Sharks and more

On Saturday we took the kids to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay Casino. We were thinking we'd get the local discount from the $16.95 ticket price but it ended up being the 10 year birthday of the aquarium so the tickets were $10 adults and $5 kids. We all got birthday shark crowns and a cookie with the name of the aquarium on top.

All the older kids were given these "phones" for the audio tour. Harrison insisted he get to hold one but wouldn't keep it held to his ear long enough to hear anything.

There was a touch tank for the various rays. Harrison would look but there was no way he'd put his hand in the water.

Happy Birthday Shark Reef Aquarium! We wanted pictures of our kids with their mascot but James wouldn't go near it unless we went with him.

After the aquarium we all piled into Darrel's van and he dropped us off at the curb by the Bellagio fountain so the kids could watch the show. Luckily only had to wait about 10 minutes for the fountains to start since there is no set schedule. They all loved the dancing water and after it was over we called Darrel to come pick us up. Then a second show started! We were able to see the second part before Darrel got there and we met him along the road to the Bellagio parking. It was nice of him to do this for us since I really didn't want to take the kids through the casino which is what we had to do if we parked in the lot.

Angela teaches preschool out of her house and has an entire room full of toys and fun activities. James was in heaven! Angela even let him get out the paints after Harrison took a nap. I think James is really looking forward to going to the big preschool at Glencoe High School in the fall. The last day we were there we all helped to a pre-school clean up to sort all the toys back into their bins since toys were everywhere.

Darrel and Angela are expecting a baby in December. Their youngest is 6 years old and after many years they were able to get pregnant again. I think they're going to have an adjustment when their little girl comes since it's been so long since they've had to baby-proof anything. Angela set her primary bag by the door as she usually does. We wondered why Harrison was being so quiet and we looked over and saw he had found her bag which had tootsie pops inside. He had helped himself to a dozen or so!

Darrel was super patient with Harrison the whole time we were here. While he was working on his computer Harrison climbed up on the ledge where it was sitting. Darrel let him climb behind it and made him a fort with the window shades. This became his favorite place to play. Darrel even gave him old CDs to play with.