Oklahoma Aquarium

My only free weekend in April, we decided to go to the Oklahoma Aquarium.  It is about an hour and a half from where we live.  We asked Elexis' best friend if she wanted to go with us.  At the very last minute, we decided to ask Elexis' cousin (who is 17 days older than her) if he wanted to go to.  So we had a backseat full of kids and us.  We had the best time in the car.  As you know from my previous posts, we have a lot of insane conversations and lots of laughter in the car.  I think it is the equivalent of a family meal for us.  It is our bonding and together time.  

We decided on the way there we were going to split into teams and play the alphabet game.  When I was a kid and we played this game, we had strict rules.  You could only use billboards and no body could use the same billboard.  That made the game last a reallllly loooong time.  We would go for hours stuck on Q or J.  Now that I am an adult, I have relaxed those rules.  We can name a letter off of any sign and even cars.  The driver really has all of the control.  If he needs a letter he can speed up or slow down to look at cars' license plates.  Anyway (got a little sidetracked there..haha), first we played girls vs. boys.  The girls kicked butt!!  We crushed the competition.  I think they were stuck on K when we finished the game.  The second game we mixed it up and I had two of the kids on my team and it was my husband and daughter on one team.  They were ahead of my team by like 10 letters.  We caught up when they were stuck on V and we won the game by one letter.  It was so much fun!  There was a lot of friendly yelling and a lot of laughter.  

When we got to the aquarium, it wasn't too crowded for a Saturday.  I expected worse.  The kids all had a great time.  We fed turtles, we pet stingrays and baby sharks.  We touched starfish and shrimp.  We saw a lot of native wildlife and some really awesome jellyfish.  At the aquarium there is a really awesome shark tunnel.  You walk through this 50 foot tunnel made of glass and sharks are swimming above you.  You get to this large open glass dome where sharks are swimming all around and above you.  It is soo cool to watch.  After a while, it started to make me dizzy, so I went out and sat with my daughter.  She doesn't like things like that so she waited at the shark viewing tank and didn't go through the tunnel.  

Touching the stingrays was really neat.  They were very slimy and not at all what I was expecting them to feel like.  They were smooth and kind of rubbery feeling.  I have pet a dolphin before, so I expected it to feel like that, but it didn't.  The baby sharks were sooo lazy.  They just stayed in the corner of the tank.  I pet one and it was kind of rough feeling.  Like really scaly skin.  Feeding the turtles was fun for the kids.  For $2 we got a stick with a string on the end and a clothespin on the end of the string.  The kids got little sweet potato shavings and would clip them in the clothespin.  Those turtles were so funny fighting for the bits of food (even thought they eat all day).  

Overall we had a really great day at the aquarium.  We had overpriced snacks at the cafe and bought overpriced souvenirs from the gift shop.  Our drive home was a little more subdued.  The kids watched youtube on the iPad (watch How animals eat their food  It is hilarious...I also have the sense of humor as a 13 year old apparently).  We just listened to music and talked.  

After we got home, the kids played outside until about 10 when Elexis' cousin had to go home.  Sunday we relaxed and did nothing.  It was wonderful!  Here are some fun pictures of the aquarium:

On the way there...love my husband's face!

good thing about sunglasses is he can still watch the road while appearing to look at the camera.

I love the effects of the water

eat turtle eat

Beaver

Petting the stingray

Me...petting the stingray - the sharks were hanging out behind those logs

I love jellyfish

feeding the alligator - ha!

another cool jellyfish

girls feeding the turtles

more jellyfish