Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Dallas World Aquarium

During our Spring Break, which oh so coincidentally coincided with the cousins' Spring Break, we decided to test our luck at the Dallas World Aquarium. What does an aquarium have to do with luck, you ask? You obviously haven't tried to take my three chromosomally enhanced darlings anywhere with a crowd. I asked my mom and nieces to go with us so we'd have more fun and more pairs of eyes on the little girls in question.

The crowd was bad but not overwhelmingly so during the morning. We took a well-deserved lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in the aquarium and emerged to find a WALL of people in the aquarium. My mom and I took one look at that mass and knew we'd be sunk if Vera or Emma wandered away, so we took some stairs down to the entrance.

We made our first crucial mistake about ten feet from freedom. We saw one of the very nice gift shops and decided to go in. Our second crucial mistake was letting Ella out of the stroller. Our third crucial mistake was not communicating clearly who was watching Ella.

You all know where this is going...in a mass of people we lost Ella in the gift shop and literally could barely move around to find her. Within about 5 minutes, Luke found her holding hands with a DWA employee and further tragedy was averted. Needless to say, we left, but only after purchasing a few trinkets for the kids. Sigh.

As I was recounting the story to my husband later, we came to the important conclusion that perhaps since we homeschool we should go to these places at some time other than Spring Break.


During our time there, Vera demanded to push Ella in the stroller. I'm sure those people around us wearing flip flops were not as happy with the situation as I was. If nothing else, it kept them near at hand.

Chandler, Alex, and Luke hamming it up.

Emma, Shelby, Vera, and Ella looking cute.


Emma proudly displaying the shark page she located in the map.



Anna, pondering eternity.
A hammerhead, pondering the thick glass that separated him from some good eatin'.
Alex, a friend, Chandler, and Song couldn't take their eyes off the sharks in the shark tunnel aquarium.


Alex, being eating by a faux Mayan alligator (?) outside the Mexican restaurant.

Monkey see, monkey do.
Last but not least, a happy face. All's well that ends well.










4 comments:

Milk Mama said...

Wow! You have such a beautiful family! Each and every child is unique and wonderful! What a blessing it is to have so many children!

liesel said...

Hey, I recognize that place!

Arizona mom to eight said...

Loved the pictures, it looks like a lot of fun! I agree about the field trips with HS'ing. I am trying to figure out a way to do more myself.

Amanda Towne said...

Tell Alex I love the shorter hair! And Song's face is just cracking me up--what a funny kid!

So glad Ella was okay--I hate it when I lose one of my kids.

Amanda