Georgia Aquarium

On Friday, September 3, Ellie and I went to the Georgia Aquarium with our friend Shalyn and her adorable daughter Lilly. Ellie was so excited to be going with them and she couldn't wait to see all the "Nemos". She didn't realize she would be seeing much more than just Nemo.

Ellie and Lilly loved it!!

They got to see many different fish and creatures that live in the ocean. The beluga whales were gorgeous, we were able to watch the whale sharks being fed, see the otters playing with each other, and see a diver feed a few small sharks. There are other tanks that have anemones, star fish, stingrays, shrimp and small sharks that are in tanks that you can reach in to touch them. I touched all of them but, of course, Ellie was afraid to touch any of them but you could tell she really wanted to. That night, after we had gotten home, she was telling her Daddy all about her day and told him about the shrimp. By the time she started telling him about them she had decided she was ready to touch them and she started getting upset saying, "I want to go to the a-cake-e-um and touch the shimp" (no "r" in shrimp for her). She still keeps telling us she want to go back to touch them so I think we will be making a trip soon just so she can touch the shrimp.

Diver cleaning the glass.

Lilly and Ellie watching the diver and seeing the fish.

Seahorses!!

Looking in at the stingrays.

Albino Alligator. (I need a better camera)

Look! Look! A Cone Tree!!

We finally made our first trip to the beach with little Ellie. It was a very long drive from our home to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina but the time and fun we had there was worth every second spent in the car.

The long six hour drive was well worth all the time and fun we had. James parents, Deborah and Michael (or Mee-ma and Papa Mikie) met us at the beach and after we checked into our rooms we got dressed into our bathing suits and headed right to the beach. Ellie absolutely loved the sand. She was covered from head-to-toe in sand and I will be washing sand out of her hair, ears and nose for days.

Ellie went right into the water with James on the first day but for some reason she wouldn't let a wave touch her on the second day. She just wanted to lay in the sand and roll around.

On our first drive around the island we quickly learned from Ellie that what we always thought were palm trees are actually called cone trees. I tried to tell her that they were called "palm trees" and I was quickly corrected by Ellie saying, "No, Mommy, they're cone trees". It was really cute.

James, Mee-ma, and Papa Mikie took Ellie to the local aquarium while I got to hang out on the beach and read a book. Ellie's favorite thing there were the sea horses and I was told that she was afraid of the Caribbean lobsters (that were larger than Indi) and the alligator.

On our last night we took Ellie for a walk on the beach at dark. We made our way to the pier where Ellie got to watch people fishing and was able to see some of the fish that were caught.

The whole trip was a lot of fun and we can't wait to go back.