Sea And Snow

Vera and Bill wanted to go to the Georgia Aquarium while they were here, so Sunday morning we headed to the big city.

There is a really cool tank of fish right when you enter the aquarium.

In the tunnel at the Georgia Aquarium.

Notice anything unusual?

The Weeki Wachee Mermaids did a special holiday show.

The Georgia Aquarium's newest acquisition - just don't let it out of its cage.

This was one of our favorite creatures - well worth the price of admission.  

The African penguins were very interactive.  They kept trying to eat G's guidebook! 

A little boy entranced.

Our sweet baby makes even the beautiful jellyfish look "blah" by comparison.

I sure hope that's glass between them and the piranha!

This albino alligator looks cute, but it isn't fooling the Chipster.

He was too nervous about the dark and staticy slide until Aunt Vera went down it with him.

He loved piloting the boat in the Georgia Explorer section, especially running the engine.

This patch of coral inspired Chip to swim with the whale behind him.

Before the Wolfgangs went back home, all of the family in Georgia went out to dinner at Jim 'N Nick's, our favorite barbeque restaurant.

Chip and his sweet cousin, Jackson.  He said on the way home, "I love anything with Jackson, because he's my little buddy."

Chip with his big buddy, Papa.

On January 7th, we celebrated Ukrainian (Orthodox) Christmas.  Since our regular, American/Roman Catholic, Christmas is such a big deal, this was mostly about a simple dinner and a small, unwrapped gift.  We had fish and varenyky (pierogis - in our house we call them both even though we prepare them more like pierogis) with some corn and the same salads we eat almost every day.  These pierogis were handmade ones the Wolfgangs had brought us several months ago from Michigan, so they were the real deal.  It was really, really delicious.  G didn't like the pierogi that much, but he was really excited about the mahi.

Our delicious Ukie Christmas dinner.

You may have seen on the news that last night, we had a snow storm.  Here.  In Georgia.  Since even a little snow tends to shut things down here, you can imagine what five inches of snow did.  We all had a snow day today, and at least Chip and I have one tomorrow, as well.  We are hoping that Matt will be able to stay home again tomorrow due to freezing rain and generally icy roads.  Well, really, we just want him home no matter the weather.  

So in our neighborhood, a snow day is a play day.  Everyone goes outside and enjoys the white stuff.  Here is what our day looked like.

It looked like the ice planet Hoth outside.

There was a layer of ice on top of the snow, which made for a good snowball shield.

Our "sled," an Ikea shopping bag, made for a fun way to bring our son home from Drew's house.

Here's the sled in action.

We used a flattened cardboard box, because the bag didn't make a good driveway sled.  Here is Chipdip going for it.

I tried it, too.  It was scary when I thought I might hit the retaining wall at the side of the driveway, but none of us ever did.

M and G did a tandem run.

We have had a really great day.  We got our Christmas decorations put away, cleaned up the house, and got lots of time outside as a family.  We even had waffles for breakfast.  We love snow days, and we are looking forward to another one tomorrow!