Day 2: Boston Aquarium

I thought I was a little behind on this blog since this trip was last week and I haven't finished writing about it. But then I remember that my friend Chris hasn't even arrived at his destination on his blog so that made me feel a little better. Although his story telling ability is much better than mine. Anyhow, so day 2. Woke up at 6:30am and of course Nathan woke up Madeline as well. A nice rainy day, we ate breakfast, packed up Allison's van and drove out to the Aquarium. Madeline was exceptionally tired since she had no nap the day before, went to bed late and woke up early...the whole "I want to go home" whine started which continued on and off throughout the aquarium trip. Also ended up holding her most of the time so didn't get tons of pictures, but we did get some.

Maddie and Nathan looking at the penguins


The cute penguins. They were fun to watch. Madeline wanted to get in and swim with the penguins but I told her that they frown on that there. But she was able to waddle like a penguin. I have to say that Jared does one of the best penguin waddles I have seen though.


Here is the amazingly large tank. It was really fun to sit and watch, I particularly loved the gigantic turtles...of course I didn't get pictures of them but they are pretty cool.


One of many extremely blurry pictures of the kids looking at the tank. Nathan was funny because he fell back quite from jumping back when giant fish swam at him. He insisted that he just fell back...but it was clear that he was a little intimidated by their proximity.


Yay, I learned how to pronounce "anemone" correctly. At first I was pronouncing it as it was spelled (silly me) which was a little embarrassing. And then I was pronouncing it "an enemy" which was closer but still not right. And then with a little assistance and tutoring from Jared I figured it out. They are pretty cool little things, but not as delicate and friendly as they appear.


Maddie liked to hold the little periwinkle snails. She thought they were quite cute.


Maddie and both of the Nathans


Maddie and Nathan on the turtles

After being at the aquarium for a while we went to the gift shop. If you ever wonder who bould buy a bag of rocks from a gift shop, look no further. Our kids bought a couple bags of pretty rocks, and they loved them. Maddie even played out themes with them and named some of them. Then off to lunch at Applebees. After lunch we said our goodbyes to Allison and her Nathan and we were off to the hotel. Madeline was exhausted by now and we were sure she would sleep so we put her in the bed and I hid in the bathroom and read while Jared and Nathan hung out in the gigantic lobby area. We gave up after about an hour when she still wasn't sleeping. So...went swimming in the pool and in the hot tub. Had lots of fun! Then decided to go to the mall across the street for dinner. Lots of carrying Maddie and lots of whining but we were determined to have fun no matter how much work it took. Then we got the kids cookies and we got cheesecake from the cheesecake factory and coffee and went back to the hotel. They had their snacks and watched a little TV and went to bed. And then we had our cheesecake and coffee in the bathroom. It was like a little date (of course we haven't had a real date in 5 months). We carried the little couch in there (which fit perfectly) and brought in all the throw pillows and we were set. Except netflix kept stopping and starting so our plans didn't work out great. Next time we will opt for the suite. Of course I would like to think our "next time" will be a vacation just for Jared and I but we will see. I still am dreaming about an all inclusive resort someday.