Life with the Samuelsons

Monday, March 22, 2010

Newport Aquarium

Last Saturday we headed up to Newport, KY (it's just across the river from Cincinnati), to visit their aquarium. I know I've been there once before, but it sure was different! Note: due to the vast amounts of really cool and unique fish, this post is bursting at the seams with pictures!

It's too late for these 3!

mmm... dinner!

A giant snail

This shark appeared to be looking right at us!

It's Dory!

(for those of you who have seen Finding Nemo - after I saw this darned fish I kept singing "just keep swimming, just keep swimming...(only sometimes in my head, for I couldn't be the only one annoyed by this mantra going through my brain!))

That's a fish! It almost looked like it was made of corduroy.

I loved how this gator was just resting his head on the turtle

Star Wars fans - does this remind you of anyone?

Feeding the larakeets again - unfortunately there were more people than birds so the birds had already had their fill. All but this little one that kept getting chased off.

They had some really cool jellyfish there

Believe it or not, these are jellyfish too!

They're called upside down jellyfish.

I imagine they pack a pretty powerful punch - I'd want to get a closer look at them if I were out snorkeling because they're so pretty.

This is not the time-release effects of my camera - the tentacles on these things really were that long!

The kids playing with jellyfish - they would scatter when they got close to your shadow, so of course the kids would get close and then try to whack one of them.

Watching the penguins with Grandma

We really enjoyed seeing all the different animals and fish at the aquarium. We could have spent hours more there just sitting and staring at a tank at a time.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Friends

One of my oldest (as in longevity of friendship, not age - although she did just have a birthday), and best friends lives near Louisville, Kentucky. My mom was gracious enough to haul all of us up to see her and her family while we were there.

We enjoyed lunch with her and her family, and spent several hours visiting and catching up. Her kids took off with mine and there were no worries (until the Nerf guns came out... then I didn't think we'd ever get out of her house!! Even the big boys got into it!).

Melanie is one of my closest friends, and I don't get to see her nearly enough, and with our pending move to Korea, I knew it would be a long time before we would be together again. Thankfully with Facebook and IMing we are able to keep in touch pretty frequently and know what is going on in each other's lives.

Me and Mel with our other halves, David and Nathan

Melanie and I would like to live closer together some day, but I don't know if we'd be able to afford it... David and Nathan have waaaay too much in common (i.e. hunting and the "need" to buy tools). Mel and I would be stuck at home drinking wine and cooking - not that it would be a bad thing, but we might get fat sitting around eating all of our tasty eats!

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After getting home from Louisville, I went through a box of my memorabilia, and the kids decided they needed to try a few things out.