Monterey Bay Aquarium

While we were visiting family in California we had the chance to take our boys to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was fun to take the boys there with my parents and sister and see them get excited about all the different animals.  Anders loves fish so we knew he was going to enjoy this outing and Alden loves any chance to see any animal.  It was a really fun day and I am glad that we got to share it with family.

I love the Monterey Bay Aquarium because I grew up going there and they have such a huge collection of aquatic animals.  I love getting to share this place with my kids.  They thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the animals but they also enjoyed the play area near the end and the touch pools, although Anders was more willing to touch things in those than his brother.  I also love the fact that the aquarium is built right on the ocean so that you can go out on the balcony and see wildlife in the open ocean too.  It makes for a very memorable and fun experience.

Anders was excited to start seeing fish with Grandma.

We had a lot of fun watching the otters for awhile.  They were being really active and playful and the boys loved how they came right next to where they were standing.

One of my favorite exhibits at the aquarium is the jelly fish.  I have always thought jellyfish were really pretty and neat to watch.

Anders enjoyed watching them too!

Anders was very happy to get out and walk around to see all of the animals up close, rather than riding in the stroller.

Alden enjoyed some quality time with Aunt Maren talking about some different animals.

These were taken from the balcony of the aquarium looking out at the ocean.  It was really funny to watch the otter eat his snack with the seagull following him looking like he wanted to steal the otter's food.

The aquarium has a cool "Baja California" exhibit right now with some really interesting reptiles.

It was really interesting to see how different some of the environments are near Baja California.

I love seeing all the interesting fish and I find it very interesting seeing them all swim and interact in the water.

This octopus wasn't really making an effort to hide and it was fun to watch him climb on the glass.

Anders really enjoyed seeing all the different fish and he was very happy to have Grandma help lift him up.

Alden enjoyed looking in all of the different enclosures and tanks and more importantly he loved getting to spend time with Grandpa.

The boys feeling different things at the touch pool.  I was glad that Alden was more adventurous than last time.

Anders tried touching a few different things but he was still a little tentative.

I love lionfish!  I think they look so cool!

My cute little boy in a clam!  (Alden refused to sit in there with him)

Alden was very excited to explore and play in the kid's section.

The boys loved this!  Anders was so happy to ride on the seahorse with his brother!

Alden enjoyed exploring this little cave in the play area.

Anders loved the slide and was very happy to just keep going around in circles to go down it over and over again!

My boys weren't exactly sure how they felt about being under this glass waterfall but Alden warmed up to it and Anders was okay on Grandma's lap.  We had a great day at the aquarium and I am so grateful for the chance to make memories with family!

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

There is a zoo about 10 minutes from our house so we decided to take the kids on a Saturday morning when the weather was nice.  We figured it was a nice way to spend a couple hours out of the house and get the kids to move around and burn off some energy.  We enjoy visiting zoos as a family and this one was no different.  It was really nice to just have some family time.  The only hard thing about this zoo is that it is built on a hill and so it is very steep and there is a lot of up and down walking.  Normally this wouldn't bother me too much, but since I am pregnant, I was very ready to go home and rest with my feet up by the end of our outing.  However, I am still really glad that we went and it was just so nice to have some nice relaxed time with all of my boys.

The boys loved seeing the giraffes.  Anders was mesmerized by how tall they were.

We got some lettuce to feed to the giraffes although Alden was too scared to actually do it so Drew fed most of it to them.  Alden thought it was really funny seeing how long the giraffe's tongue was.

Anders was more willing to get close to the giraffe than Alden.

The boys looking in at the meerkats (I think.  It is hard to see in the photo and my memory is not great right now).

Alden enjoyed hitting this drum.

They have a nice walkabout with the wallabies which the kids thought was really cool!

They loved seeing the wallabies up close.

The boys enjoyed seeing some of the birds and Anders enjoyed saying "bir" every time he saw one!

Anders enjoyed watching the lynx get fed (he is in the cage).

Anders enjoyed seeing the chimpanzee up close, he just happened to turn away right as I took the picture.  We had a great day at the zoo and loved seeing all the animals.  We will enjoy going back more while we live here and getting to explore more!

Alden is Learning to Skate

Since we moved to Colorado we have been looking for different activities for Alden and we found a new sport for him to try...ice skating.  There is a rink close to our house and so we signed him up for ice skating lessons.  He is loving it and gets really excited for class every week!  The first week was a little rough and he fell around 20 times but he still came off the ice happy and excited to go back.  Since then he has improved a lot and can now get through a half hour lesson without falling.  He can move around the ice on his own now and is starting to learn how to try and go backwards.  It is so fun to see him learning a new skill and loving it.  Here are just a few pictures from a couple of his classes.

He loves watching the zamboni clean the ice before class.

He was very cautious at first, keeping his hands in front of him in case he fell.

He loved skating around to pick up all the animals that they had thrown on the ice in order to motivate the kids to move around.  These were taken the first week of class.

He is now much more confident skating on his own as shown here.  He still loves collecting the animals off the ice.

He is much better at picking the animals up without falling now.

It is so much fun to see him enjoying something new.

Anders likes watching his brother skate and eating snacks the whole time we are there!

Cheyenne Mountain State Park

This last Saturday we went out to explore a state park that is about 10 minutes from where we live. We did a hike that was about 1.5 miles and it was nice to get a little feel for the park and be outside in some nice weather.  We didn't get to do too much because Drew was starting to come down with a cold, so we didn't want to push him too hard.  However, we will definitely be going back to explore more, especially as the weather warms up later this year.  It was fun to see some wildlife in the park, including 4 deer that got within 30 feet of us as we hiked.  The boys really liked seeing the deer up close and Alden was an awesome little hiker!

 The trail was nicely marked and easy to follow.

 There was lots of scrub brush and it will be fun to go back and see what this looks like in the spring and summer.

 There were some nice views of the mountain on the hike we did.

 Here is one of the deer we saw and if you look closely you can see another laying down in the grass.

 Alden loved watching the deer climb down the hill and cross the trail right behind us.

We found this bird's nest that the boys could see really well.  We had a fun time hiking and Anders enjoyed his ride in the backpack.