California Christmas: Long Beach and the Aquarium

Wednesday morning started with a trip to the park with Jamie. The girls had so much fun because it's been way too cold to go to the park here. Hazel rode there on the scooter Grandma and Grandpa gave them:)

That afternoon we took the girls to see Long Beach. Eliza was so cute the first time she saw the ocean. She just kept signing "water!" "water!" When we started walking back she cried and asked for more water.

Queen Mary

 Then we headed over to the Aquarium of the Pacific. I think Mike and I had just as much fun there as the girls. It's been years since either of us has been to an aquarium. One thing is for sure, I'm still super afraid of sea creatures. The thought of all those things swimming around me creeps me out big time!

Eliza LOVED it! At every large tank she would sit and watch the fish like this...

Hazel had fun too and kept pointing out characters from The Little Mermaid to me. She found Flounder, Sebastian, and of course "Ursala's mean snakes." I think she was hoping we'd see Ariel too:)

 There were several exhibits where you could touch things. I was brave and touched them all once (but it was pretty gross). The only thing we forced convinced Hazel to touch was a star fish. Eliza on the other hand wanted to jump right in. She stuck her finger in the mouth of this green anemone (and I screamed a bit haha).

This isn't the greatest picture but here we all are loving the aquarium. 

Michael's favorite part was the sharks. At the outdoor shark exhibit one shark swam right up to the glass with it's mouth open so we could see all of it's teeth. I can't imagine being bitten by a shark - they have TONS of teeth. He also loved this little guy; he's like a mini-hammer head but I can't remember what it's called.