Unfortunately, I spoke to soon about our house being “recovered”. n woke up sick last night so it looks like we’re in for round two. 
On Black Friday, we went to Long Beach’s Aquarium of the Pacific since we had free adult tickets that could only be used during the weekdays. I was worried about crowds, but we went nice and early (arrived just before the 9 a.m. opening), and we had many of the exhibits to ourselves. By the time we left, it was definitely more crowded. It was a rainy day, so the aquarium was the perfect outing (except that the Lorikeet exhibit was closed).
I think this was our first visit to an aquarium where the kids seemed really interested/excited to see all of the sea creatures. Their enthusiasm definitely made our trip more fun! As you can see, I kind of went camera-crazy. There were just too many photo ops!
A sea-themed Christmas tree…
The kids were fascinated by the moray eels. k said they were so ugly she never wanted to see them again, but then decided she had to backtrack three minutes later to take another look.
I think I have mentioned this before, but seahorses freak me out.
The kids were too scared to touch the rays.
We witnessed a puffin feeding—worms and shrimp.
These rock fish crack me up.
I thought these sea dragons were weird, until we saw this…
Leafy seadragon—wow. God’s creativity is truly amazing.