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!