Tuesday, July 17, 2012

2012 Vacation, Part 4

On Tuesday, we took our kiddos to the Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.   It’s a wonderful aquarium, with lots of neat little touches for little ones…and it was made even better by the fact that we could stay inside on such a hot day!

This place was PACKED with people, but our kids really enjoyed it!  Even Jensyn loved it, and she was saying “shishy” (fishy) by the end of our visit.

June2012 383June2012 381   looking at the poison dart frogs

June2012 375

if you look closely, you’ll see Jensyn standing to look at the “shishies”

June2012 385

What Keith & I really liked was the conveyor belt that keeps people moving right along as they go through the underwater tunnel.  You could step back to get off the conveyor if you wanted to stay put for a bit, but you couldn’t stand close to the glass without beyond moved along.  Very good planning!

Jensyn LOVED watching the fish swim overhead.  You can see her looking and reaching for the fish in these pictures…

 June2012 397 June2012 399

swimming overhead…

June2012 402

touching the horseshoe crabs…

 June2012 407  June2012 410 June2012 411June2012 408

Jensyn LOVES animals, and she wanted to touch it. 
She got nervous when her hands hit the water, though,
so she only touched it for one brief moment.

June2012 413 June2012 414

I loved the jellyfish!  They looked so pretty!

June2012 416
June2012 417 June2012 418

The aquarium had a few spots where kids could crawl through tunnels
and pop up in little glass domes for a peek at the fish.

 June2012 420 June2012 421 

Jensyn took off through one tunnel, so Mommy had to crawl through and chase her.
Let’s just say those tunnels are NOT designed for grown-ups ;)

June2012 430June2012 429

June2012 424 June2012 427  

I saw this bib in the gift shop.  We don’t need any bibs, but the message fits our
snack~lovin’ Jensyn quite well…

June2012 432

After leaving the aquarium, we were HUNGRY! 
Here’s Jensyn enjoying her lunch at Shoney’s.
They didn’t have a very good food selection at 2PM.  It seemed to be breakfast leftovers and a few other random items that they were beginning to set out for dinner, but kids eat free…and Jensyn sure loved it!

 June2012 433 June2012 434

Each of the ladies took one night to cook, and Tuesday was my night.  The kids played (and I think Jensyn napped) while the adults played card games in the kitchen.  Thankfully, we have a patient family who tolerated me jumping up and down from the table while trying to simulataneously cook dinner & play cards. 

I’m pretty sure we went swimming at the resort and then took the kids in the hot tub on our balcony on Tuesday evening.  No pictures of swimming until later in the week…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We love the aquarium! Looks like you guys had a total blast! Was it a Ripley's aquarium? It looks just like the one we go to at the beach (Myrtle Beach, SC). What a fun time to spend with family and I love you guys all took turns cooking!