Sunday, April 11, 2010

Hey There, Mrs. Grumpy Gills


A few lines from Finding Nemo:

Dory: Hey there, Mr. Grumpy Gills. When life gets you down do you wanna know what you've gotta do?

Marlin: No I don't wanna know.

Dory: [singing] Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim.

 
I should have taken a lesson from Dory the other day when we went to the local aquarium.
 
The second we pulled into the parking lot, I just wanted to turn around and go somewhere else. There were cars and people EVERYWHERE. Seriously, it was a mad house. However, we were meeting up with SILs/cousins and I didn't want to leave them hanging. (Although, after finding a place to park on the street above the aquarium, I took a moment to see if my kids wanted to re-evaluate our plans for the day - no luck!)
 
So, we met them at the entrance and went for it, along with everyone else:
 
 
It really was packed with people, shoulder to shoulder as you wiggled through the exhibits. As we were going into the South America exhibit, I tried to get a shot of the great entrance. However, between carrying the King on my hip and being so close to everyone, I ended up with a cute shot of Corinne and Chase (well, their back sides, that is).
 
 
It turned out that the entire visit was all about inventory control. I came in with four kids and I was doing everything I possibly could to leave with four kids - the same four, preferrably! It was insanely difficult, too! On two different occasions, I took my eyes off my baby for about 3 seconds to either give instructions to Thing 2 or to take a photo of the Boy, and each of those turned into a frantic search for a toddler who got lost in a crowd. Seriously - in three seconds. It was miserable. So, I stopped trying to take photos of the kids and ended up rustling up my little rancher (who took to occasional tantrums when I was a bit too intrusive) the rest of the outing.
 
 
 
So, I was the grump of the group. The party pooper. The jerk.
 
I was completely overwhelmed by the crowds and my need to keep my children safe. I tried to keep "swimming" through it. And I did - we went through all of the exhibits - but I complained the entire time. Luckily, there was very little interaction going on between our groups the entire time, due to the fact that my SILs were constantly trying to manage their "inventory" also. So, shortly after getting into the last exhibit (which, thankfully, was much less crowded than the others) - I called it a day and we flew out of that place (straight to Ikea where I got a few things to finish off my bathroom - YAY!).
 
Now, in all fairness, we have been there before, we've even been members in the past. It's a great museum and they have a fabulous new penguin exhibit that we didn't even get to see, really. So, I will be going back - on a much slower day (when all of Utah is not having Spring Break, for example).
 
And hopefully, my dear SILs will still invite me on future outings!
 







And I will try to not be so grumpy!

Other photos and thoughts can be found at Fresh Mommy - go check them out.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

very cute post!

Unknown said...

Oh so fun : ) I love the pictures. Everyone (except the grumpy fish) looks happy :)

Muthering Heights said...

LOL, what a day!! :)

Stylist A said...

What a fun day! such a sweet post! thanks for sharing :)Happy Sunday!

jenjermad said...

We went there over spring break too. It was insane! We only lasted about 1/2 hour. It's much more fun when there's not such a crowd.

Katie Pettey said...

What an accurate description! It was, as you said, inventory control. Although, I have to say, of all our group, you had a huge disadvantage with Russell - he is at the perfect age to disappear suddenly! I was expecting much worse and was glad to leave with my same 4 kids as well! You notice I didn't even bring a camera. I'll be stealing a couple of your photos for my own blog. Next time, let's take them all for a hike!

Lara Neves said...

Oh, I get so stressed in those situations...I feel for you! My youngest is so hard to keep track of.

However, it still looks like a fun outing! Nemo is our favorite.

Scott and Sara said...

Doesn't even sound like the least bit of fun! At least you survived to tell us all!

cfernelius said...

You're so good! I would have been SOOO grumpy. We went to Thanksgiving Point on Two-Buck-Tuesday one time...never again!! I will gladly pay full price to avoid a replay of that experience!