Vancouver Aquarium

This past weekend we decided to take a little trip up to Vancouver for the night. We were going to visit the zoo or the aquarium and since rain was forecasted for the entire weekend, we chose the aquarium. We headed up Friday afternoon and made it across the border without much of a wait. We went straight to our hotel, and after relaxing a short while, headed out for dinner. 

By the time we were finished eating, it was time to go back to the hotel and get the girls ready for bed. I forgot to grab the pack-n-play so we thought about letting the girls sleep together, but Haleigh wanted to play so that didn't last long! Annaliese and I ended up sleeping in one bed, and Kyle and Haleigh were in the other. And since we really wanted the girls to get a decent night sleep, everyone ended up going to bed around 8:00!

Once we were all up and dressed, we grabbed breakfast at the hotel (they had a very tasty continental breakfast!) and packed up our stuff.

We looked up directions to the aquarium before heading out since we had our phones turned off. Somehow we ended up not quite in the right spot and drove around a little while before figuring out where we needed to be...but we eventually made it to the aquarium!

(I can't remember what she's looking at!)

 Most of the aquarium was inside, but there was an outdoor area where we could see the porpoises, the sea lions and the penguins. We had to get all bundled up for this part!

 Apparently they liked the rain because they were all very playful!

 Playing with a ball

 Haleigh's not so sure about this one!

Beluga Whales

 They had an aviary with several different brightly colored, but very noisy birds. Haleigh was pretty scared by their loud calls so we didn't stay long in this area!

 We tried this pic about 10 times...

I know it's hard to see, but that's an octopus in the tank behind them!

We ended our time at the aquarium with a 4D show about the arctic...the chairs vibrated, we got splashed in the face with water and there were bubbles floating in the air to complete the 4D experience! 

The girls did great and we were able to make it through the entire aquarium without anyone falling apart! I think it's safe to say we all enjoyed it but we were all a bit tired by the end of the day...thankfully the drive home was smooth; we only waited 10 minutes to get back across the border and the girls slept most of the time! Annaliese keeps asking when we get to go to Canada again so I guess it was a success!!