our last big hurrah!

so today . . . was the big day! it was the day of the kindergarten end of the year field trip!

we went to the long beach aquarium, because you know those boys LOVE sharks!! diandra came with us--she usually does--and we took her jeep. that was almost adventure enough for joshua and jonathan! when we got to the aquarium, we bought our tickets and headed straight for the sharks. we spent some time at the touching pool, watching them NOT touch anything. for boys that talk about sharks so much, they were not all that brave about touching anything underwater. but diandra was very patient and finally had some success at getting their fingers in the water. by the time she got done with them, they were wet up to their shoulders and had touched baby sharks and bat rays.then we went into the lorikeet habitat. let me just say that those birds act like they own the place. really. it's like they challenge each other to see how close they can fly to people's heads. i am amazed that we all made it out without having had a close encounter of the painful kind with those colorful little birds. diandra bought nectar, but none of the birds were interested in her at all--unlike the guys guarding the doors . . .

there were a lot of kids there today, with schools and summer camps, and as we were getting out of her jeep one little kid said to his mom, "look, there's a movie star!" and she did kind of look like someone going incognito--you know, white blouse, denim shorts, boots, long blonde hair and enormous sunglasses. and we do see movies stars occasionally here. well, ok, we don't, but some people do. although we did ride a ride at california adventure with tara lipinsky one time . . . i have pictures to prove it. yes, i took pictures--i'm that person.

but back to the lorikeets . . . jonathan was pretty brave about the whole thing, but joshua looked like he thought they were going to attack him at any minute. he was not feeling comfortable at all! so he hid behind me while diandra tried to convince a lorikeet to sit on her hand and drink some nectar. she finally found a cooperative bird . . .
and then, it was lunch time. i don't know why lunch holds such importance when we are on a field trip, but it is all anyone can think about until we sit down, zip open those back packs, and eat the chips and cookies that we normally don't get for lunch. oh yeah, and the sandwiches too . . . diandra had been asking about lunch since 10:30, and we didn't even get to the aquarium until 10:00! we chose a table in the shade and started to sit down, but joshua was looking at it and making a face. i asked him what was wrong, and he said, "this table is too dirty!" so we kept looking until we found one that met his standards.

as we dived into our lunches, we realized that all of us had meat and cheese sandwiches. and chips. although joshua made the observation that the rest of us had orange chips, and his were tan with brown spots. i was thinking "yuck" until i saw that he was talking about his chocolate chip cookies. why he was calling them chips, i do not know.
as we sat munching our matching sandwiches, joshua looks at diandra and says, "so, are you 16?" she said, no, she was older than that. then he guessed 17, and again she said, no, older than that. so he guessed 19, then 20, then 21, and 22, and when she still said older, he skipped all the way to 30! she was somewhat alarmed by this! i was thinking it was pretty funny--he guessed all the way up to almost her age, and then skipped way ahead.

after lunch we went in to look at the indoor exhibits. the coolest thing we saw were divers feeding the fish in the big tank. there was one diver feeding sharks right by the window, so the boys got to see it up close and personal. i was taking pictures of them, and the diver took his mouthpiece out and smiled! it was so funny!it was a fun day at the aquarium. everyone had a great time--diandra was mistakenly identified as a movie star, jonathan and joshua touched sharks, and i got paid to spend the day at the aquarium instead of in the classroom . . . it's too bad every day can't be field trip day!