Good Morning Atlanta! Today is our last day here, and we want to make it a good one! We have one last hurrah, and we are super excited!
Emery woke up a bit confused about his sleeping area. We made a tent for him again last night in the hotel, so he would not be interrupted by light or sound. It worked wonderfully, as he slept solid all night (therefore so did Michael and Beka). But when he woke up he def did not want to be in his make shift fort anymore. He wanted up and some breakfast fast!
We fed the starving child, then went downstairs to get a luggage kart from the lobby to pack up the car. Emery had a grand ole time riding on it.
Although, when it was full of our luggage, he did not enjoy the ride so much.
This morning's packing went MUCH smoother than the morning before. No fights from the older of Team Oakley. All is peaceful here.
Once we checked out of the hotel, we just had to stop at the coffee shop we discovered yesterday. They remembered us, got us some goodies, and off we went.
Our stop today was in downtown ATL. We love the big city vibe this downtown radiates.
Once we arrived at our destination, Emery was very excited to start our day.
Once Emery saw the fishes on the elevator, he guessed where we were going...the Georgia Aquarium!!! We had been wanting to go for years, and we were all so exited to finally see this wonder of an attraction!
Emery was so stoked!
This started our journey to get a photo of Emery's "fishy face". He makes it sometimes, and we were trying so desperately to get him to do it! How cute would it be to take a photo of him making a fishy face at the Aquarium! The problem is it only lasts for a split second, so it is EXTREMELY hard to catch a photo...here were some of our attempts.
This one was pretty close. Not quite, but almost.
After the rather long walk from the car, we finally got to the entrance of the attraction. We did the tourist thing and posed by one of the many decorated dolphins outside.
Michael was trying to convince Emery to make the fishy face for mom.
He didn't want to...so we moved on...for now.
Once we got our ticket and made our way inside we were greeted with a wall o' fish! Now fish are not Beka's favorite things. In fact, she has a slight phobia of them coming near to or touching her. So she keeps her distance when she can. But even her and her messed up delusional fears could not keep her from appreciating the beauty that was before her (she just made sure they were a good distance before her).
When we were all the way inside of the aquarium, there was a show that was about to start, so we took our seats. Emery was a bit antsy, but this was quickly solved by Michael taking a stroll with him while Beka saved their seats. Once the show started, Emery was a great sport.
After the show we walked through the gift shop next door, and had some fun being silly.
The aquarium was set up so that there was a huge and open middle space, then there were off shoot exhibits to walk through and discover. One by one we made our way though all of them.
Emery was SO HAPPY to see all the fish, get close, try and catch them, and be free to walk, crawl, and explore the new things around him.
Michael and Beka were having fun too, as adults, but nothing compared to watcing little Emery's eyes light up at all the wonder around him.
Emery gave lots of Lovies to the fishes through hugging the glass.
After the first few exhibits, we all got pretty hungry. Getting our food was a nightmare. For sure the worst part of our day. The cafeteria was set up really odd, so we kept walking around in circles, there was hardly and food Beka could eat (dairy and meat free), Emery was starving, and he literally was looking at his food on the tray, but he could not have it yet, and people were being really rude! It took us almost an hour before we had food and were at a table, but we got there. We all needed to decompress after our stress. WHEW! We thought that the GA Aquarium was set up and run awesome, except for the cafeteria area. Get it together people!
Emery made us all feel better, though, when he started being silly with his silverware. It only takes a little bit before he captures whatever stress you were feeling, and melts it away with one little goofy gesture.
We again tried to get his fish face on camera...but no luck.
almost....
After lunch, there was much more to see, so off we went with full bellies and a determined attitude of being nice and helpful to others.
There was a play area under the penguin exhibit that Michael and Emery had a blast in!
The tunnel went underwater, and we caught a friend swimming by in the photo!
Then you could peek up and get on the penguin's level. When Michael lifted Emery up to do this, he hit his head on the top of the glass...Emery was fine, but Michael got many a comment and frown when he left the tunnel. One very rude woman actually came up to Michael and said "that was not a good dad thing to do". It hurt Michael's feelings, because he didn't mean to bump Emery's head (again, Emery was fine, he didn't even flinch! No bump, no bruise, no scrape, no pain). We could not believe someone would say something to us. Michael did not let it ruin his day, and Beka spent lots of time telling Michael how good of a Daddy he was. There were not many parents in there with their kids in the first place, so that shows how hands on and committed Michael is to making sure Emery discovers and plays all he can. Also, Beka assured Michael that there would be MUCH worse things he accidentally does to Emery in the future. This was nothing. But please, be nice to well meaning parents if the innocently screw up a bit (again, EMERY WAS FINE! We cannot believe this even was a thing!), we are doing the best we can.
This was Emery's "daddy just bumped my head" face. That was the extent of the damage.
I bet these dirty birds were judging us too! Haters...
After all that loveliness and scrutiny we brushed ourselves off, reset, and it was on to discover more fun.
Emery actually wanted to dive into this one.
He was so determined to grab a fish! He really gave it a good effort.
Emery made friends with the sucker fish on the glass. Do you see him?
Michael and Emery discovered yet another secret tunnel to play in! Beka took some photos of her little under water explorer.
Michael is such a good dad to get down on all fours and go through all of those tunnels with Emery. Beka did a few feet of the first one, and her knees are still bruised! Dads are made for that type of thing :)
He loves this fish.
Michael got to feel some sea creatures. He was really nervous at first...
Then, with his confidence up from touching that prickly thing, he went for a bat ray.
This is his "I touched it!" face.
The aquarium had a section where traveling exhibits could come through every few months, and while we were here it was a frog exhibit. Frogs are some of Beka's favorite animals! She and the Oakley men were very excited to see these fun creatures on display.
Then we went to the tunnel of terror for Beka.
Everything was blue in the tunnel, and we all looked really cool.
Notice Emery only has one shoe on? Well we did not...boo.
Once we made our way out of the tunnel, we had seen all there was to see at this magical place. We were ready to head to the exit. It was then that we noticed one shoe magoo in his stroller. We thought for sure it was a loss, but we backed tracked our steps anyways. We went all the way back up the elevator, through the frogs, and into the next exhibit. Just as were were going to give up, we looked on the railing of an exhibit we were in three exhibits ago, and behold! The missing shoe! Someone must had found it on the ground and put it up there for us to find. HOORAY!!!!
We were leaving like we had found a hidden treasure :) We were all so happy and full of fun.
On the way out we tried the fishy face just one more time...
No luck.... But that's ok. Emery was quite tired of the camera in his face.
This marked the end of all we planned to see in ATL, and we were heading home to Spring Hill TN from here. Emery was excited to be getting home.
But before we commit to four hours on the open road back home, we thought it would be smart to hit the restroom. Michael took Emery in with him to change his diaper. When he came out he said Emery was making the fish face the whole time! What a stinker! This is what Michael caught on film.
And there it is ladies and gentlemen. This is the best we can get of the much anticipated fish face. It is not to the full extent of funny that it is in real time, but we thought he put some good effort into it.
So there you have it. Our trip is over, and it was fantastic. Now to ride home and begin a very busy season of our lives. We were so thankful to spend this time all together, and we loved the aquarium as our last stop!
Thanks for sharing in our underwater adventure!
Love
Team Oakley
