Gulf Specimen Marine Lab

Another very fun place that we went to while over with my family is the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab. It is in some little rinky dink sad looking building and the tanks are certainly nothing special, but this place was awesome. Talk about a hands on learning experience, well this was it. When Mema (aka Aunt Becky) first told me about it, I wasn't too sure how my kids would like it. But after just a few minutes of watching Sarah and Emily touch all kinds of little marine animals, they joined right in the fun too. I think Mandy was even more adventurous about touching things than Dallin.

And my fourth child Nathan, enjoyed it just as much as the other kids. In fact he was even touching things where there was a clearly posted sign "do not touch". Luckily he didn't stick his hand into the shark tank though. We happened to be there when the owner was feeding the animals. He fed the nursing sharks and it was wild. He held the fish right above the water and then the shark swam up to it and sucked it right up. It sounded just like a vacuum cleaner sucking something up. The kids were also able to feed some of the fish themselves using little sardines. At first Dallin refused to do it, but he quickly got caught up in the excitement of it and threw a little fish out into the water too. Mandy didn't need any coaxing at all. She just grabbed the sardine and threw it in.

All of the animals housed there are species found locally in the Gulf of Mexico. We were able to touch sand dollars, star fish, urchins, clams, crabs, and a few other things that I don't even know the name of. They of course also had other things to look at that we couldn't touch like the sharks, horseshoe crabs, sting rays, squid, and lots of other things. It was so much fun. We definitely want to go there again someday (hint to Mema :).

Did you see Sarah's super cute haircut in some of the pictures above? She grew her hair out for 4 years and then donated 10 inches of it to Locks of Love (they use the hair to make wigs for kids that have lost theirs due to illness). I am so proud of her! And darling Emily, why oh why doesn't she live closer to me? If I had my way she would be worn out with babysitting :). What I wouldn't give to have her come live with me and be my live in nanny. She is so wonderful with kids. She is going to be a fantastic mom one day!