Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies

A few weeks ago, Ryan was able to take a day off from work (Hooray!) and we headed up to the Smokies. We stopped to eat at my favorite restaurant, The Apple Barn.

We requested the swing table! Gavin kept saying "Woa!" as he would go away from the table. Henley sure loved the rocking, though!

Unfortunately, our day of hiking we had planned got rained out, so we decided on Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies.

My two favorite boys:

Can I just say how much I love this age??

We took Gavin here when he was 7 months and he was much more into it this time as a 2-year-old!

This is a pretty cool picture with his reflection, if I do say so myself.

And let me just say that the germaphobe came out in me big time when he kept touching the glass (and sometimes with his mouth---aaaaahhhh!!!) that I know thousands of kids also touched that day!

Henley wasn't quite as into the fish as her big brother.

But she did like looking around at the tunnel!

Gavin loved the tunnel with the moving walkway because he could walk on the ledge next to us.

He is always up for touching animals. I love that he is not fearful of them!

He really liked the horseshoe crabs.

And got soaking wet reaching in to pet them after this!

I really don't like how big he looks in this picture! Playing with the big kids--one of his favorite things to do.

"No way am I touching that thing, Dad!"

It was J week so we of course had to visit the Jellyfish!

Tried to pet the stingrays, but no luck.

It was such a fun family day and we had one very tired boy at the end!