A new kind of summer day

For the past 10 years, our summer days and activities have been measured in the hours available before we needed to be home for nap time. Today was the first day....really....in 10 years that the day was NOT ruled by that rule! A trip to our aquarium and lunch in the park with Robin and her kids was actually relaxing! It was kind of a weird feeling to just be sitting on the blanket, talking to Robin and not watching the clock! I even ran an errand for Bill that was sort of out of the way and wasn't stressed about it! I miss the sweetness of all their baby days, but the newness that we are stumbling into right now has it's own sweetness too!

The weather was nice this morning...comfortable.....and the kids were glad to go to the aquarium with company. Our aquarium isn't large by any stretch of the imagination and the 'fun-ness' wears off quickly. With friends to share it with though, it was a brand new place!

First stop the..ummm....lily pad pond? Tadpole pond? Fish pond? Don't know what the name of it is, but they all liked it!

Next stop......the Butterfly Pavilion. Lots of butterflies floating around.

Just outside the butterfly exhibit is the train village. Several trains wind their way around neat settings. The kids ran back and forth several times trying to catch the trains.....Had to get one of these.....
How many kids can you cram into a fish eye look out (I'm positive that isn't the right name....it's one of those dome like observation things that bulge into the water.....wow, my description is AMAZING! -not- )

And finally we made it to the big viewing area-it sure is hard to keep the camera still enough to take this with no flash!

Look out for the Piranha!!

And this is my friend Robin. (hey Robin, I think I actually got the link thing right!) She has a new camera too. She took a bunch of pictures so we joked about having a dueling blog post session......check out her blog to see how her pictures from today came out!! Give her a bit, they went to see the movie 'Up' after all the morning fun.....I don't think she's home yet! I hope we have more of these new kind of summer days ahead. I might not lock my kids in the chicken coop after all!!