We got another double digit boy!

This is the year that the boys choose, on their birthdays, what they want to do.  They can have alone time with a parent/parents that night or have fun with the rest of the family during the day while Dad is at work.  It took Hyrum a while to figure out how he wanted to celebrate his 10th birthday but he finally decided on SeaQuest in Layton.  It's fairly new and we hadn't been there before.  I personally have always really like aquariums.  But this is very different than the typical aquarium.  

It's an interactive experience with fish AND lizards, tortoises, birds, and the list goes on.  The main feature is the fish, sting rays, sharks...typical aquarium stuff but with so much more!  

 We got to sit under part of one of the large tanks where sting rays laid on top and more swam around us.

 My personal favorite was the sting rays that you could touch.  They are so incredibly friendly.  Hyrum was a little nervous about it.  He barely put his hand in.  Even when he was feeding them.

I, however, couldn't get enough of them.  They don't jump up out of the water.  They position themselves in a way that keeps their upper half of their bodies out of the water for quite some time while they let you pet them!  

I thought they were the most friendly creature I'd ever met!  It seriously gave me so much pleasure touching them.  I really didn't want to move on, but this was about Hyrum and not me. 

 Hyrum's favorite part was the birds.  

 He wants a parakeet now!

 We went in this enclosed room, where they gave us some seeds.  The birds quickly came to the little bowls and ate.

It was fun sharing with him that I used to have birds growing up.  So I showed him how if you slide one finger under their chest and follow it down to their feet, they will naturally get off the bowl and onto your finger.   He seriously was so cute to watch with these birds.

My 10 year old boy is still not a typical boy.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.  He's sensitive and so kind.  He cares very much about other people's feelings.  He randomly speaks of spiritual things on his own, without promptings from Mom and Dad.  He still loves cats and Minecraft.  Being tiny for his age hasn't changed and he is still proud of it!  He proudly calls himself a "gamer" but I'm so grateful that he can get off of electronic games without throwing a fit.

He is still my baby and probably always will be.