Living Planet Aquarium

On Saturday, we decided to use some free passes to our local aquarium. It's not a very big aquarium, but Clara loved it and isn't that what is most important?

Clara's favorite thing there was a boat. They have it set up in the Utah area and it's used to tell about Utah's marshlands. I know, Utah's a desert, but apparently some marshlands exist here too. It took us a lot of coaxing to get Clara on this frog. When she first saw it, she was scared to death of it, even though there were lots of kids climbing all over it. It was right by the boat, and since we spent A LOT of time on the boat, by the time we were ready to leave the area, Clara had warmed up to it. I also think it helped that she saw every little kid walking by stop to sit on the frog to get a picture. She would still only get on it if Dad was there too.Some of the coolest things there were penguins, a big sea turtle, and the petable (is that even a word?) sting rays. Unfortunately, the penguins and sea turtle moved too much to get a non blurry picture. So if you want to see those, you'll just have to go to the aquarium yourself. Jeremy was the only one brave enough to pet the sting rays. Clara loved watching them, but would not put her hand in that water. I blamed my fears on gross slimy water.Jeremy was in charge of the camera, and whenever he is, we get LOTS of pictures. So 80 plus pictures later, I've narrowed it down to 6 for the blog. I think these ended up being the neatest things with the best pictures. I've never seen a red and white star fish before. I thought it was beautiful.As far as the rest of the week goes, I'm still subbing. A week ago today was supposed to be my last day, but the teacher I'm subbing for had surgery. Her Dr told her that her knees weren't healing like they were supposed to, so it could be Nov 1 before I get to stay home again. I cried a lot this week because of that. I hate leaving Clara at a babysitter. We have to wake her up 1 - 2 hours earlier than what she's used to. She would cry every morning we would drop her off. It made me so sad. I thought I was all done having to do that, but I'm not. Best case scenario now is I just have to teach every day this week, and then I'll be done. Worst case is me having to work this week and next.

When I called my mom in tears, she offered to help out. So last night, Jeremy and I drove as far as Tremonton, UT and put Clara into my mom's care for a week. Clara was so excited to go to grandma's house all by herself. I've talked to my mom a few times today already and Clara really is having the time of her life. I miss her terribly though. I guess I'll just have to use this week to get caught up on house cleaning and things since I don't have a 3 year old to take care of when I get home.