Our Weekend: The Scarium & Boo at the Zoo

During the weekends leading up to Halloween the Long Beach Aquarium turns into the Scarium of the Pacific, so of course we had to check it out :)  What exactly made it so "scary"? Mostly some pumpkins scattered around and lots of kids in costumes, as well as Halloween arts and crafts stations. The scariest part was probably the Lorikeet walkway. Those birds are terrors! Squawking and latching onto people shirts, eating people's fingers, diving by our heads... I'm not a fan. 

Ez's costume is not warm-weather friendly, so we wore our matching Bad to the Bone t-shirts (I would have made one for Joe as well, but they only had one decal left when I went back to Michaels. Lesson learned, next time I'll stock up!). 

I haven't been to the Aquarium in about a decade, and of course it was Ez's first time. It was a ton of fun. At first Ez would walk close to the tanks, but take a step backward if any of the fish swam near him. He did not know what to make of those critters. But he got braver as the day went on, and even stuck his fingers in the shark tank - the little daredevil! I don't know if you've ever touched a shark before, but their skin is a lot more rough than I was expecting, and it turns out their skin is covered in tiny little teeth. So creepy!! We also touched jellyfish and they felt really smooth and squishy. They were also glowing in the dark, like a black light, which was really pretty. Joe touched a stingray, and it tried to attack him. It flapped it's wing-thingys out of the water and made a loud splashing/suction sound. So of course I screamed. That became known as The Great Joe vs. Stingray Battle of 2014. My absolute favorite sea creatures are the sea horses and sea dragons. They seem make believe, even when I can see them with my own eyes they seem like they belong in a fantasy land. The penguins were also fun to watch. They would swim right up to our hands on the glass, and seemed playful and friendly. Ez was content to sit watching them for awhile.

My strong little boy!

Sea Dragons: They look more like sea kangaroos to me!

Sea Horses - I want to bring them home with me.

We bought combo tickets for the aquarium and the zoo, and on Sunday we headed oveer to Boo at the LA Zoo. The first attempt Ez made at trick or treating left him in tears and running for cover behind Daddy's legs. Not sure what was so terrifying about a stranger handing him candy, but I guess that's a good thing? Eventually he warmed up to the idea, and he liked looking at all the goodies he had collected. 

We saw a lot of animals, but unfortunately most of them weren't being too photogenic. Most of the animals were sleeping. One of Ez's favorite books right now is "Polar Bear, Polar Bear What Do You Hear?" by Eric Carle, so we have been practicing lots of animal sounds lately. So we had Ez snorting like a rhino, and the giant sleeping rhino actually peeked open his eyes and lifted his head for a moment. I think Ez was shocked that the giant rock-like lump was actually alive and moving. It was really cute. This was the first time I've seen the leopards out and about at this zoo. They were pacing all over their cage and seemed kind of agitated (or maybe just hungry). They are so beautiful. All of the big cats are my favorite. We could also see the elephants giving themselves dirt baths, but they were obstructed by trees and stuff, so there were no clear picture shots. Oh well, some things are better seen with your own eyes than through a lens anyway. 

Ez's favorite part of the zoo was the playground. He's all about slides lately, so that was right up his alley. He was such a trooper too, walking most of the way, up and down all kinds of hills. Needless to say he took a looong nap that afternoon. We only stayed a few hours, and left around lunch time when it started getting hot. I think it was good timing because the parking lot was packed when we left. 

That. face. Apparently he still hasn't figured out how that candy got in his bag...

He's turned into such a ham.

Love these two so much!