Living Planet Aquarium

This past Monday, Packer and I went to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy Utah with my good friend Jane Butters and her rambunctious twin boys Alex and Beck (named after the music artist). Jane is a Kindergarten teacher, and consequently has been to the aquarium on many a field trip. It was my first trip . . . to an aquarium of any kind.

I know, could he be cuter or more BA, looking that that mad awesome shark swimming by? I don't think so.

Jane and her twins (this is how they are often seen) watching the same tank.

I had my hopes set on these massive tanks with large whales and sharks in them (I think I got this from a hodge podge of popular cinema). What I got was even better! Smaller tanks, lots of animals. Some small sting-rays that feel oddly like velvet, are VERY friendly and prone to petting (not the naughty kind, the pet a dog kind). 

This makes the little stingray look kind of crazy, but they were just so friendly!

This picture was taken for Jameson. It is NOT a crocodile, but some sort of relative - I forget which.

Packer went everywhere and really fell in love with the clown fish, the otters and the tree frogs. I think he loved the clown fish because their tank was close to the ground, and he could stand on his own and climb about without too much risk.

Here is the clown fish tank in the kids play area. We tried crawling through some of the crawl spaces, but that was a little too much for a little Packer.

Here is a close up of him -- he tried all different ways to touch the clown fish -- including digging his fingers under the tank. Fortunately for them, it didn't work.

Overall, we had a GREAT time!! Thanks to Jane for inviting us -- it was totally a blast, and I love exposing our family to educational and fun opportunities.

Good Book to Read: I broke down. I am reading Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I know that it has been the popular fiction piece of the decade (I mean, an HBO series, really?) but I didn't want to throw myself into something that I couldn't put down. Let's be realistic, I'm a mom who's time to read is minimal. I am not the teenager that stayed up every night a Harry Potter novel emerged to get the novel and then read it all night until it was done. That isn't an option anymore for me, and I don't have any amount of self control. What this boils down to is that I really need to be careful if I think I will love a novel. Fortunately, I don't really love this one. Don't get me wrong: FANTASTIC writing, amazing characters. Too much blood and swearing and sex for me. I want my fantasy of the Blue Sword variety (i.e. very PG).