"Turtle! Shark!"

For this post, we will be traveling back in time to the end of May. We had a week long celebration for my birthday, and probably the best day was the trip to the Newport Aquarium. (The single greatest moment of the week had to be that Gabriel made my birthday cake almost by himself; I only helped measure out ingredients and put the cake in the oven.)

Steve, Gabriel and I had been to the Aquarium before - back when I was very pregnant with Mara. I'm pretty sure that Gabriel didn't remember having ever visited. There was no line, which was nice. The entrance to the aquarium is an escalator, which Gabriel thought was awesome but Mara was unsure of. Gabriel stood in front of the giant shark mouth for a picture; Mara refused. Then we turned the corner, and it was on.

Mara was the tour guide, pointing to everything. Gabriel was entranced by each and every fish tank.

Gabriel was content to look at the turtles. Mara wanted to go swimming.

My favorite critter was the crocodile who sat in a stone in the wall of his exhibit:

We fed the birds. Gabriel supervised; Mara played with the door instead. Until she was told no, and then she started looking for a different door.

The possible highlight for Gabriel - the play area in the middle of the amphibian zone.

 I, of course, loved the penguins.

Most of all, I loved seeing all these things with the brand new eyes of my littles.

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This has nothing to do with anything, but Gabriel now says "delicious". I am proud, but a little sad that he no longer says "wicious".