We're Aquarium Members!

We love East Tennessee very very much. But one of the few major downfalls of living in a small town is there are exactly TWO things to do indoors with small children: the mall play place and the Chick-Fil-A play place. Help me.

A couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to find new fun adventures, we hauled out (40 minutes) to Bass Pro. The kids ADORED the fish tank so much that we decided it was high time we make the trek (twice as far!) to Ripley's Aquarium. I'm so glad we did.

Even though the aquarium is TOTALLY PACKED on a Saturday morning, we had fun exploring. Plus we took our nephew Nate, who is an impressive little walking encyclopedia when it comes to marine animals.

While the Aquarium doesn't compare to Chicago's, it's still pretty impressive. I was actually surprised by how entertained I was with all of the creatures. They're so neat! Usually the jellies are my favorites, but this time I was completely enthralled with these crazy cool seahorses. This is my official request to get one of these bad boys for Christmas. Pretty please. Anyone.

They have a really neat moving walkway that goes under their biggest tank and it always allows for great close-ups with the sharks. Plus it's fun to look around and check out all of the faces staring straight up with mouths open. Hehe.

Our favorite part was definitely the sting ray show. A diver jumps in the tank (with snacks, of course) and the sting rays swarm her like she's their new best friend. You can tell they have their own little personalities like our pets do. I've decided that will be my next job.

It's really fun that both kids are finally old enough to really interact and have fun on new adventures. Beckett is getting so big and independent, I can hardly stand it. Charlie is such a funny little sassy pants. I could just watch her all day. They're my faves!!