Sea Lions, Birds, and Fish...Oh My!

Mr. M hasn't had a day off work in eons. He's been working up in Santa Barbara on his "weekends" and then when DWTS ended, he went right up there to finish up the movie to get it ready for festivals. The one exception was last Thursday. Paprika had Open House night at school, so he moved Heaven and Earth to be home that whole day. It was awesome. :-)

Paprika's school was only in the morning that day (usually she is PM kindergarten) - so we had the whole day to go have fun together. Yipee!




The first thing we did was go have lunch at Rubio's. I brought lots of paper and crayons for the big girls, and they just sat there and drew the whole time we were eating. Baby Violet hung out in her little carseat (she is almost too big for it - sob!) She was happy as she could be sitting between our two tables, just hanging out. I always get a little nervous when we go out to eat, but this time it just worked! Ahhhhhh...relief!



I was craving salmon, so I ordered the salmon chile lime burrito. Yum! The thing is - since December, I have pretty much only been eating vegan. I used to be a vegetarian, but then Violet has a milk intolerance (so I can't have milk, since I am nursing her). So, back in December, I just started eating vegan most of the time. I have cut back about 98% on eating meat, but sometimes when I go out to eat and I am really craving something, I will eat it.

In addition, I started reading a lot of books and watching a lot of movies/documentaries about being vegan - and that just kind of cemented in my mind why I have been eating this way. I will not bore you with the details (and I am definitely NOT trying to convert anyone) - just needless to say, it's been working for me. :-)



So, yea...after not eating meat in forever, I had my salmon burrito. And half an hour later, we were at the Aquarium of the Pacific to spend the day!

The very first exhibit I saw was a tank full of SALMON! I swear one of the fish looked me straight in my eye and that look went straight to my heart. Oh, the guilt. I felt awful and just about broke down right there at the aquarium. Here I was looking at this living, beautiful fish and then thinking about how I had just contributed to the killing of one its comrades. Blargh. Lesson learned. If I am going to eat fish, don't visit the Aquarium right afterwards. ;-)

But that little detail aside, we had a great day at the Aquarium. Here is a video we took of the girls over by the sea lion exhibit. It is really cute (in my humble opinion) and worth watching! :-)



Ginger (age 2) is so funny. She picks out all her own clothes. After wearing only pajamas (and preferring to wear nothing at all) - she put together this pretty ensemble. Could she look any more girly?! She was like a little pink princess trotting around the aquarium.



The girls had fun playing hide and go seek out in the little water splash play area:



And of course, we had to go visit the birds. The girls loved feeding the birds. Even Baby Violet found them fascinating.



Ginger got a little help from Mr. M:



Paprika wanted to stay and visit with the birds forever. She called this one her best friend:



So, a good day was had by all. Except for the fish in my burrito. I still feel bad for that little guy. ;-)

This little cutie had the best time just hanging out. After a full day at the Aquarium, we hit the school's Open House, which was a ZOO! I'll have to post about that later because all the pictures from that are on my other camera. :-)




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