"Ishies"

Kyra doesn't pronounce the letter "f", so all week long as we anticipated going to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Kyra would talk about going to see the "ishies". On Saturday, the girls and I made the long, short drive (if you get my drift) to Baltimore where we met up with my sister-in-law, "Aunt Susie". To help with traffic flow, the aquarium doesn't allow strollers in the building, so we traded the wheels for a stylish back carrier and started the tour.

The first thing you see is the impressive tank of sting rays. The NAIB has a bunch of them and a few are rather large. When we pointed out one of the largest ones to Kyra, she informed us that it was a daddy sting ray. I just adore her logic.

We hit up nearly all of the exhibits, including the tropical rainforest, the sharks, and the jellyfish. We also splurged and paid the extra $3.00 to attend the dolphin show. I must admit that every time I see those amazing creatures in action I find myself wishing I would've chosen a career path that allowed me to work with them. I mean who wouldn't want to work with someone who always looked like they were smiling (and didn't mind being paid in fish).

One of my favorite little moments of the day was when Kyra pointed at the huge blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling and said "dinosaur". Obviously, it wasn't, but I think she assumed it was because of our trip to the Museum of Natural History in DC several months ago where every large bone structure was in fact a dinosaur. I found it cute how she made the connection. It's little things like that that make me realize she is growing up.

By the time we reached the end and traded the now 1000 lb back carrier in for the stroller, the girls were beat (and by girls I mean Susan and I too). So much so that Kylie fell asleep within minutes after we put her back in the comfy stroller. Although, she did seem to really enjoy her special bird's-eye-view of all the exhibits and creatures. All in all it was a very fun, very memorable day.