The 24th at the Aquarium

We were really happy to get Jon back in town before his birthday, and especially after Sophie's stitches incident.  It's really awesome knowing that as long as we live in Utah we'll get to celebrate Jon's birthday with him in whatever way he likes! 

This year we returned to the Living Planet Aquarium and enjoyed seeing the baby penguins we saw advertised on billboards all over Utah.  They weren't so little anymore, but the girls loved watching the older penguins swim under water.  I loved watching them get startled every time a penguin swam in their direction.

Lydia talked and talked and talked of nothing but the sharks as we drove to the Aquarium, but didn't really like them once we got there.  Soph was beyond terrified and was really upset that we spent any time watching them at all.  Jon had gone to get something in the car and because Lydia had been so excited to see the sharks we agreed to  meet there, but once Jon caught up to us we didn't spend another minute with the sharks.

The favorite area by far was the South America section where we walked across a rope bridge a couple of times.  I think the girls could have spent the entire afternoon getting back in line to cross that bridge over and over again.  The birds in there were pretty cool too; some of them looked like birds they'd seen on Rio.  Most of the animals were cool in South America. Just not the snakes.

Before we left to go home we saw this:

 

 

Jon had to get a picture in front of it with his girls.  Well, Lydia and Soph anyway.  They were so tired at this point and Lydia burst into tears almost immediately.  We finally found out that it was because she wanted to be in the picture all by herself, and the teeth were just too much for Sophie.  Lots. Of. Tears.

We drove home so that we could enjoy s'mores and cheesecake (this one was more of a baking disaster than anything else).  Why is it that when you bake for just your own family everything turns out just wonderfully, but if you bake for company it inevitably fails? Am I the only one???  I made Jon cheesecake five years ago and it was beautiful and perfect and we ate it ourselves.  And I didn't take pictures.  I totally should have.  This year there were cracks.  But that's not important.  I covered them up with cream.  And the company was so good that I pretended I didn't care!  It really was so much fun having Jon's parents and the Pynes over. 

We ended the evening with fireworks. The perfect end to a pretty terrific day. The mosquitoes were a little much but the display was awesome and Jon put on a fantastic show. I love watching our girls twirl sparklers around.  They love being a part of the excitement and choosing which firework to hand Dad is a pretty big job. Happy birthday Jon! 38 looks so good on you!! In fact, you don't look a day over 37! ;)