Our trip to Adventure Aquarium!

Hope your weekend is going well!!!

The little one had an AMAZING DAY on Friday. We woke up and watched Finding Nemo (she loves to speak whale) after the movie was over, I told her were leaving to go see Nemo, Dory, and Crush today!! She was SOOO excited!!! LOL She's only two but man this kid is quick!

The Adventure Aquarium is in Camden. It's pretty far from us, basically next to Philly. Knowing that it would be a fairly long ride, and food there would probably be expensive, I made all of us sandwiches and packed snacks into a cooler the night before, so we could lunch in a rest stop on the way, or at least in the parking lot (which has a flat fee, so you can take your time).
So we loaded up the car and headed out and down the NJ Turnpike!



Once we got to the aquarium, bought our tickets and the really nice attendant gave me a military discount and we got our little one in for free even though she missed the free under 2 cutoff by about a month! We were handed a map and we decided to start with the Hippos.....

Check out her reactions! :)



She loved it although she didn't trust getting too close :)


I have to admit, it really was the coolest thing to see those Hippos.  They were MASSIVE. I kept thinking of the dancing hippos in Disney's Fantasia with the way they twirled underwater though. What can I say......I have these really random thoughts sometimes....hahah

FISH!!!

Just enough time to capture this picture!

I have to brag a bit here, I like how I caught her reflection in the glass!

Surfing!! :) It's okay if she is facing the wrong way...at least her form is right!

On a regular Mommy day, I should really start committing to wearing headbands!

A shot of Philly Skyline, with the sunset!

I used my iPhone to capture the pictures and video.  It was WAY easier than dealing with my digital camera.

The aquarium really was a ton of fun.  There were touch tanks for these tiny sharks but they were asleep and weren't able to reach unless we want to get elbow deep! The next touch tank was for various sting rays and the like, they were sooooo into the human interaction, as soon as we put our two fingers in, they came over and flapped around so we can touch their silky skin.


 As you can imagine, I felt like a kid again, even I was having fun with the exhibits, I also made sure I savored every moment with my little girl, going over what colors the fish were, and feeling like a proud momma when she would see and say "Alligator!", "Dolphins!", "Sharks!", "Starfish!"

At the gift shop it was love at first site, so to enhance her experience we just couldn't say no ;)

 I didn't get too many pictures, as soon as I upload the rest I will definitely update this post to show you all. But all in all, the trip was a complete SUCCESS!! I had fun, she had fun and we didn't leave empty handed, she got her hippo, I got a picture to remember our day and we both have a book to share so we can learn together about marine life, which includes some crafty science experiments in the back!!

 Best of all it was a great way to bond back with my daughter after my long absence from home and after my mother went back home. We will have these amazing memories and even though she may be too young, we have photos and videos for backup!