couldn't stay away... more to see

From Friday, December 3rd:

Since we check out of this resort tomorrow morning, we wanted to take advantage of our Seaquarium passes at least one more time. This time we had the Flamingo Feeding on our agenda, along with the glass-bottom boat and another visit to the Touch Tank. 

After watching the keepers corner the baby flamingo, they brought it over for the kids to pet. Liam and Simon were excited to get their turn, but Andrew was more than a bit unsure. He did finally consent to reach out a finger and ever-so-lightly touch the bird.

I promise we did put sunscreen on Simon's face, but he kept rubbing his eyes from the 

saltwater in the ocean yesterday because of the salt water and must've rubbed it all off

nooooot sure

After hanging out with the flamingos for a bit, we headed outside to look for the stationary glass bottom boat. We'd missed this during our first visit, but it was one of the main reasons we went back... and we were so glad we did! For Simon and Andrew who hadn't really snorkelled, it was really neat to see all the fish, sting rays, turtles, nurse sharks, etc that were in this lagoon.

I forget what this first guy was, but he was HUGE.

this was some sort of puffer fish... who wouldn't puff for us.

And except for the eerie bluish tint, I think  this is actually a pretty good family picture, although Andrew could be smiling more. When I have time, I'll have to see what I can do with it in Lightroom (note: all of these pictures are unedited, so forgive the slightly bland look of them).

After the boat and a last visit to see the starfish, conches, urchins and sea cucumbers in the Touch Tank, we headed back to our room to make a quick lunch, then headed to the beach. Simon and Liam were both anxious to try out their new flippers.

The resort was built on a man-made island next to the aquarium, and it's been there long enough that there are corals growing right along the rocks. You don't have to go far in order to see crabs, urchins and fish galore.

someone didn't realize quite how the sun would burn a back this close to the surface of the water...

the day was a bit chilly, so Andrew just played on the beach

walking in flippers is hard work!

Before heading to the beach, we'd walked around to the opposite side to book a snorkelling trip for Peter and Liam while the younger two were sleeping. We'd also spent money on flippers, a new mask and snorkel and an underwater digital camera... then we got to the beach and Liam decided that it was too cold, too windy, the flippers were too hard to use, he didn't want to swim and would rather just sit on a beach towel, wrapped in a towel, pouting.

See his face?

imagine how blue this water looked on sunny days!

Liam was in such a foul mood that I actually walked back over to the dive shop to ask if they'd refund us the cost of his trip, telling them that no one would want him on that boat. They agreed, thankfully (but, also thankfully, he decided he wanted to go in the end).

still more interested in his truck than the water

so typically Simon!

Since it was so chilly, the boys all went for a quick dip in the hot tub before heading back to the room. By that time, we'd guilted convinced Liam that it would be a shame for him to miss out on this special snorkelling adventure with daddy and that he'd have a ton of fun once he got out there. When would he have another chance to snorkel at a sunken tugboat?? But I haven't uploaded those pictures yet, so that story will have to wait.