Monday, January 30, 2012

Greater Cleveland Aquarium

This weekend we took the kids to the new Greater Cleveland Aquarium. The aquarium is located in the old First Energy Powerhouse on the West Bank of the Flats. It opened to the public on January 21st.


There was quite a crowd there, but we were able to bypass the line to get in by purchasing our tickets online before we got there. I highly recommend purchasing your tickets online if you plan to visit in the next couple of weeks, especially on the weekends. If you wait to purchase your tickets there, you may be waiting out in the cold, and we all know how that can go with little ones in tow!


I have to say, I am very impressed with what they've put together here. It's a nice, clean, family friendly experience. The kids absolutely loved it. Once KJ heard there were sharks, he was hooked. The whole way through he kept asking when we were going to see the sharks. Unfortunately, the shark tank was the last attraction, so he asked A LOT!


About midway through, there is a tank that's about three feet deep that some staff members were in with some of the sea creatures. We got to go up (they provided step stools for the little ones) and we could learn a little about some of the creatures and even touch them. Juli was very excited that she got to touch a starfish, by far her favorite creature of the sea. We also saw a sea urchin and a spiny lobster, among some other things.


Off to the side of that tank, there's a little "rest area" with some chairs and some puzzles and toys for the little ones to play with. Of course the kids stopped there briefly and checked everything out.


At the end of the aquarium, we finally got to see the shark tank (KJ was very excited), and then we went through their "Sea Tube" which allows you to walk under the water and see all the fish swimming around and above you. It's a very cool way to observe the fish. Unfortunately, the kids were pretty much done with the whole thing by that point, so we didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked.


Over all it was a great experience. I'm glad we got the Annual Pass, because we'll definitely be going back again.


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Triplets and Knock-Knock Jokes

The Trips have discovered knock-knock jokes, I don't think they quite get the concept yet tho...

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Christmas 2011

So... I finally got around to dealing with the pictures and video from Christmas. I took a lot more video than pictures this year. A lot more. Don't worry, I won't bore you with the entire set of videos here. This year the kids really got into opening their presents, and they were patient enough that we were able to have them open them one at a time, instead of the free-for-all that we've had in past years. In hindsight, I should have been able to get a lot more good pictures, but then I wouldn't have all of the video that I do.





Even Buster got in on the action. He really enjoyed his gifts. I have a great video of him that I'll have to share in a later post.