Finding Nemo

 Saturday we headed to Denver for the day, with our first stop being the aquarium.

 The kids had fun seeing all the fish, but it was really crowded, and it seemed a little bit poorly planned out.  It was hard to get anywhere.  But, we had fun anyway :)  The eight year old had to try out the diving suit.

 Then we were on to the freshwater fish.

 In the dessert area, my eight year old got "up close and personal" with some rattlesnakes.  Ugh.  Boys.

 The babies both loved the colorful tropical fish.

 Can you spot the fish in this picture?  I'll give you a clue - it's the same color as the sand, and laying flat.

 My niece was ready to climb right in.  We've been doing a lot of swimming, so I guess she figured that was what we were here to do.

 My three year old would gladly have joined her.

 Here he's checking out some lizards.

 They have a tunnel you can walk under to see fish swimming over you.

 And sea turtles too.

 I had a very hard time getting the three year old out of the tunnel.

 Even the baby enjoyed it.  He kept trying to grab the fish.

 I was surprised by how colorful the starfish were... pink, purple, blue, etc.

 I wanted to get a picture of the boys in front of this very crowded group of fish, but the three year old was a little freaked out by it, and ran off instead.  It was like you might react if you suddenly realized you had backed up to a wall covered with bugs. :)

 The baby was all about waving and checking everything out.

 He was trying to reach the turtles here (not sea turtles, just a smaller breed of normal turtles).

 So, tigers aren't the first thing you think of when you think of aquariums?  Yeah.  Me neither.  But they were cool anyway.  (The three year old peeking over my shoulder just told me, "The Lion King's tired."  Oh well.  Close enough.

 They even had a tiger skin you could touch.

 They also had a touch tank with starfish and horseshoe crabs.

 Can you guess what the three year old was so excited by?  There's a clue in the top left corner of the tank.

 Nemo!  The next day I asked him if he liked seeing the fish, and asked him, did you like the sharks?  He replied, "I like Nemo."

 I swear this fish was following me.  He was right up against the glass watching us go by.  Sort of made me feel like I was the one on display :)  It was in a curved tank, and it followed me all the way around, and when I looked back several minutes later, there it was, right by my head.

 The area with the sharks had several portholes that you could walk on, so the sharks could swim under you too.

They had some huge sharks.

 One of the highlights for the eight year old was getting to touch the sting rays.  He was sure he would die.

 The three year old wouldn't touch them.  He would dip his hand in the water, then panic when one came near.

 After the aquarium, we walked to a nearby Mexican restaurant.  It was in a neat old building.  We didn't think about them being overwhelmed by our strollers though :)

Two peas in a pod ... or two kids with crayons ... lol.  After the aquarium we went to the Children's Museum.  But I'll put those pictures in a separate post.