Swing Up High: Train + Fish = Fun!

Daycare was closed today for Good Friday & the weather was finally warm enough to spend more than 10 minutes outside, so we decided to take a little family adventure. Several months ago, Porter had asked us if he could ever see a real live shark. We told him YES! and had made a promise to go to Underwater World at the Mall of America...So today, that is what we did. We live about 7 blocks from the nearest lightrail station, so we made the trek to the station, hopped on the lightrail & away we went to the MOA. It was a beautiful sunny day, so the walk was nice & it worked out really well for Blair to get on & off the train. We got to Underwater World & couldn't believe the line of people just to get tickets! Mental note: Next time, go online & buy tickets ahead of time because those smart people didn't have to wait in line & in fact, went right in. So we get in line & Porter says, "I don't think I want to do this." Ummm...sorry Charlie, but we're doing this! We waited in line about a half an hour & then made our way through the exhibit. It was cool, but I don't think Porter thought it was as cool as we thought he would. He was a little scared because it was pretty dark in there, so he sat on Daddy's lap the entire time. In fact, he sat on Daddy's lap almost the whole trip. Since the potty training thing is still a fairly new concept at our house, Blair was just waiting to suddenly have a wet lap to deal with...but Porter did great! We only went to the bathroom once after the exhibit. It was our first "public bathroom experience" & Porter kept saying "I'm going to fall in the water! I'm going to fall in, Mama!" but we made it without such a catastrophe. Phew. After the aquarium, we boarded the train once again & on our way back stopped at one of our favorite burger joints near our place for some lunch. We've ordered take out from this place many many times, but this was the first time Blair had ever attempted to get his chair inside the place. The great news is that he fit without a problem, so now we know we can walk to this place again if we want! By the time we fnished lunch, Porter was long overdue for a nap & in fact hit his wall on the walk home...on Daddy's lap! All in all, what a great family day!