Penguins!

Jorja and Preston had the day off of school.  It is also A day for Maysen, so she gets out of school at 12:30.  We took advantage of that.  After doing a little shopping in the morning, we met Maysen outside of school.  We had a birthday surprise for these three kids!  Stockton did not come.  He had chemistry which he can not miss at this point.  Also, his birthday is not until January . . . and he wouldn't like this as much as the other kids.  I talked to Stockton in advance.  He was the only one who knew what the surprise was.  He was 100% okay with missing this activity.  Anyway, Mike and I took three of our kids to feed the penguins!  We also got them a season pass to the aquarium.  (Stockton got one of those also.  He was not too happy about that.)

First we got taken in a back room where we watched a cheesy video about the penguin feeding rules. Then we were given coats and gloves.

Preston, Jorja, Maysen

 Maysen

 Stephanie

Maysen and Preston were really cute holding hands.  This is the only picture we got, which missed most of the cuteness.  They walked to the penguin room through a lot of the aquarium holding hands. I found it completely adorable.

Maysen & Preston

I was very thankful for the gloves we were given.  I didn't know what to expect, so I brought gloves and coats for everyone.  I'm glad I didn't have to use them because these fish were sure slimy!

Stephanie

Once we picked our spots, they opened the door and the penguins just started waddling in.  It was the second most adorable thing I had seen all day!

We held the fish out to the penguins.  Once they came over we were supposed to wedge it in their mouth and then push it down.  I liked that much more than I anticipated.

Maysen

 Mike

 Preston

 Maysen helping Preston

 Jorja, Mike feeding, Maysen

 Jorja

 Look how happy Maysen is!  She loves penguins!

 Mike

Jorja

 Sorry Penguin, she's out of fish

 Maysen

 Preston

 Jorja

I finally realized I might get some better pictures if I wasn't on the same bench as them.  I slowly moved over when the penguins were on the other side of the room.  I wish I had done that much earlier, because we were almost finished by then.  Oh well.

Jorja, Mike, Maysen feeding

 Preston's trying to slowly pick up a fish that was dropped

 Jorja, Mike, Maysen feeding, Preston

 Stephanie

There was a mother and a child.  They were about the same size.  When the fish were mostly gone the child started crying to his mother.  He was loud!  The mom then fed him fish!  She got the fish out of her stomach and passed it to him.  It was amazing and slightly disgusting. Really cool to watch though.  She did that at least six time.

 Mike

 Stephanie, Jorja, Mike, Maysen, Preston

We didn't have much time to look around the aquarium after we finished with the penguins.  I had to get Maysen back for a sterling scholar interview for social sciences.  When that was finished we went as a family to Leatherbys.  Stockton was happy to attend that part.  We filled ourselves with ice-cream and then went home to watch the Amazing Race.  Today was the last official day of Maysen's childhood. It was a great day.