Friends

One of the highlights of our summer occurred last weekend – our good friends from Wisconsin came to visit.  Our house was full of kids, five in total, and the visit was filled with lots of fun, laughter, and great conversations.  We packed quite a bit into a few days starting on Sunday when we went up to Providence College and walked around me and Yvonne’s old stomping grounds.

Then we moved onto the zoo which was a little busy given that it was Father’s Day and one of the nicest days we had around here for quite awhile.  But the kids got to play on the water wall:

take a picture on the dog (I have no idea why it has a big pink bow):

and see lots of animals including the moon bear who was actually moving around (something we haven’t seen too often).  That evening our friend Delia joined us for dinner but we, of course, forgot to take a picture! 

On Monday, we had a fabulous time at Mystic Aquarium.  Right when we arrived we got to see the trainers feeding the beluga whales which included having them do lots of tricks.  Later in the day we actually “played” with a beluga whale; or more appropriately, she played with us.  We were watching her swim from the underwater viewing window and this whale:

swam up to us and started looking at all of us and talking and playing.  She would swim down and look at us and then swim up the surface and make some noises and then come back down.  She also looked at the kids and would then lunge at the glass and open her mouth wide like she was trying to scare them!  She was even nice enough to pose for a picture:

How amazing is that??? It was so much fun!

We also watched a sea lion show where we learned how to tell the difference between seals and sea lions (seals have short front flippers and sea lions have long front flippers which they use as limbs and on which they support a lot of their weight).  We touched (or tried to touch) sharks and sting rays in the touch tanks.  The verdict was that the sharks felt hard like rocks and the sting rays were slimy!  We saw penguins being fed, tadpoles, turtles, and frogs swimming in the marsh, jelly fish floating, and lots of other marine animals.  Julia had fun taking pictures near various sculptures and here she is mimicking a baby sea lion:

Finally, on the way out of the aquarium we all had a Del’s lemonade.  This was a highlight for the kids because they had been waiting since the previous day to have one as we tried to get some at the Zoo but by the time we made it to the stand they had run out! It was the first Del’s lemonade for most of the crowd (including Benjamin) and it was a hit all around!

Tuesday was the last day of the visit and we spent it at the beach.  I didn’t get too many pictures as it was a little chilly and windy and Benjamin was not too thrilled with it.  But in the afternoon it got a lot nicer and we enjoyed digging in the sand and watching the fishing boats and the ferry go by.

We all had a wonderful few days.  The kids did great together; it was fun to see Julia playing and interacting with other kids so much and we really enjoyed having an extended period of time to catch up with Paul and Yvonne although the time still flew by and it felt over too soon.  And so Wednesday morning was sad as we said goodbye and then re-adjusted to the quietness of our normal household!!!