Under the Sea

For yesterday's Fun Friday (organized by our church) we went to SeaLife Aquarium in Concord, which is a 30 minute ride from our house.

This aquarium is located at a mall and because of that, it is not as big as some other aquariums but still very interesting and just the right size for little children's attention span.

The kids were delighted to see Dory and other little sea creatures in the 20 different tanks. Some of them where even hands on, such as the exhibit where we could pet living starfish.

There were lots of stingrays, jellyfish, sharks (small ones), moray, and lots of other small fish. The kids loved exploring the Stingray exhibition with the magnifying glasses.

We even took a Behind-the-scenes tour at the aquarium, where we learned about the filtration system, the feeding process and animal health. We also got the chance to go above the big fish tank and take a look at it.

But the best part was that they currently feature the Octonauts Training Academy, where the kids mastered the specialties of their favorite characters from the TV show Octonauts (my kids love this show) across 6 fun zones, met Kwazii and Captain Barnacles in person and then were rewarded for completing their training with a special Octonauts certificate.

Lately, Elliot is crazy for hugging any kind of mascot he sees and he enjoyed that he was able to hug Kwazii at least 10 times.

Amelia was very excited to see the Octonauts too.

After the aquarium we took a walk around the mall and found this little choo-choo train (my little guy is fascinated by trains, cars and trucks) but due to the outrageous price, we didn't ride in it (there were lots of tears shed). But at least we were able to take a picture with the kids and the train and maybe we will ride it next time we are visiting the mall.

And while we were out and about and had fun, Daddy repaired the boat trailer for the past two days (which was not much fun, I was told). But at least he got it fixed and we are ready to go boating next week again. Yeah!