moody gardens all in one day

during our stay at my parents,

we ventured off one day and experienced moody gardens.

we did everything you could possibly do there.

we first experienced the aquarium pyramid (the blue one).

i remember going with my cousin as a young girl,

but is was like i was experiencing it again for the first time.

(excuse the quality of pictures...we forgot our camera and used only our iphone)

we loved the seals the best

the were so large and graceful

a very sweet rescue turtle with only one arm

sea horses are such amazing creatures & we were fascinated by them

the girls entering the shark tank

 once we viewed everything there we took a lunch break only to 

discover that it was raining outside. 

luckily, that didn't matter because there was a

covered walkway that directed us to our next destination,

which was the rain forest pyramid.(the one with windows)

it was kind of fun to walk over to it while it was raining

and pretend we were really entering a rain forest. :)

can you see the bright orange birds below to the left of the girls? these were our favorite!

he was a cute bird with lots of character

cami and cari are walking through the cloud

apparently it is the year of the bat and there were several flying around in the cave

all the birds were brightly colored

behind us are two large beautiful blue birds like seen in the movie rio

after we were done exploring the rain forest,

we shopped and watched a 3d, 4d, and film ride.

 we also took a look at the bodies revealed exhibit,

which did not allow photos to be taken.

it was very interesting, but a bit too revealing for my two :)

my 3 in the imax ready to watch to the movie

did you know momma polar bears defend their babies to death. this was a very interesting film.

this experience had several surprises in it

by that evening we had seen just about everything

and were ready to put our swim suites on and head over

to palm beach. the weather was perfect by then.

this was a great way to relax, eat dinner, and let the kids play.

they had a band playing some great hits from our

teenage years, which helped to make chad and i feel young again :)

they were both pretty eager to hit those slides

the rain from earlier in the day actually made making sandcastles a breeze

cari having fun in the wave pool

this is their silly pose

 we had heard that they were planning to shoot fireworks later 

that evening and decided we would end the night

on the colonel cruise ship.

we walked over the paddle wheel boat from the beach

it was the perfect way to end the evening

 we spied different fish in the water, 

disused our favorite moments of the day, 

and had a great view of the fireworks while cuddling close together.