Birch Aquarium

I love these silhouettes!

February was Museum month again. Needless to say, we're already looking forward to it again next year... So many places, so little time! And, we had to revisit some of our favorites! This time we went to the Birch Museum with our friend Ariana from preschool and her mom, Ivy and sister, Aniya.

Here we are doing the "one finger touch" to feel a sea cucumber. Both of my kids were brave with touching the other things, but were a little more reluctant to feel this one. It was squishy!
Below Ian is checking out one of the many tanks of seahorses. Brooklyn remembered these from last year. How could we forget the one species that has the MALE carry the baby eggs to term? Yes, we just HAD to watch the short video again. Over and over again. It is so amazing to see several teeny tiny seahorses just burst out of the male with each convulsion. Sadly, seahorses are endangered. Very few survive to adulthood and their best self defense is a good camoflauge. Their small fins make them poor swimmers, so they just wrap their little tails around the stems of stable plants for protection.
This picture of Ian cracks me up. Thanks to the C5's (Calvin, Carol, Caden, Caleb, and Cameron) Ian has some "new-to-him" accessories that have become part of his daily uniform!
Above are some starfish without the camera flash. Below are some eels with the flash. Hopefully I didn't blind the fish... Oh well they're just eels. Yuck!
Creepy, Scary, Gross! EWE! (Not the girls, of course!)
I love this HUGE aquarium. It looks so authentically ocean! Below is a little display about the glass used to make this particular tank. CRAZY STUFF! I wonder how many mad scientists and engineers, it took to create this thing? I would think that it'd be a tough job getting it right the first time!
I like all the coral in this tank below.


This picture says it all with the heart sweater. We love life, our family, and all the beautiful creations that surround us!