side of his tank.

These were just two fish that Maddie liked.

Of course, she LOVED seeing the "Nemo" fish! Now, we just have to watch the movie sometime.

Maddie and I got to play in the jungle gym. She wouldn't go in by herself because there were lots of "Big" kids in there and it was pretty dark inside of the tubes.

Maddie is trying to keep one eye on the sea otters while daddy took her picture!

Maddie was so excited to see scuba divers. She especially liked the scuba diver that was teasing the fish by putting rocks on the fish's back.

How big of a shark is Maddie...

And she is a "Puffader Shyshark"!

Of course, she had to try to pet the sharks! She wasn't exactly successful, because her arms aren't long enough yet to get deep enough!

Maddie is going through a phase where she is afraid of things that look real, because they may not be fake. So after watching a few children posing by these penguins and mommy assuring her that these penguins are fake, this is about as close as she would get to them. She did pretty good for her, usually she will just scream, so maybe she is getting over her fears a bit.

Maddie enjoyed playing the penguin games.

After our aquarium visit, we went to Cold Stone Creamy to get an ice cream to split. As you can tell Maddie LIKE IT. Even though she has never had it before as Scott is paying for it, she told the cashier that this is her favorite!

It was a great day! I forgot what it was like to only take one child out for an outing. Scott and I agreed it was nice for Maddie to have the attention of both of us for a change.