Mother's Day in Mystic

I have to admit that Mother's Day has never been particularly good for me. It could have something to do with my very first one where my husband's grandmother said some very nasty things to me that caused her to come to blows with my mother-in-law and my husband's aunt. While I have had some nice Mothers Day's since then, including the one I spent in the hospital snuggling a newborn Stinkerbelle, mostly it's known around my house as the day I force the family into household projects - usually gardening. It works for us and it's satisfying but not really celebratory.

This year I had a perfect Mother's Day. PERFECT!!! We were in Mystic, CT for my b-i-l's Navy retirement but Sunday was ours. We walked around downtown a little and ate lunch at Mystic Pizza (remember the movie?) and spent a lot of time at the aquarium.



DQ and I were standing at the edge of the Mystic River (taking modeled pictures of socks of course) when she wondered aloud if they still use the drawbridge. On cue the horn sounded and the gates came down and the drawbridge went up. We both giggled when the only boat to come through turned out to be very little. See it?



I love aquariums and find them very peaceful. On Sunday we got there ahead of the crowds (2nd to arrive) and breezed in on a gorgeous, sunny, day to enjoy the exhibits at a very leisurely pace.



It seemed like everyone at the aquarium on Sunday was in such a good mood. We spent quite a while with one of the groundskeepers who happily pointed out the frogs and turtles hiding in their habitat. He was from Jamaica and said that it reminded him of home.



We saw the Birds of the Outback exhibit where you could get up close and personal with very colorful birds. They gave you popsicle sticks with millet attached on entry so that you could feed the birds.



Some of the birds would hop on your stick and hang out with you for a while. I am sooooo not a bird person but this was great fun. I didn't even mind that I got tons of bird seed in my hair. I did mind that a bird nailed my Nikon with poop (ewww) but thankfully it washed off and no harm was done.



We saw Sea Lions and Whales and touched Stingrays but Stinkerbelle's favorite exhibit was, by far, the penguins. This one is a 3 month old chick named Blue-Blue. It's so young that they don't even know the gender yet but Stink is positive Blue-Blue is a boy. It should come as no surprise that her aquarium souvenir was a stuffed penguin that she has named... Blue-Blue. She would've preferred to take the real thing home.



I don't normally show off the gifts I get for birthdays, etc because they're not usually blogworthy. My husband means well and tries hard but very often he's just a shade off the mark.
When he does get something I like it's usually because I've given him a pointed hint. I do that a lot.

He's also not great at keeping secrets. He's like a little kid who's just bursting to tell someone what he's done. It's funny but it makes the actual gift-giving odd.

My girls are also not great at keeping secrets.

I am almost never surprised...

except for this Mother's Day...


When I was truly speechless.

I got a new toy, an iTouch. I love my new toy. I love that I had no idea at all that it was coming. Happy surprises are priceless.