Vacation Part 1!

We went down to Salt Lake on Wednesday after swimming lessons and lunch with Grandma Barsness and Alex (they were here for the dance show). Teague passed out frog style almost immediately.

Our hotel was right across from a mall. Our kids were most excited about the escalators!

We ended up swimming 7 times while we were there! I was very happy to see the swimming lessons have really helped. I could just help Teague while the other swam around.

Carterman floating on his back.

Ave likes me to time her underwater.

This is the cutest picture!

Kyle was at training for the School Resource Officer position that he'll start this fall. While he was at class, I took the kids to a new aquarium. It was awesome! We were ready to see the penguins.

You can't really see the penguin here, but you could get right up to the tank. They had super deep water to shoot around in.

There's a cute little guy!

One was hiding it's head in it's feathers. A little boy next to us was very concerned about the headless penguin!

We saw the otters next. Always a favorite of mine. They always seem like they are having fun and playing together. I love how they swim upside down. You can see Teague's reflection in the glass too.

Ave is very protective of her brother. They look so cute here.

We went to an Amazon exhibit next. They had some awesome stingrays and catfish.

Always trying to get a good picture of all three!

A nice lady offered to take a picture of all of us.

The toucans were really neat looking.

They had a giant rope bridge you could cross 5 at a time. Me and Teagie followed these two. It was pretty fun - I felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie!

The jaws of a megaladon - the world's biggest prehistoric shark!

We got to touch starfish and rays. Here is Carter touching a ray. He loved it!

Ave touched them quite a few times too. They were pretty slimy, but it was a neat thing to do!

They called this the Nemo tank. There were clownfish, cleaner shrimp, lots of anemones, and some Blue Tangs.

This was a shark swimming above us in aquarium tunnel.

Avers with a shark behind her.

They got to touch an old turtle shell and a nurse shark jaw (with very sharp teeth).

This view was awesome. There is a giant seating place to just watch all the sealife swim around. These guys didn't move from this spot for a good 15 minutes.

Not sure what these bubble head fish were called, but I thought they were cool looking.

They had a couple giant sea turtles. They were fun to watch swim around.

A huge eel! Reminded me of Flotsam and Jetsam from The Little Mermaid.

Teague loved everything there. I had to promise him ice cream to get him away!

We didn't end up getting this, but Ave looked good in this cuttlefish hat!

I liked all these giant things hanging from the ceiling.

This is what it was called "Loveland Living Planet Aquarium". Well worth it!

The aquarium, swimming, and Olive Garden wore this little man out!

Carter ended up picking out some snorkel gear the next time we visited the mall. Ave did too, but preferred her goggles. This is a nice photo bomb!