Monterey Bay Aquarium

While we were in Monterey for Michael and Kristin's wedding reception, we decided to make a fun weekend get-away out of it.  We wanted to spend as much time with the Whitt family as possible so we spent the night and had a full fun-filled day planned.  You can't go to Monterey without going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The first year that we were married I took so many different friends and visitors to the aquarium that I ended up getting a membership.  I could spend all day just exploring and observing all the different sea life and their exhibits.  I find it all so fascinatingly beautiful, probably because it is an entirely different environment than we live in.  
After taking Daxton to the CA Academy of Sciences with my friend Lisa, Dallas was also wanting to see Daxton's reactions to the different fish and exhibits.  We were so happy when our Uncle Scott and Aunt Karen invited us to join them for a morning visit to the aquarium.  They even had passes for us to get in!

Cannery Row in Monterey was packed with tourists this weekend, so we had to park a few blocks away from the entrance to the aquarium.  Daxton enjoyed the walk, though, and loved chewing on his baby carrier strap.  (On a side note, Dallas's hair is not crazy in the picture below...I perfectly captured a palm tree behind him.)

We weren't sure how long Daxton would stay awake, so we went to my favorite exhibit first...the jellies!  I seriously could stay hours just watching them glide through the water.  I find them so gorgeous and I love the lighting in each of the exhibits; makes for dramatic pictures.  Daxton's facial expressions were pretty funny.  You could tell that he was trying hard to figure out what was going on.  He couldn't take his eyes off the jellies.

I thought it was pretty funny seeing everyone with their smartphones out sending pictures off to instagram.  I hope people are using regular cameras as well to capture their memories!

Moon Jellies

This was his expression through pretty much the entire time at the aquarium.  Fascination...confusion?

I also LOVE the floor to ceiling, three-stories-high, deep water tank.  They had several larger fish, hammerhead and white tipped sharks, and (my favorite) two sea turtles!  Daxton and I were both in awe...

Watching the sardines and looking for the lone fish swimming against the flow of traffic.

Uncle Scott is the youngest in the Whitt family (in fact there is only about 8 years in between him and Dallas) so they just had their fourth child, little Emily.  It's funny to think that our cousin is the same age as our son :)

Emily and Daxton were so cute together!  She's such a fun-loving and happy little girl.  She was prefect for the camera, with the most gorgeous eyes.  Daxton was pretty tired at this point and didn't want to smile for all the pictures, but at least he appeases me by waiting patiently for mommy to put away her camera...he knows me so well already!

Our cousin Emily with Daxton

Gotta love those eyes!

Beautiful mommy and daughter

Making fish faces with daddy...

Or this could just be his "Ok, I've seen enough fish and I'm tired now..." face.

The last exhibit was the two-story-high, floor to sealing kelp forest exhibit.  I love watching the tide push the kelp and how the fish don't even have to swim, they just float and move along with the pull of the tide.

Like I said...I could spend all day just exploring and observing the different sea life.  I can promise you that I'll be returning with our little man when he's a bit older and can stay awake for longer periods of time!

Family pictures out on the observation deck looking for sea lions.

The most amazing thing as a mother...seeing the eyes of your child light up when they learn something new.  Can't wait to teach him everything I know!