Georgia Aquarium

After we were finished at the Atlanta United FC Championship Parade, we headed over to the Georgia Aquarium for the rest of the afternoon.

We found penguins!

Penguins are my favorite!

The boys really like the shark tunnel, too.

Penguins are my favorite, but jellyfish are probably my second favorite.

We went to a very nice live California sea lion show. 

Lex was chosen to participate in the show, but there was no filming or photography allowed.

For the record, the eels are fine.

(No eels were harmed in the filming of this video.)

VIPKid ATL

Last night I went to a VIPKid ATL event called Pandamonium at Zoo Atlanta.  It was held in the Panda Pavilion and I got to meet a bunch of other VIPKid teachers.

It was really fun.

Plus, the pandas are adorable.

The zoo was closed and the animals were all sleeping.  Probably because it was finally quiet.

I figured since I took photos of the Pandas, which are from China, I should take a photo of the Bald Eagle, the symbol for the USA.

The food was amazing.  There was a stir fry station and a mac & cheese bar.

There were tons of raffles, but I didn't win any prizes.

I did get to meet Dino!

In which we take Kris & Lauren to the Georgia Aquarium

Georgia Aquarium

We decided to try to combat a bad case of the Mondays with a little visit to see some penguins, and this is how we ended up at the Georgia Aquarium earlier today.

Spoiler Alert:  It totally worked.  Penguin Happiness Mission Accomplished.

Not only did we see penguins, but we got a chance to visit the new puffin exhibit, too.

This puffin has some wonderful eyebrow feathers going on.

We also spent some time in the shark tunnel with the huge whale sharks.

This is a Japanese Spider Crab.  It was enormous.  Its body was at least as big as Lex's head, and its arms were so long.  Meters long.  Lex walked right up to them, and informed them that his Dad would totally eat them all. 

I would like you to meet our new friend, Sammy.

Sammy is a sea lion and he came home with us from the aquarium.

Because Lex.

Sightseeing in Atlanta

Since our family was in town to visit, and it was Christmas Eve Eve, we decided to go sightseeing in Downtown Atlanta.

Our first stop was The Varsity.

Hot dogs and onion rings and chicken nuggets and chili dogs for all!

The Photo Dump continues:

We rode the giant ferris wheel:

Even though it was pretty cold outside, Kevin made a bet with Lex that he couldn't run through the Olympic Rings fountain at Centennial Olympic Park without getting wet.  Of course he did.  And of course, Lex got wet.

Our next stop was the Georgia Aquarium.

Connor and Lex and I had been to the Georgia Aquarium before, but they didn't really remember it.  Connor started to remember bits that he had seen before while we were walking around, though.

Also, while we were walking around, we ran into Lex's new best friend's family.

So he got to hang out with Noah a bit, too.

Shark Tunnel

A Whale Shark

Penguins are so freaking adorable.

I took this photo to show to my brother, Chris.  He likes sharks.

Uncle Kevin and Piranhas

The End

Not really.  I bought a membership to the aquarium for our family, and I am going to put their membership cards in their stockings on Christmas morning, so we will be able to go back again soon.  I'm looking forward to going back in late January when the new Puffin Exhibit opens.  Puffins!

Amarillo Zoo

On Monday, I took the kids the kids to the zoo.  We have been once before, so we knew it was tiny.   We walked around the whole thing really slowly and stayed for almost an hour!

We saw a kangaroo.  He had a punching bag in his enclosure, but he wasn't playing with it.  The boys waited around for a while to see if he would punch it or kick it, but he was too busy eating the grass.

There were tigers.

Our favorite!  The Ring Tailed Lemurs!

You know you are at a small town Texas zoo when there are longhorns.

Turkeys

The bear was sleeping right next to the glass.

All the lions were sleeping, too.

These bobcats were being funny.

Lemur Loving Lex!

Huge snakes!

Tiny green lizard!

Connor and Lex figured that this was the Geico Gecko.