Oceanarium

Today we went to the Oceanarium in Bournemouth to check out the new two-week old penguin exhibit (and the rest of it, it was our first time there). The kids were behaving really well and we had a fun day! Ethan kept saying, "Come on Hailey!" and leading her around/wanting her to come play or see things.

Turtle, coming through:

Coloring:

Hailey was so excited to see the little penguins:

A few of the Penguins looked a little sickly (and had lost a ton of feathers) and were secluded which made me think of "Happy Feet" and hope that it wasn't a result of being depressed because they were held in captivity.

One of the few times I actually felt tall. :)

All lined up in a pretty little row:

We found Nemo!

Cool tiny little lobster-like thing:

Turtle turtle:

Turtle, eel and black fin shark all in one frame. This clear tunnel viewing area was really cool because they would just swim right over you so you could see the bottom of them as well (and their teeth)! And it felt like you were right there next to them.

Two black fin sharks:

Jaws:

Checking out the kids play area:

Some digging time in the sand. And beach ball tossing. That Ethan has a really good arm. He aims and throws better than me! (Which actually isn't saying much but he throws really well for his age. They told me that at his preschool too, when they were throwing water balloons. We'll have to get him into t-ball when we get back to the U.S.)

Then we went back to the Oceanarium to have lunch on their deck and after probably 4 different times checking, we finally got to see the sea otters (they came out of their den finally). 

Ethan said both the sea otters and Penguins were his favorite:

Then during naptime, I kept hearing part of this song being played over and over again for hours. I was wondering if they were teaching some dance routine for some sort of festival or pop-up mob dance thing. After the kids' naps, we went to go check it out. Turns out, they are filming a Bollywood movie dance scene right behind our townhouse! A crew member was telling me that it was mostly filmed in London and Bournemouth. We stayed to watch, it was pretty entertaining (and catchy). The kids started dancing as well, I got a video of it. Here are some of the still shots:

Photographer is taking pics of the kids dancing:

Oops, better get back to work:

More lively dancing:

He's back for more pictures:

It was fun to watch. These poor dancers were getting worn out after several hours of this. The ones in heels were starting to stumble during their short break.

After dinner, Ethan started loading toys and some other things into his orange Trunki suitcase and backpack and informed us that he and Hailey were going to walk to the airport tomorrow and fly back to the U.S. and stay with grandma and grandpa. (We had a good day today, it wasn't that he was mad or anything, just matter of fact about going back to the U.S.) Hmmm, ok... :)