Cub Scout Trip to the Florida Aquarium

Here is Nathan making a beautiful face by one of the tanks... I am not sure which tank this is, because quite frankly there were a lot of fish tanks that night and these were the least interesting parts of the evening.  Some of the best parts we were not allowed to take pictures of including some of the behind the scenes tours.  We even got to go on the roof above the shark tanks and into the "kitchen" where they prepare the meals for all of the fish.  

Here are the boys eating their second dinner:  pizza and lemonade.  Yummy!  This is the weekend I started making healthier choices so I just sat here and watched everyone else eat. (As a side note I am actually posting these pictures about three months later... and I have lost 50 pounds)

Here are Eric and Liddy Matheny, cub scout family friends.  

This is some of the boys during the squid dissection.  I hope they were very respectful.  I was helping Gavin and Kate during their dissection at another table since none of the other moms wanted to get their hands dirty.  During the part where they split the parents up and explained the rules to the parents when they asked questions I raised my hand and asked what would happen when I kid wanted to take squid parts home.  The staff looked at me like I was crazy because the squid reeked and by the time the dissection was over it was just mush.  I felt pretty vindicated when Nathan actually asked if he could indeed take parts of the squid home.

Logan, Will and Nathan with Aquarium employee.  Perhaps we see a future marine biologist?

This is the only picture I have of Kate and Gavin dissecting squid and it is blurry, but I wanted proof that they were there too.

During the tours they let us use the elevators that they use to transport the sharks and other big fish around in.  The aquarium workers were kind enough to let us parents take pictures of our children trapped as if they were in a cage.  How thoughtful.

We couldn't take pictures at night when we actually were "sleeping with the fishes," because that would have freaked them out during their night time, but in the morning we got to run all over the place.  We got to visit the touch tank, which is what you see Gavin and Will at below.  these are star fish and other anemones that live in really cold water so it was hard to put your hand in it for too long. Brrrrr....

Nathan really liked hanging out by the sting ray tank and was convinced they were trying to give him a "hi-five".  I am just glad that they didn't hop out.  They were swimming pretty high on the edge of the tank.

We also had a scuba diver give the cub scouts our own show where he talked to us about the Tortuga Coral Reefs.  This is a picture of the group who stayed over night with the scuba diver.  It was very educational and very fun... although I was tired afterwards.  I am glad I just went to visit my mom when we were done instead of driving all the way back to Alachua!