Colorado Trip 2013 - Denver Aquarium

When Wade & I went to Colorado back in 2003, we had visited the Denver Aquarium.  We both enjoyed it so much!  I remember watching the tigers and Wade talking about how much he wished that our little niece, Makinley (who was not quite 2 at the time, but will be turning 12 next month!), could be there with us.  We were in our early 20s, and kids were nowhere near being on our radar.  But... we loved being new Aunt/Uncle and were (still are!) crazy about the little girl that gave us those titles.  ;)  We were so excited on this trip to go back to the Aquarium with our own kids.

The aquarium is under different management and has changed quite a bit.  But, it was still really cool!  My camera batteries had both died by this point in the trip, so the aquarium is documented with grainy iPhone pics.  :(

 It happened to be Clayton's 8th birthday!  He was thrilled to spend his special day at the Aquarium.

We made sure to call Miss Catherine (who goes to school in Denver) months ahead of time to get on her schedule.  She came with us to the aquarium and then we went to visit her dorm room.  Clayton adores Miss Catherine, so seeing her made his birthday even more fun!

 The boys tried their hand at climbing the coconut trees.  Drew made it about halfway up, and Clayton got to the top and rang the bell.

We spent a lot of time feeding the stingrays.  My boys were really into that activity.  Those rays were crazy!  They would climb all the way up the walls in search of fish.  What a wild sight that was!

 The otters were a fav as well.

 The tigers... oh, the tigers...  I don't know if it was Clayton's striped shirt or what, but those tigers kept coming back to him over and over again.  I'm not gonna lie, I was just praying that the glass really was as strong as one would think.  :-/

We had a super fun day at the Aquarium!  We were all soooooo tired by this point, and missing our Baby horribly.  I was to the point where my arms physically ached to hold him.  :(  Thankfully, we were able to have a sweet, sweet reunion very soon!

This was such an amazing trip!  There are times when I get really, really frustrated with Wade's travel schedule.  It is so hard to be apart for roughly 8-10 days a month.  I think that is what makes these vacations so very precious.  We are able to take big vacations because of all of the airline miles and hotel points that Wade accrues.  Cashing in those points and spending quality time together as a family {almost} makes up for all of the time that we are apart.  Thank you, Babe, for working so hard to provide for our family and for planning such fun trips for us!  We are all so very grateful!!!