Since we were surprised with some unexpected Christmas cash from Granny and Grandpa Free, we decided it would be fun to take the whole family out to see the The Living Planet Aquarium. John has Mondays off from work, which was a perfect day to take the kids to the Aquarium since they were out of school. My oldest daughter constantly complains of boredom and on this day she was guaranteed to have some fun!
The Aquarium has many interactive educational activities in addition to the many tanks of fish, mammals, reptiles, etc. There were boats, coral reef sculptures, a movie, puzzles, a huge frog for the kids to play on, and so forth. It was very interesting and fun place to take the kiddos during Christmas break!
First, we explored the exhibit for Utah's native fish, frogs and toads. It showcased Utah's endangered species such as June Suckers, least chub, Columbia Spotted Frogs and Boreal Toads. There were tanks full of Utah's famous lake trout and rainbow trout.
As for the Salt Water Wonders in the Ocean Exhibit, we saw the following creatures: sea turtles, sea horses, an octopus, sharks, lobster, coral reef, moon jellies, sting rays, etc.
The girls are standing in front of a gigantic fish aquarium filled all kinds of sea life creatures including a clown fish that looks like Nemo!
We loved watching how the sting rays eat their food! They are such friendly amazing creatures that occasionally jump out of the water. We all got to touch the string rays while they were swimming past us in the tank.
In the South American Rain Forest Exhibit we saw lots of fish, a dwarf caiman alligator, electric eel, piranha, amazon frogs, a lazy anaconda, penguins, and so forth.
There was an activity where you place your fingers on some metal and can feel the shock waves from the eel. Ack!
Ewww, I gotta say that is one very creepy looking eel!
Oldest Sister loved looking at the cute penguin exhibit! The penguins were fun to watch!
After checking out the Aquarium for a couple hours, we went to Olive Garden for lunch. My nephew Justin was so kind to give us a gift card for Christmas, Yay! Thank you Justin! John and I got soup, salad, and bread sticks. Big sister got cheesy meat ravioli while little sister got mac and cheese.
It was an interesting experience while dining at Olive Garden in Sandy. The waiter didn't give us our drinks until after we ate a basket of bread sticks. He didn't bother refilling our drinks when they were gone either. In addition, we asked for more salad and no salad was given to us. On top of that, little sister was burping loud monstrous belching sounds and bringing up the "gasy" subject at the table. Okay, I will be honest here, we are relaxed about that stuff at home but she always says "excuse me" however, doing it openly in public is another story! What the heck! Seriously? Why do kids do such embarrassing things in public? Her awful manners in Olive Garden didn't sit well with me. I asked her to stop acting that way by burping inside her mouth and refraining from the "gasy" subject since she was getting attention from the other costumers sitting near us. Unfortunately, no matter how I confront her on her behavior, it made her cry in the restaurant, but she has no shame about her bad manners. Hopefully she learned her lesson and it might be a while before I take them to a "sit down" restaurant.
Here is the guilty burper laughing at her accomplishment. She blames it on the Sprite, but one can conceal a belch quietly in the mouth while dining in public, right... We ended the family outing by eating freezing cold ice cream from Cold Stone! What a crazy idea to have ice cream when it is 20 plus degrees outside! It was very delicious nonetheless!
that looks just like her! 
! She is fascinated by penguins lately!
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either! Thanks to a great layaway plan! I'm so tired of her stealing mine, lol! She has shown us how responsible she is this year past year by baby sitting her little sister as well as helping around the house. We are confident she will take good care of her new electronic device! 
(John got it for Christmas from us) and the kids played Chinese Checkers with their grandparents. The next day we went to church and had brunch (French toast, bananas, bacon, and juice). The girls were happy to spend some time with Granny and Grandpa! 
CD, which we have played over and over again.
