We have been doing a unit on the seas and oceans in our classroom and the girls have loved it. We have built a sea under our treehouse and have been adding creatures and plants to it for a couple weeks now. When it is closer to completion, I will show you. From the beginning, I had decided we needed a field trip with this unit and with Dad gone to Sacramento for the week, it turned into perfect timing for the three of us to head out on a girls day out. The Aquarium of the Pacific is in Long Beach...a long hour and an half drive with no traffic. Since we live in LA, it was a little over two hours (both ways). But, I had found a deal for the aquarium entrance fee and a whale watching boat tour combined and I knew we could make a day of it, so we went.
The fun of the aquarium is not just seeing all the life we have studied, but also touching it. Of course, since we had talked about all the animals, they were petrified to touch them because they did not want to get stung. It took a while but Kylie finally touched the jellies.
They both finally loosened up when they were encouraged to touch a shark.
This was just funny. The lady was asking a naughty field trip group how they were supposed to touch the animals...K was more than happy to answer.
When we got up to the batrays, Kylie finally started petting the rays' heads. She informed me that she made friends with them and now she wasn't scared.
We spent at least twenty minutes with Em like this, just above the water, insisting she was going to touch it but never doing it.
And nope on touching the urchin.
She finally touched the sea anenome and it was like a trigger went off in her head. She told me she wanted to touch the stingrays and so we went back out. We then spent another twenty minutes out there, neither of them tiring of it. I think they were just both so proud of themselves for getting over their fears...you could see it in their faces and their confidence.
Yeah, we have to get those glasses adjusted...it was just a real smile from K so I had to include it!
Too soon, it was time for our boat ride. And now I finally reach my story. So, whenever I thought of our trip, I would actually pray and ask God not to make it another one of those experiences where everyone sees something but Em can't. (A clear risk in open water). I asked God if He would bring a dolphin close enough to Emily so she could see it.
And sure enough a couple of dolphins came near the boat shortly after we got out there. She didn't see the first four or five but finally saw the one that was directly underneath us. I was happy, Em was happy, K wanted to see more.
As time went on I figured that was it. Yes, my girls have grown up in SoCal. It is 84 degrees and sunny. "But that wind was soooooooo cold." At least I was prepared for their wimpiness. :-)
Anyway, at some point, they announced that we should look off to the side, and when we did, we saw an entire pod (family) of dolphins swimming next to us.
But this family was not small at all...in an instant, we found ourselves surrounded (yes, on all four sides) by hundreds of dolphins. They were right next to us and extending off forever, everywhere, jumping and jumping. They are SO fast! And it wasn't for just a second, we probably stayed with them for a good ten minutes. I mean I was tracking two four year olds from one side of the boat to the other to get the best views, and still I have pictures, videos, and memories of just watching them with my own eyeballs!!
It was hard to get a pic of just how many there were because whenever I zoomed the camera out to capture the numbers, they got lost in all their splashes.
This kind of shows you the line. It came to us, went around the front of our boat and off the other side. I am not kidding, hundreds! (The Captain said thousands but I think he were exaggerating because he was so excited).
And, um, yeah, Em saw these too. :-) Can you see the baby with her mama at the bottom left?
Well, when we finally sat back down, all I could hear in my head was, "More than you can ask or imagine." I sat back, a little shocked, and laughed to myself while I said to God, "Yes, that was certainly more than I asked or ever imagined. You SO got me there!" In seven short words, my great God said to me - Oh, Becky, do you see how great I am? Even with a silly boat trip to see dolphins I can do more than you ask or imagine. You have no idea. My words are true. My words are always true. If I will do this in your physical world, how much more will I do it in your spiritual world?
(Which, by the way, is what the verse is really about - God doing immeasurably more inside of us - not answering our dolphin prayers). :-)
Yeah, we saw sea lions too.
After we got back, Em swore that she was ready to touch the jellies, so we went back into the aquarium and played with all the touchable animals again. Yes, she really touched them all this time. Between them conquering their fears and seeing dolphins, and my God showing me, again, how great He is, we were pretty amped up. So, without Dad around to stop Mom, another stuffed animal was purchased and we went for a walk.
And played in the grass for a while.
Goodbye, aquarium!
And thanks God for some great memories!!
