Seeing the Sea in Tennessee

Two weeks ago we went to Pigeon Forge again with some families from church. We went to Dollywood and then Saturday we went to the Ripley's Aquarium. This was very interesting and educational. I LOVED IT TOO! Abigail was very occupied as well. These are just the pictures of the Aquarium. I will post the pictures of Dollywood later.

The first tank as we entered the aquarium.

Naomi behind the water falls that you will see down the page some. This created a more realistic atmosphere for the fish in the tank under it.

This is the flag fish. It really looks like an American flag. My picture didn't capture true colors but it was very fascinating. It's so wild how God created this fish thousands of years ago and it looks like our flag!
This is the frog fish. It looks like a rock. Cheyenne studied the Stone fish this year in Science and said that this frog fish looks more like a rock than the stone fish. It is in the middle.
There is a very large filtration system at the aquarium and this is the interactive part were the kids can turn wheels and push buttons. Abigail loved this. It was huge! It is monitored every minute by computers.

This is the top of the aquarium that we walked under. The setting and effect is beautiful!


Nice fishy!
A beautiful waterfall to keep the effect for the fish of the real outdoors.

Strike a pose.
Look how big these fish are compared to Naomi!

I don't remember the name of this fish but I thought it looked like a unicorn fish.

We got to go through this tunnel under the biggest part of the aquarium with the sharks and stingrays and thousands of other fish. This was a lot longer than I thought it would be and it was very exciting for the kids and the big kids too!
This shows how big and how close this shark was to us. It was funny looking. Just sitting on the tunnel.
When I was in the tunnel I felt like they should be playing the music form Jaws.
Sting rays and a sunken ship.

School of barracudas
Naomi was the only one to pet the horseshoe crab.
Cheyenne in the interactive area.
Abigail
Emily at the wheel.
Abigail didn't like that the flounder rocked when you get on it.
Emily and Abigail This was fun for the kids to get under the tank and be in the middle of it. The like pretending they were drowning.
Crazy girls!
Abigail couldn't fit with the other girls and was just barely tall enough to see her.

Surrounded by seahorses.
Seahorses are such neat creatures. They were Cheyenne's favorite. She already said she wishes we could have one but they are one of the hardest fish to keep alive in captivity. The way we have been doing with fish, one wouldn't live a day at our house. Not to mention they are very expensive.
Shark jaws that would swallow both my babies!

The jellyfish were neat. We got to see baby jellies in the baby room that were about the size of a mustard seed. You could see how they open and close and they were sooo tiny! If I had gotten a picture you wouldn't have seen them very good.

Emily admires the lobster.
Naomi liked the crabs and when I told her that was the crab legs that she liked...
she pretended to eat them! She now LOVES crab legs thanks to our friends Kristy and Sean! :)
This is a sea dragon. If you think about how people depict dragons and think about how a sea dragon would look, this is exactly how I would have pictured them! I have a video of them if I can get it to upload.
This is the first incubator. The man who invented this funded his project and funded the use of them for the parents by selling tickets to see the babies in these incubators. Back before he invented this they would give preemie babies ice baths to try to toughen them up like adults! No wonder the infant death rate was so high!!! Why on earth would you put a baby in ice!!!!

Emily in the bubble.
Naomi and Emily in play bubble.
Girls playing
On our way home on the Parkway. Trying to get Abigail to sit down was HARD!

Memorial Day Fun!

For Memorial Day we had a Sunday School get together at the Cook's house. They so graciously let us all come and mess up their house. I didn't get any pictures of anyone inside or playing ball outside. We really had a good time. Thank you Amy and Brian for everything!! The go cart was a HUGE hit! I got on it with Abigail and Cheyenne drove us. Abigail started screaming when we had to get off because she didn't want to quit. We went to the Broad River Basin to go swimming but about 100 other people had the same idea. Amy had been to this place on the creek leading to the Broad River so we went back to there to play. The kids really enjoyed it. I did not get in. I was in charge of the phones and camera! Ha! Ha! I just missed Brother Daniel falling down the rock first thing. My camera was turning on and I just missed it! It was funny though. To get the best idea of what it was like you need to watch the video at the bottom.

ALEAH

Naomi and Abigail
Alanna and Aleah
Naomi found some tadpoles and a tiny frog to which she said, "Awe he likes me!"
Haili

Nathan drove Naomi and Aleah on the go cart. They LOVE that!
Hannah with Abigail, Alanna, and Celine.
Abigail didn't want to stop! Hannah driving Mrs. Amanda and Carissa.
Now this will show you just how much fun we had watching the kids slide down the rocks. Everyone was great until the Momma's found out there were tiny leaches on the legs of their younguns! The kids didn't care!

Listen up Fishy!

I had forgotten about this picture until I was looking at them closely the other night. I didn't notice this until I asked her if she had turned off her MP3 so the batteries wouldn't die. Then she showed me this and said she didn't want to turn it off because her fishies were listening.

The Best Fish Story!

Last Friday our family went fishing at Mrs. Tammy's house from our church. They let us go fishing but they are not stocking the pond any longer so we threw all the fish back that we caught. We went with our friends Bro. Joel and Mrs. Pam. Our homeschool group had gone fishing the day before at Broad River Greenway and Naomi really wanted to fish. She did get to with someone elses pole and then got really sick that night. Abigail and Naomi were throwing up all evening and we weren't sure they would be better to go on Friday. Daddy had promised that we could go fishing the week before but it happened to be our anniversary so we put it off until last week. The girls ended up feeling better about 11:00 pm and slept with Mommy. Just a short bug. I went to Walmart Friday morning and got 3 new poles, (because only Daddy had a pole).

The girls were so excited to be going fishing. We stopped at a fast food place on the way and Ken asked Naomi what she wanted to eat. She looked at him with sad eyes and said I want to eat the fish we catch. She looked pitiful! She was about to cry. Daddy quickly explained that we had to eat now on the way to fishing. She is Daddy's girl! We were fishing with just worms so there wasn't much biting. Naomi had here pole all set up with a bobber and fished for a little while. Then she wanted to go across the pond to see Nicole and Chey. I did catch a small bass. I had the smallest catch of the night. Caleb caught one too and I thought I got a picture but I guess not.

When Naomi got tired Abigail took over.

My little Catch!

When I caught the fish Naomi had to come see but not touch!

Abigail just screamed at it. Surprise! Surprise!

Everything settled down and Naomi wanted a sew worm on her hook because hers wasn't working anymore. So Daddy hooked her up and then she got bored again. She set her pole down next to Ken and I was about 10 feet away. My bobber was near hers so I said I would watch it for her. The next thing I know, I checked on her bobber and it was gone. I yelled to Ken, "Get Naomi's pole! The Pole! The Pole!" I was running and yelling but to no avail. Her pole was taken right down the back and into the water. Now let me take a moment to say that I am so glad Abigail was not holding on to that pole right then. It would have taken her right in!!!

All I could think is that Naomi was going to start crying because Daddy lost her pole to the fish. Now, Ken had been fishing on the bottom in the middle of the pond. Thinking quickly, he started reeling his line in quickly with the small chance that he might catch the pole. I caught something!!! It was really had to pull in and he wasn't sure if he was caught or what. Then finally we saw what he had caught! THE POLE!!!

Bro. Joel grabbed Naomi's pole and began fighting with the fish on the line. Luckily Ken had just adjusted the drag on it before he threw it in.

Bro. Joel reeling it in.

Check out this catfish that had stolen Naomi's pole!!!

She didn't want to touch him either! But she does say that she caught the biggest fish because it WAS her pole that caught it!

NOW do you see why I said I am glad Abigail wasn't holding on to that pole!!!!

Mrs. Tammy came out to see what all the noise was about and Mrs. Pam wouldn't get close enough to the fish. So Abigail went to Mrs. Tammy to see it. She wouldn't touch it though.

The Boys with their trophy!

Who would have thought you could catch a fishing pole with a fishing pole:)