Monterey Bay Aquarium!

 Charlie's first drink from a sippy cup. I love the "future astronaut" cup from Mom/Dad Gabe!

 He always gets so happy when we take him outside!

 Grace finally planted the fennel seed she got at school. We've been watering it for weeks and the teacher said  no one's are sprouting, so we don't have much hope for it.

 Cute little gardeners.

 We're trying to complete our bucket list before we move in 2 weeks. The aquarium was a definite must-do, so we borrowed family passes from ward members, and drove an hour down the coast yesterday to Monterey!

 We all LOVED it! The girls loved all the life-size whales and dolphins hanging from the ceiling.

 We got there right when it opened and headed straight for the touch pool before it got too crowded. Alice wasn't into it.

 Watching divers wash the windows inside the kelp forest.

 Hatching from a penguin egg.

 All 3 kids loved the penguins best out of everything there. We watched them get fed. Even Charlie lit up and giggled when he got to see the penguins. It's so much better than a zoo, where you sometimes have trouble seeing the animals from far away or even hiding in their dens. Here, the clear walls go down far enough that even kids can get inches away from a swimming penguin! Charlie loved watching them!

 One of my very favorite things were the jellyfish. I actually teared up in a couple of the exhibits because they were so dramatic and amazing. This was one of them.

 The other was the giant clear wall of the Open Ocean exhibit. Wow. It's bigger than all the other tanks in the aquarium COMBINED. You could sit there forever and watch giant sea turtles (Paul's favorite), schools of anchovies, huge tuna, hammerhead sharks, sunfish, dolphinfish, etc. It was really awesome. Charlie liked watching that feeding, but then he wanted fed!

 So we went outside to eat our lunch. Alice did some whale watching - no sightings.

 We were all really enjoying the aquarium.

 Most of us.

 After lunch, we changed our strategy and avoided crowded feeding times. We saw this tiny octopus that did a dance just for us.

 I liked these colorful eels.

 Inside a clam. There were lots of places for kids to play.

 Charlie was really interested in everything, but did sleep a little.

 LOVE those jellyfish!

 Grace and a seahorse daddy giving birth. We were there for about 4 hours. The first 3 hours were really fun. The last hour, we all were tired and grouchy and just trying to make sure we saw everything we'd missed. So it goes.

 Then we walked down Cannery Row on our way back to the car and home. Tiring but fun!!

Charlie hopes they call him on a mission!