Aquarium!!!!

So last night I was trying to figure out what to do with the boys today. I thought about being brave and taking them to the Philadelphia Zoo, we have a year membership, but it's still chilly and I really don't think I can handle driving in that part of the city alone. So I started thinking about closer options...I decided on Jeninkson's Aquarium in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ. I had heard good thing about it from the boys' speech therapist and my boss and co-workers. So I decided to brave an outing alone with the boys. And to make it more challenging, I opted to go no stroller!

Though the boys got up at 6:30 this morning and I was rethinking going, the Aquarium doesn't open until 10, so I was worried they would get tired. But after asking them if they wanted to go see fish today...the plan was set in stone haha!

It turned out to be awesome! When we got there, I gave the boys a little speech about how they had to hold mommy's hand and couldn't run off. So in we went. $10 for me and the boys were free! What more can you ask for? Luke refused to get his hand stamped haha...thankfully he was free so he didn't need a stamp.

When we first got inside the boys were a little scared, the tanks were like floor to almost ceiling and full glass...with large fish in them...John wouldn't get close to the tanks until....

haha yep the shark tank he wanted to be close to...what a wacko!

John pointing to the next thing. The funniest thing was 1 time I said are you ready to move on to the next thing? So the rest of the time Luke would say "next thing mom, next thing."

Checking out the fish!

Seal....John was afraid of them too and Luke was more interested in something else....

No, not the turtles...

The alligator! Before we left this morning, Luke kept saying "going see alligator" and I kept telling him "I don't think so." Because I really didn't think they had any...boy am I glad they did lol!
There were penguins there, but 2 of the penguins were fighting, and so they had taken them out of the enclosure. And the rest seemed to be on edge and just stood there.

Upstairs they had a touch tank with sting rays and other stuff, but the boys weren't that excited about that lol. There were some turtles and snakes in tanks too....much to my disappointment they both wanted to sit and watch this one snake...eeew!

A seahorse!

Luke...see the look on his face...yea that's because John was screaming..."go in the car" haha!

So the boys were great, they held my hand the entire time, when I wanted them to let go for me to take pictures they would say "hold hand, hold hand." So nice to know they listen when it is important. After we had seen everything which took about 30-45 minutes, the place was getting crowded for me to be wrangling the boys on my own, and John wanted to "go to the car" haha. So we left, they make you leave through the gift shop! Ha if that's not a designed move...but I got out of there with no toys and no meltdowns about not having any toys. Score more points for my big boys!

The aquarium is on the boardwalk, the boys asked to go out to the ocean. Below is a series of pictures of me attempting 1 picture...this is the unfolding of a meltdown. This is what happens when you tell them "no you don't need to hold my hand" John then says whining "hold hand hold hand" I'm thinking I just want 1 picture, so I say hold Luke's hand...and this is what happens...

Luke won't let him hold his hand and he starts to walk away from John....

And now I have 2 peacefully sleeping little boys.