Aquarium adventures: the Lorelai birthday edition

The NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher is about an hour south of where we stay on Topsail, so we packed up first thing, sang Happy Birthday to Lorelai, made lunches and hit the road with a quick pit stop at Bojangles on the way (where Lorelai made a scene when we finished the fries and Adam took the tray away--it's her party birthday and she'll cry if she wants to).

I think I was more excited about the aquarium this year, because I really thought Lorelai would be at an age where she would enjoy everything so much more, since she could get out and walk around and really go up to the tanks.



Turns out, she was a little scaredy cat this year. But it makes total sense, because when you're only 2, you have no idea that the big fish swimming right next to your face in floor-to-ceiling tanks aren't going to jump out and get you. As soon as I carried her close, she death-gripped me and said "I'm scared." Quite a change from last year when she was blissfully unaware and too young to really be scared.



Funny enough, she wasn't really scared of the alligators that we saw. And Logan wasn't either, unlike last year.





Maybe it was because it was bright out there, maybe it was because they weren't moving.

The albino alligator is really cool!

The boys weren't scared of anything. They touched horseshoe crabs and starfish in the touch pool, and were completely mesmerized by the giant tank that actually had scuba divers swimming around checking on the fish.



They even got eaten by giant crabs, ahhh!





At one point near the jelly fish tanks that were up higher, Lorelai was walking around in front. A random lady turned around and literally reached down to attempt to pick her up to see. Sweet...but no way lady! I explained that she was scared and we moved on in a hurry.



I really wish Lorelai hadn't been so scared because there were so many cool things to see.

She was much more happy to watch from a safe distance with her boys at her side to protect her.



Although, there was a baby shark touch pool (not sure what kind of shark) that the boys were all into, and Lorelai got right up there after she saw what fun Aidan and Logan were having. I even stuck my hand in to touch one of them!



Then it was time to leave and that's where things started to fall apart. Logan got mad because we wouldn't buy him anything from the gift shop and said "then why didn't we even come here anyway?!" Really?? Ungrateful much?!

We walked past a super nice play area on our way out, that was completely metal and completely in the sun. Hello, who designs these things? Why not put up a canopy so it's not a safety hazard? We wouldn't let her play, so she got mad and was not in the mood to cooperate with the only thing I wanted all day--a family photo on my daughter's second birthday. Apparently that's too much to ask. My daughter, who is constantly attached to my hip saying "hold you, mommy" would NOT let me hold her. asjdksf!

Therefore, these are the best pictures we got.



I proceeded to carry Lorelai out to the car, literally kicking and screaming, totally regretting our decision to go to the aquarium. Of course that was just a heat-of-the-moment reaction that I don't believe now, but I just hate ending such a fun time on a bad note.

Even though there were some grumps involved and Lorelai didn't enjoy it as much as I thought she would, I'm still glad we went, and so are Aidan and Logan. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. :)