Whales, Sharks, Jellyfish and More

A lovely lady offered to take my munchkins to the Avila Beach Science Center for a closer look at sea creatures.  They were accompanied by none other than "Aunt G", who is everything a child could want in an auntie...smiles, laughter and love.

So, this morning the kids and I piled in the white Honda (Yes, we still fit...barely.  Yes, it has almost 213,000 miles...it purrs like a kitten.  Yes, the a/c knob is completely broken...I adjust it with a pair of needle nose pliers.  Classy.  And dangerous.  Yes, I know a new knob would cost about $6.  I just haven't gotten around to it yet.) and swung by to pick up another little friend.

Picture stolen, without remorse, from Aunt G

When we arrived at the little friend's house, I was quite pleased to find everything in a normal state of affairs.  She didn't have her shoes on.  Nor her socks.  And when she was supposed to be putting on socks, she was climbing the pantry shelves. 

It warmed my heart. 

How did she know that we had played through that same senario 20 minutes prior?

Then off we went to The Ranch where we moved carseats over to Lovely Lady's car and said hello to Lovely Lady's daughter, son-in-law and granddog via Skype.

Then it was silent for five hours.  Utterly and completely silent.  I didn't hear a word from them until they got home.  Then I heard plenty of words.

I heard words about dotted sharks (lepard sharks?), clown fish, crabs, jellyfish, baby whales (???), pokie little creatures, crabs and octopi.

Brandon was hoping that Jen (Lovely Lady's son's girlfriend who is a Marine Biology student), would be able to give him the low-down about humpback whales.  She did not disappoint.  Neither, apparently, did the bathroom.

"In the bathroom, there were like these pictures of humpback whales, jumping out of the water, like this (demonstrates), blowing out their blowholes, like this (demonstrates).  It was really neat!"

I thought Claire might be a bit young to enjoy or understand it, but I was wrong.

Before bed, she asked me to read Joni (Jonah) and the Whale from her kids' Bible.  "This is not a whale.  This is a shark.  He is going to eat his (Jonah's) legs off.  There is a crab on the beach.  But if I fell out of a boat into the ocean, a shark would not eat me.  God would save me," she narrated.

"Did you see a crab today?" I asked.

"Yep," she replied.

"And a shark?"

"Yep."

"Well, where's Jen in this picture?"  I asked looking at the drawing of Jonah and the Whale.

"She's not here," said Claire.

She grabbed the book and started thumbing through the pages.  And stopped.  And pointed.  And snorted.  "Here she is!"  She chuckled as she pointed to a picture of Mary holding baby Jesus.  And snorted some more.  Then she turned back to Jonah and began talking more about crabs, sharks, whales and fish.

Thank you Lovely Lady, Aunt G and Jen for the fun, fun day!