Number Eleven

     Yesterday, was my baby sister's 11th birthday! How is that even possible....

     Her special day started off with donuts for breakfast, and then we all loaded in to the car for a trip to the aquarium (her personal request). Here's some photos from our fun day!

     The only aquarium I've been to, is the small one in Denver, so this was a treat not only for the birthday girl, but for me as well. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Not gonna lie, haha!

Look at this cool floor! Doesn't it make you want to be somewhere warm and tropical?

     Let the journey begin! It's pretty rare that our whole family gets to go on an outing of this magnitude together, so of course we needed people photos as well as marine life photos!

From left to right: Mikayla (17), Silas (7), Mom, and the Birthday Girl Amelia (11).

As we're standing under this massive mammal, my sister says "Imagine if this fell on us...." Thanks for that image.

Don't you think he's cute!?

     Fun fact about me. When I was younger, I was extremely in to marine biology and seriously considered going to college with this career in mind. I took a marine biology course when I was around 16 and fell in love with all things having to do with the ocean. I was constantly checking out books from the library and fell in love with the beautiful artistic images of corals, fish, and mammals and decided that I wanted to be a marine photographer. As you can see, that didn't exactly pan out how I expected. At least it hasn't yet.

This little spiny crab is so adorable!

This is a real shark baby. It's due to hatch in February!

     Throughout the Aquarium, they had stations set up to be able to touch some of the animals. We touched moon jellies, rays, bamboo sharks, starfish, and anemones! 

The colors are so dreamy.

Jellyfish are one of my favorites. I wish the photo was a little clearer, but you can still appreciate their beauty.

So dreamlike and beautiful.

     Did you know that jellyfish do not have brains? And a group of jellyfish is called a smack? I will tell you, that they feel exactly like you would think. Squishy! "I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine!" There were a lot of Finding Nemo references on this excursion....

Parker (on the left) and his friend.

     Meet Parker and his friend. They had just finished a show with their trainers, and were soaking up the attention. After their handlers left, they continued to flirt with who ever was watching and posing when you told them how cute they were. I need one for my own, so if anyone is feeling generous...?

Me and Mom.

     After hours at the Aquarium, we decided to walk the boardwalk right outside and see some of the views. It was a foggy, gorgeous day at the harbor.

     We finished exploring and went to Panda Express for dinner and then Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour for dessert. Farrell's is an experience in itself! If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it.

     This is a very popular birthday destination. My mom told us that growing up, you were one of the cool kids if you had your birthday party at Farrell's. When you walk through the door, you're greeted by friendly staff, appropriately dressed for the theme. Think barber shop quartet style. They ask if there is a birthday being celebrated, and give you a birthday sticker with your name on it to wear. You get a free sundae with a candle in it on your special day, and the staff pound the drum, blow the siren, and then they sing a song just for you. In the hour or two that we were there, we witnessed them sing to 20 that's right, 20 people celebrating their birthday! Yeah, we counted, haha.

Their menu is presented in an old fashioned newspaper style. So cute!

     We shared a mountain of shoestring fried onions dipped in plum barbeque sauce before we ordered our desserts.

The coffee passed my "coffee snob taste test".

     Amelia was a little shy about having strangers sing a song to her, but she dealt with it well (better than I did at her age!). The waitress came up with her staff playing the drums, whooping and hollering to get everyone's attention, and they sang and danced for her.

Enjoying her birthday sundae!

     The rest of us shared a peanut butter and chocolate sundae, and a banana split. I would have been completely satisfied had it been my birthday, and I know she had a wonderful time.

     Here's to another year of being your sister Miss Amelia! Big things are waiting for you and I'm so happy we got to share this day all together. Love you baby sister!