Our first beach outings of 2015

Warm weather is on it's way!... we have had a couple days of 70-80 degree weather, and we have taken full advantage of it!  The kids have been waiting for these days to come!

Jonathan LOVES doing cartwheels... and any other tumbling/gymnastics!

This one makes me laugh, because of Nathan's face.  He cannot handle direct sunlight!

He decided this one was better... with the sunglasses. :)

We have been so grateful to be able to get energy out... do cartwheels, throw a football, play in the sand, stick our toes in the water... can't wait for summer!  

The City of Arts and Sciences

Since we moved here a year ago, we had been wanting to get season tickets to the Oceanografic (our aquarium here), the Science and History Museum, the Hemisferic, etc. (all of which are located in the City of Arts and Sciences), but we just never seemed to get around to it.  This year, right after King's Day, they started advertising a huge discount for season tickets.  The Lord must've known that we needed to wait until this moment! We got season tickets for all 6 of us for the price of 3 (one day) tickets to the Oceanografic! :)  We were SO thrilled... and now we can walk into any one of these places any time we want!

Hard hats and all!

The very day that we bought the tickets, we decided to head up to the science museum just to check it out.  There were many fun things to explore, but one of the kids' favorite things was this park.  They got to build things and use pulley systems and push train cars on a track, etc.  Such fun!

The kids had been asking and asking to go to the aquarium, so we planned a Saturday when Weston's soccer game was in the morning, and we took off for an afternoon at the aquarium.  We arrived just in time for the dolphin show, which was Carolina's favorite part of the day.

From there, we headed over to the shark tank.   It was mesmerizing.  I think we all could've stood and watched those magnificent creatures forever.

The have this tunnel that you can walk through with the aquarium on top and all around you.  It allows you to see the sharks from all angles.  It was pretty incredible when the sharks swam overhead.

The Oceanografic is not super huge.  We walked through in a couple hours, but the kids were pretty tired even after that amount of time.  The good thing was that we knew we'd be back, so there was no rush and no need to push to see every little things.  Such a treat!

After walking the whole aquarium, the kids were beat.... :)

After our time at the aquarium, we decided to make an entire day of it; and we treated the kids to a dinner out... we hardly ever do this, because it's so expensive, but it made for a very fun treat.  We didn't stay in the Aquarium to eat; we went to the mall nearby.  We found an "American Diner" and had a blast!

What a fitting end to the day... you can see the aquarium buildings in the background, behind Weston's head. :)  It was a super memorable day, and I know we will be going back!