Whales and dolphins and sharks, oh my!

One of the reasons that Chicago is such a great place to live is the Shedd Aquarium. Katie, Lynn and I took advantage of the free general admission week in February to take the kids, splurging on admission to the Oceanarium and the Wild Reef exhibits. Despite the risk of extreme crabbiness from the kids (a couple minor outbreaks were suffered), we took in a dolphin show and toured the reef. What a great way to spend a cold February morning. (Really, it was brutal.) Per usual, thanks for the ride, Auntie Katie!

Here's Jonah, getting prepped for the dolphin show. Thank goodness Lynn brought a whole bag of apples. Way to think ahead, Lynn! With an apple in one hand, and Baby Beluga in the other, Jonah's about as happy as he's ever been. Jonah was nice enough to share Beluga with Josie. Yes, yes, he's already a pro at charming the ladies.
James finds Jonah quite charming, as well.
Can you tell how excited Jonah is to see the dolphins? (By the way, he pronounces the Spanish "delfin" quite well.) Excitement in this case was expressed by a trance-like state.He started to go crazy, er, get a little wild. He could barely contain his excitement! Or the fact that he wanted to get moving. Can you see Manny taking shelter on my other side? He enjoyed watching the dolphins, too. At the very least, he stayed awake through the whole show.

Jonah got to push some buttons by the giant polyps in the Wild Reef. Hooray! It took a good amount of coaxing to drag him away from these buttons.
The Wild Reef exhibit is truly amazing. And the aquarium in general is great for kids because the fish (and sharks, and turtles, and dolphins, and whales) are always moving. Here, Jonah pauses long enough to check out the fishies.
After a morning of aquatic life, Jonah was beat. I brought this whale as a joke (I mean, what's cuter than making your son haul a baby beluga around the aquarium, especially when he's wathcing a baby beluga?), but I think that both Jonah and I were glad in the end that he had it. Baby Beluga was almost as comforting as Fuzz.