The Newport Aquarium

Yesterday we went to the Newport Aquarium with some of our friends and our aunt. We got to see sharks, crabs, jellyfish and much more. Here are some pictures: 

 Here is Adam touching a shark.

 Here is a picture of a Piranha. 

 This octopus was going right up against the glass.

 Some of the staff members were training the otters.

 This type of crab is called a Japanese Spider Crab.

 Here is a interesting kind of jellyfish

 You could walk inside a tunnel where the sharks were swimming around you 

and we saw them feeding the sharks.

 This is some kind of frog.

 This is Mighty Mike the crocodile who has grown up to 15 ft!

 This is a catfish.

A Jellyfish

An Angelfish

Sting Ray

Tentacles!

 Maggie Jane

 Another type of ray.

A Seahorse

The Frog Bog

 This is another kind of jellyfish

 This frog had a cool habitat

 This was a really cool jellyfish

 This is a x-ray of a sharks body.

This is Caleb and Ethan.

Other Highlights from the day:
petting sharks
watching the sharks get fed
watching the otters train
going to Aunt Andi's apartment
the bookstore
the candy shop

Funny Story

So, the lego building around here is really on the upswing (and it is pretty intense to begin with) but Ethan got a Lego idea book  for Christmas and so he is on a lego mission. They were working on something today and were talking at lunch about all of the stuff they would build if they just had MORE legos! I was incredulous and Ethan said, "Mom, I know we have a lot of kits but not so many just regular legos to build new stuff". So I suggested they look for bulk legos for sale on ebay. Everyone scurried upstairs to see how much money that they  had in their "spend" container. I showed them how to search for bulk legos and then how to organize the results so that the cheapest came up first. Sure enough, there was an auction for 300 legos for $.99. They were so excited! So, I showed them how to make a bid. And then they would periodically check back and found out that they had been outbid. If I was a really, really effective mom, I would have kept my mouth shut and let them learn on their own but before I could help myself, I advised that they wait until tomorrow in the last few minutes of the auction and then bid to avoid driving up the price prematurely. Caleb understood that this would take patience but the other two did not understand waiting at all yet they decided to wait until tomorrow to increase their bid. After all of this, I went in their room and there is this HUGE pile of legos in the floor. And I said, "I thought you said you didn't have any legos to build with?" And one of them said, "They are just not the kind that we need..."
Hmmmm. I think the value may be in the economics of situation and not necessarily getting something that they NEED but it's their money. We'll see how it goes.....

Friends

These are pictures I meant to include previously but didn't get to them in a timely manner. They represent fun times spent with good friends.

Adam holding a blue crab from the Chesapeake Bay. They were an amazing metallic blue color.

Creeking with friends....

Using a meter to check for electric current.

Taking apart electronics.

Buckeyes

We had a Buckeye Day with our friends. We made necklaces and had to make Buckeyes to eat of course!

Nature Hike with the Cousins

We took a nature hike with cousins today to collect Buckeyes. They were gracious enough to give us a guided tour to the Buckeye tree in their woods. As you know, the Buckeye is the Ohio state tree and it was given this name by Native Americans who thought that the seeds looked like the eye of a deer or buck. Native American used to roast, peel and mash the nuts to make a dish they called "Hetuk". They would also blanch the nuts to extract tannic acid which they used for leatherworking.

Hiking back to the tree.

Through a field.

THE Buckeye tree.

George was definitely the best collector!

Ok, maybe I am not a good Ohioan but I did not know that the Buckeyes seeds grew inside this spiny, round, yellowish "fruit"! These can hold anywhere from 1-5 nuts.

Then you break it open and viola!

On the way back, we stopped at the hideouts that they have built.

The bridge

I called this the porch swing.

They said this was their corn hole game.

Pure Boy Heaven!

Thanks Will, Charlie and George for sharing your woods with us!

The Reds Game 9/10/2010

We traveled south to Cincinnati to have a picnic at Eden Park for my birthday and then we went to the Red's Game. It was a lot of fun! The Reds finally beat the Pirates in the 12th inning and we were able to see Aroldis Chapman pitch in the 11 inning. He was pitching 103 mph!!!

Our picnic at Eden Park

The view of the Ohio River from the park

The view from our seats at the game.

Abby Jane just wanted Cotton Candy- then she didn't even like it!

It was fate- our seats were just outside of a Skyline kiosk.