More of the Aquarium

Sophie loved this dolphin statue outside the aquarium.

Our girls would not stand together for a regular picture outside the aquarium. They kept moving and getting into strange poses. Here's one outtake.

Georgia Aquarium

big hug

I sense an orange theme going on here!

me and Sophie with some beautiful tropical fish

Sophie & Matt

This year, we decided to do something different for Sophie's birthday. We headed to Atlanta on Thursday afternoon for a long weekend. One of the main reasons we headed to Atlanta was to visit the American Girl doll store and let Sophie pick out her own doll for her birthday. They also have a bistro there where you can eat with your doll. However, on Friday, we were able to visit the Georgia Aquarium during the morning. It was very crowded though! Abbie was very fascinated when she saw someone in a scuba suit cleaning the glass in one of the tanks. Sophie loved one particular type of shark. They also have dolphins now so we were excited about seeing them.

Fall Vacation-- SeaWorld Day 2

SeaWorld Lighthouse

Katima and her new calf born Oct. 9

We all enjoyed the Killer Whale show.  We sat several rows up so we were out of the splash zone.

The girls loved the rides in the kid's area at SeaWorld.  There were no lines to ride, unlike the Magic Kingdom.

Abbie and Uncle Matt pose for a picture in front of a tropcial aquarium.

Ah! There is a stingray on my head.

We visited SeaWorld for a second day on Tuesday before we headed home.  There are so many shows and exhibits at SeaWorld that you really need two days.  Uncle Matt and Aunt Martha came with us to SeaWorld this time.  Phil decided to sleep in this time at the hotel, but he joined us in the afternoon at the park.  It was exciting to see a newborn killer whale during our visit.  The calf was about 10 days old during our visit.  The baby whale was nine feet long and 350 pounds at birth; it will be a while before we find out if she is a boy or a girl.  After seeing some shows, our family visited the kids' area: Shamu's Happy Harbor while the others in our group rode some thrill rides.  Abbie and Sophie had an awesome time riding the kiddie roller coaster, the carousel, and other rides over and over again.  There were no waits for any of the kids' rides, which was wonderful.  After 1.5 hours of nonstop fun, we headed over to meet Phil, Martha, and Matt on the other side of the park.  The girls enjoyed some cotton candy compliments of Uncle Matt.  We visited one last aquarium with stingrays and tropical fish before we headed back to the hotel.  The girls were tired from three days in a row at theme parks, and they were in bed by 7:30 PM.  Phil gave us a ride to the Orlando airport the next morning and we all headed home.

Fall Vacation--SeaWorld Day 1

We met Abby Cadabby at SeaWorld.  Our Abbie is still scared of people wearing costumes.

Sophie met some old sea hags.

SeaWorld had all kinds of photo opportunites with different characters.

Sea Lions

The Penguin Encounter

Sophie at the underwater viewing area for dolphins

On Sunday afternoon, we drove from the beach to Orlando to visit SeaWorld.  On the weekends in October, SeaWorld has a Halloween Spooktacular program, where they have all sorts of Halloween festivities including trick or treating.  We spent most of the afternoon letting Sophie get pictures with different characters and getting candy.  Abbie is still scared of people dressed up, so she stayed away.  In the late afternoon, we visited the penguins, sea lions, manatee, and dolphin exhibits.  The girls loved the underwater viewing at the dolphin area. We had a great time, and we saved some attractions and shows to see with Aunt Martha and Uncle Matt Riley on Wednesday when we would go again to SeaWorld.

Aquarium Re-do

a beautiful butterfly

some of the penguins

Look, Abbie! Some of the fish look like Nemo!

This post is dedicated to you, Mimi! I don't know why the pictures showed up before and then all of sudden they were messed up. I reposted!

On Wednesday, the girls and I headed to the aquarium. One of the people who was in Matt's inservice class gave us free tickets which was so nice! We headed to the building with the Ocean animals in it first. There were butterflies, penguins and many other fish there. We loved seeing all of the butterflies and Sophie really enjoyed the penguins too. They had color-coded tags for the penguins and then you could read what their names were at the exhibit. Sophie loved seeing all of the little tags on them and finding out their names! The aquarium is a big place. We got through the 1st building in about an hour but we had to stop and take a lunch break in the middle of the other one (the freshwater fish building) because it is so extensive. The girls saw most of it and then Matt took Sophie back later that day while Abbie was napping so he could enjoy it too. Sophie was excited about the sea turtle which weighed about 300 pounds. Sophie told her daddy that she had seen a "Gi-normous" turtle. Isn't that funny? We enjoyed the aquarium-seeing the turtles, alligators, fish, seahorses however Abbie didn't want anything to do with the enormous crabs!

Seeing the Grinch

Caleb, Emma, & Sophie

the people of Whoville

Sophie & Emma

the Grinch

We have been pretty busy the last few days. On Thursday, Sophie went to school as usual and then, that afternoon my cousin, Sarah and her husband and kids came in town for a conference, as well as my Aunt Mary. My aunt came along so that she could babysit the kids while Sarah and Jason went to their conference. We had dinner with them that night at my parents' house and then spent the next few days hanging out with them. Sophie was excited to be hanging out with her cousins. Everywhere they went together Sophie wanted to hold their hands. Poor Caleb because he was the only boy cousin around! On Friday, my aunt & I went out to Opryland to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" in Ice. It was really awesome and also freezing cold. Everything inside was made out of ice in the display. It wasn't crowded and all of us went down the indoor slides except for Sophie! That was a blast! I think I was more into it than the kids were because they said they were freezing. I was like thinking, "we're here, we've paid the money (it wasn't cheap) and it's not crowded so let's don't go through this too quickly." They have everyone wear the big blue parkas inside and Sophie looked so funny because hers was huge. She fell down one time and was having trouble getting up because the sleeves on her coat were quite long as well as the length of the coat itself. It was good for keeping her warm though!

Afterwards, we decided to head over to Opry Mills Mall (right next door) and let the bigger kids see the Aquarium Restaurant that has a huge indoor aquarium. My aunt just suggested that we go ahead and splurge and have lunch there so we did. The kids all loved that. Sophie had been before but she was in heaven getting to spend time with her big cousins. =)

Atlanta Zoo/Aquarium

Paula & Sophie on carousel at zoo

Sophie in tunnel at aquarium playground

our family at the aquarium

After going to the zoo on Saturday morning, we came back and took naps that afternoon. Then, we took the subway out to the Ikea store to look around. Sophie had been on the subway in DC, but she was a baby and didn't remember it. She was really excited about it this time. Anyway, after going to Ikea, we headed over to Atlantic Station (an area with lots of stores and restaurants) and we had dinner. Then, we headed back to the hotel. Since we took the subway to Ikea, it reall limited what we could take home with us.

On Sunday morning, we visited the aquarium. It was really nice, but it got really crowded around 11:00. They have some huge whales and sharks there and lots of other fish and sea creatures. Sophie went right up to the glass and would say, "hi, fish". She wanted to know what the otters and other animals names were. One of the workers at the aquarium asked Sophie what her name was. Sophie said "Sophie. My Mommy has a baby girl in her tummy but I not know her name." The lady didn't hear what Sophie said so she asked Matt. Matt explained and they got a laugh out of that. =) For lunch, we were able to see Sophie's great-uncle Bobby's house and go to lunch with him. Then, we headed back to Nash Vegas. We were all totally exhausted that night but we had a wonderful trip!

Finding Nemo at the South Carolina Aquarium

Sophie outside of the SC Aquarium












During the slow tourist month of January, many Charleston attractions participate in the "Be a Tourist in Your Own Town" promotion for local Charlestonians. We purchased passes for the second time this year, and made quick use of the family pass by visiting the South Carolina Aquarium on the first day of the promotion, New Year's Day. This was our second trip to the aquarium, and our last trip was last January. We knew Sophie would love seeing all of the fish and critters; especially now that she can say the word, "fish." Sophie's favorite attraction at the aquarium was the river otters feeding time demonstation. She pressed hard against the display case to see all of the river otter action. She also enjoyed seeing the schools of fish other sea creatures.
















Look how much Sophie has grown in one year!
January 2007













January 2006