Emma's 7th Birthday!!!

June 27, 2001 Emma Marie Welch was born 3 days early, surprising us all . She was a sweet beautiful baby girl. I can't believe that was 7 years ago.
Today we woke up to an 80* beautiful day and to celebrate Miss Emma's 7th birthday we went to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It's about an hour away, and was well worth all of the lunch packing and preparing. WE spent 6 hours there and we all had fun. WE walked the whole time and saw everything from sharks to the walrus exhibit to the elephants.
Some of the highlights to our kiddo's were :
the Kid Zone where they climbed and played and saw some small creatures bugs, frogs and a Manta Ray. We had to pry them away. It was the first thing we went to and they did not want to leave it. Scott and I were doing all we could to get the kiddo's to see that the entire Zoo was still there waiting to be explored. Nolen LOVED this area. The climbing area was about 30 feet long and reminded us all of Ninja Warrior, which we love.
the Walrus exhibit Mia was sitting watching them swim around and instantly all 3 of them were sitting on the embankment right in front of her and if the glass weren't there she would have been nose to nose with them. amazing.
the beluga whales The talk was great and the children all loved to hear about all they could do and to see the trainers working with them. They loved the jumps and the splashes and to hear all of the sounds the make. Titus could not believe that they weren't sharks, and we couldn't convince him. Whenever they came near he would start jumping and laughing, it was so cute.
The elephants the mere size and massiveness of them was a lot for the children and Emma loved them.
The highlight was one of the last thing that we saw : a little family of 5 river otters. They ran around and swam and were so funny. They were just placed in an environment with some goat-like creatures and they weren't sure about them. Whenever they walked near the otters they would turn around and tumble away. They were hilarious. None of us wanted to leave. Nadia loved watching Ty jump and laugh at the otters, she was belly laughing. It was cute.
The whole place was so kid-friendly that our children had a blast.
We were all wiped out afterwards and couldn't even make it to dinner out for Emma's birthday so instead we got KFC on the way home in Gig harbor and ate it at home while watching the M's game. We then played croquet on the lawn and everyone wore their new Point Defiance tee's (Mia and Ty monkeys, Emma tiger and Nolen shark) to bed. Another great day. Blessings.