Mom's Day Monday

Today was our real day of celebrating Mother's Day. Why? because Sunday is so cliche'. We live on the edge and celebrate on weekdays. Whoa there cowboy. 

Actually, Brad took today off in advance to give me an extra day to sleep in while he got up with the boys, made me a nice breakfast and even had set up a massage for me at a local spa. 

I've never had a massage. I'm a country girl. I get dirty and get knee deep into projects and the kids and the last thing I ever think about is pampering myself. 

Besides, having some strange person rubbing my back always seemed slightly creepy.

But Brad was sweet enough to set the whole thing up and I did have a pretty worn out back from carrying the monkey Camden around all the time so I took full advantage of this quiet hour to myself in a peaceful little room with Asian zen music and relax my muscles. 

At first, it was hard for me to take it seriously. The lady (thank God it was a lady and not a man) was massaging my...ears? I didn't know ears could be massaged. And her belly was gurgling a lot, so I felt kind of bad since she must be starving and I wanted to make her a sandwich or something. And then she massaged my feet and I almost drop kicked her through the wall because I'm extremely ticklish.

But then the music, the darkness and the massage really started to take it's effect and I got really relaxed. It was fabulous. Like really fabulous. I could do that every week. It was a Swedish massage so it wasn't going to break my spine or anything, but it was a fabulous hour of muscle-squishing and I loved it and definitely plan on scheduling another one sometime in my life. 

Note: I left the spa smelling like eucalyptus (from the oils they used). It smelled good but it was also extremely alarming. I had to hold my keys in my knuckles hoping to God that a pack of wild Koala Bears weren't going to leap from the trees and start munching on my newly massaged ears. 

I came straight home to pick up my three boys. Brad said I could do anything I wanted to today and I wanted to check out the much talked-about Adventure Aquarium up in Camden NJ (please note: our Camden was NOT named for this crime-fest suburb of Philadelphia. It's a horrifying violence extravaganza and Cam was named in Washington before we knew this place existed. Endnote). 

Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ

We went there with high hopes (the aquarium, not the city) and we were not disappointed. This aquarium was INCREDIBLE. It put Seattle Aquarium (my only first-person comparison) to shame. The exhibits were exotic and enormous. Floor to second-story ceilings of big fish, sharks, sea turtles, sting rays, jellyfish, hippos, anything you can think of. It took us three hours to go through the whole park. The best parts were the Shark Tunnel - walk through a glass tunnel and be completely surrounded 360 degrees by large sharks. Both boys thought this was AMAZING. The other favorite were the touch tanks. We got to stick our hands into open tanks and "pet" baby sharks and sting rays swimming by. Calen LOVED the sharks but was scared of the sting rays and had to be coaxed to finally touch them. 


(I was surprised that sting rays are so soft and squishy! And sharks are really smooth and not as rough as I expected). 

Calen vs. Hammerhead shark round 1

 I think if the boys were a bit older we could have spent even more time there. They had a nice eating area, a penguin exhibit (currently closed because it was nearly closing time) and a 4D theatre that we skipped out on. There's also a Navy battleship just down the boardwalk that we could have toured too that we decided to save for another day. Of course they had a massive gift shop that you are forced to walk through in order to get to the back half of the aquarium. Clever little bastards. So we walked through and due to having certain three year olds with us (and sucker parents) we acquired a stuffed hammerhead shark (Sharkie) and a bunch of shark toys for the bath/pool. Well, at least Cam wasn't asking for anything (yet). 

Daddy feeding Cam to a Great White Shark in the Shark Tunnel

All in all, we had.a.blast. Definitely some place to take the kids to once or twice a year (not sure if I can ever step foot in Seattle Aquarium again after this). 

Petting sharks (see a theme? My kid likes sharks -- who doesn't??)

 To end our big day we went to Applebees for dinner (I had a serious craving for their Asian Wonton Tacos that had to be tended to immediately). The kids were exhausted but very well behaved. Applebees is one of the few restaurants in the universe that carries Pepsi (bless them) and they even had these awesome vintage Pepsi-Cola glasses I was oohing and ahhing over. Brad asked the waitress if we could have one or buy one. Which caused the executive manager (oooh fancy name!) to come out with a nice clean one that he "presented" to us like he was King Shit for generously giving us a glass that probably cost the store 30 cents. But who cares, I have a Pepsi-Cola glass! Happy Mother's Day Monday to meeeee. 

My free souvenir from Applebees. Yes.

Great day. Super exhausted. Back to reality tomorrow. 

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