Penguin Encounter

We had the opportunity to have a back of the scenes tour of the Living Planet Aquarium in November. My sister and her family came for it as our Christmas present to them. Cecilia was sick so we had her come for the first part (the part I was excited for her to experience) and then went home to bed. It was so much fun and I learned so much! One of the things we got to do was the Penguin Encounter. The aquarium offers this to anyone who wants to pay extra (you do have to schedule it with them) so the penguins are used to it. They dressed us up in coats, it is 40 degrees in there, and told us DON'T TOUCH THE PENGUINS!

Cecilia has a favorite toy she sleeps with every night and nap, it is this silly squishy penguin we got in a box of clothes from my sister (who doesn't remember anything about it). Many a night Cecilia will wake up, search around in her crib, find "Peno,"clutch him in her hand, and go back to sleep. I was excited for her to meet real penguins. The only thing I didn't realize was how much she would want to get down and go play with them. That was the one forbidden rule, they can touch you, but you can't touch them. Shaun and I spent the whole time wrangling her trying to keep her from mauling one. I don't think it was nearly as fun as I envisioned it would be. Maybe next year...