For the Love of Sharks!

Sophia has a deep love of all things that swim in the ocean.  I'm not sure where it comes from, as living in Kansas is just about as far from an ocean as you can get.  And, since all of our vacations to this point involve heading west to Colorado - she's yet to see one.   But, nevertheless, she loves it all!  I never knew there were so many books on oceans and sharks! But apparently we're on a quest to own every single one.  

Friday, the kids didn't have school and Chris was able to take the day off so we swung by the grandparents' house to pick up the kids (Thanks for the date night!!) and loaded them into the van.  We just told them we were going to go somewhere for a special surprise.  Usually that doesn't work.  Usually, they wear us down with questions until we finally give up and tell them where we are going.  No fun.  This time, I think they were just tired enough that they gave up their questioning pretty quickly. 

We headed south to the Oklahoma Aquarium.  Three hours later, as we got out of our car I asked Sophia to read the sign on the building.  As she read the word aquarium her eyes lit up!  She was so excited!  That look alone was worth the trip and the ticket price --- which by the way is pretty steep. 

While there we saw a ton of things that had previously only been seen in our books and on Finding Nemo.  We saw plenty of Nemos, Marlins, and Dorys.  We got to feel shrimp, starfish and other hard and squishy things.  We watched turtles swim, saw some gorgeous salt water fish and some ridiculously large catfish and bass. 

But all along, Sophia kept rushing us to get to the shark exhibit.  Once there she just stood in awe.  You can walk through a glass tunnel and have the sharks swim all around and over you.  I got a little dizzy.  But Sophia could have stayed there for hours I think.  Not an easy place to take pictures.

Smart museums all make you exit through the gift shop.  Somehow, we manged to get out the door without making any purchases.  We did have to turn around as Sam walked right out the doors with a sword.  Then we got in the car and headed home.  After a few minutes in the car I looked back and all four kids were asleep.  THAT IS SO STINKIN' RARE!  The other kids can fall asleep in the car, but Sophia hardly ever does. 

That lasted exactly 20 minutes until we proceeded to pass through Oklahoma's absurd toll booth system.  I don't know how many we went through, but every time we hit those bumps intended to get you to slow down, our kids were all awake.  Giant bummer.  Note to Oklahoma:  seriously, your roads are not that great!  One toll stop would be acceptable, then put the others as people EXIT off the highway, not in the middle of it. 

Six hours in the car and more money than I want to add up for about 2 hours at the Oklahoma Aquarium.  Totally worth it though!  The kids had a great time and saw things they won't likely see again for a long time.  It's really a great place to take a day trip!   All for the love of sharks.