Family Day at the Shedd Aquarium

If you know my son, you know that he loves, loves, loves animals! Daily he requests a trip to the zoo and every time we get into the car he hopefully asks, "Zoo? Go see lions?" One of Jack's favorite exhibits at the zoo is the Koi pond right after the camels. So I'm thinking, Koi pond? We can do better than that—why not take a family trip to the Shedd Aquarium? Sold. So, on a beautiful, sunny Tuesday morning we ventured into Chicago for a day of adventure.

We had a wonderful, wonderful time. :) Jack was in awe of the fish; BIG fish, sharks, turtles, sea horses, eel, lobster, crabs, anaconda, sting rays, and dolphins. And the frogs. Yes, there are giant frogs haning from the ceiling as well as actual frogs in the exhibits. Jack was excited and kept yelling, "Frog!" Except that right now, the word frog sounds a LOT like another f word. We kept laughing and saying, "Yes, Jack, a F R O G," just to ease the minds of the people around us. It was very, very funny.

Jack spent quite a bit of the day perched on Daddy's shoulders.

Getting sleepy...

Oh so tired.

"Big fish!"

Snack time...

Feeling rejuvenated enough to perform, "Three, two, one, BLAST OFF," in the cafeteria.

One of Jack's favorite exhibits was the penguins. As they waddled up to the water's edge Jack kept yelling, "One, two three, GO," desperately coaxing those funny little birds into the water. Then he would laugh hysterically when they finally took the plunge.

Trying to get a two-year-old to pose...

We spent four straight hours at the aquarium and Jack barely said a word all the way home he was so tired. Later that night, Jack went to bed saying, "Dolphin!" and woke up the next morning saying, "Dolphin!" He still talks about all of the fish and animals he saw and now has quite a few more vocabulary words.