My friend Charing and I planned a very exciting trip to the aquarium this past weekend. Charing had called me and said that the boys were old enough to be taken out to "see" stuff, like the zoo and stuff. So I did a bit of research, and figured the aquarium would be a good first date.
We went to the Newport Aquarium, which is in... ahem, Newport. None of us had ever been before. My parents visited it when it first opened, but that was a few years ago I think.
Cory, Zach and Jennifer decided to tag along, and we all met at our house. Then we set off on our adventure.
And then we promptly stopped at Starbucks and Speedway for gas and drinks. PS-I'm counting the days before the pumpkin spiced late comes out at Starbucks. Why oh why don't they have that year-round?
We finally got on the road and Moose promptly fell asleep. Which is what I was praying for, considering our trip went through nap time. Cory and I talked the whole time about what we were going to do with my new car. (which is another post all together)
We arrived in time for lunch so we parked in the very nice parking structure and had lunch at a very nice Italian restaurant. They had a very thorough kid's menu, so I thought we were safe with that. I ordered mac & cheese for Moose. When it arrived, I was concerned because it was penne noodles, which Moose doesn't care for (don't ask me why) and it was on a huge intimidating plate.
He barely ate a bite.
We walked over to the aquarium, and went in. It is all inside, with aquariums built into the walls, and they have these tubes you can walk through, so the entire ceiling is glass, and the fish swim overhead. It was Very Cool.
Moose and Carter thought so too. They both stared slack-jawed at the shiny fish slowly floating over their heads. Carter even put his hands on his head so that the fish wouldn't "fall" on him;)
Both the boys were so good. I had read online that the aquarium did not allow strollers, so we left them in the cars. So both of the boys were carried or happily walked beside us.
We only had two issues, one when Moose wanted to stay in this one area where the kids could use plastic toys to play "vet" with a plastic shark. And the other when Carter got a bit scared in the poisonous fish area. Both of them were fine and didn't cause a scene or anything.
Both Charing and I were having so much fun, that we didn't think to take many pictures. Then we walked right past the professional picture place. We were probably talking and missed it. (can you imagine? us talking and missing something? no!)
Charing did manage to get this pic of us, but sadly, because she took it, she's not in it!
The ride home for our car totally sucked because Moose decided to cry the entire time. He was of course, starving. I fed him the few snacks I had brought, but I had thought he would eat a normal lunch, so it obviously wasn't a whole bunch of stuff.The ride home for Charing, Jenn, Zach, and Carter obviously went a bit better, because they stopped at the Gap outlet and bought a ton of clothes. (Cory is shuddering in horror at even the thought of shopping at an outlet store with me)
We got home (thank God) unscathed, and went directly down for a nap, did not pass go, or collect $200. Later in the evening, we met back up at Charing's for dinner, and we all watched the UK game.
