The Oklahoma Aquarium

Today was one of four annual Homeschool Days at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, OK. It's only about a 30-minute drive and definitely beats Mall of America's Underwater Adventures! We got a lower admission price as part of this event and a fun 30-minute classroom show. This picture is in front of the turtle tank. It was at the beginning of the "Native Oklahoma Animals" exhibit. We got to see lots of the animals that are native to Oklahoma, such as red-eared slider turtles, (even an albino one!)

(It was hard to get a good picture of this guy through the glass.)

alligator snapping turtles. . .

(this one was HUGE! No zoom used for this picture!)

. . .diamondback water snakes, (sorry-no pictures since I'm the cameraman and wouldn't go near them!), and a native Oklahoma GATOR! We didn't know they had gators here, but the sign showed that they're in southern OK. We'll stick with the pretend ones:

They also had the animal Dylan has been waiting his whole life to see in person:

The American Bullfrog! Since we moved down here, Dylan has been asking everyday if he can catch one of these guys and keep it. He's loved frogs since he was about two years old and is having a hard time waiting until spring to go check these guys out by the river. The bullfrog isn't quite his favorite frog, but it is the most within reach. His favorite is actually a very fascinating frog called the Goliath Frog. As the name implies, these frogs are very large. Here's a picture of one that we got off the internet:

As you can see, this Goliath frog is about as big as a fawn! Pretty cool, but we'll probably never see one in real life. So we'll stick with the bullfrogs!

Oklahoma Aquarium has the world's largest bull sharks in captivity and we got there in time for their daily feeding. It was quite the show, but Dylan and Gabie were too scared to go into the tunnel where the sharks swim above you, so we stayed back and watched from another viewing area. Pete took Faith and Vince to get the good spot in the tunnel for the feeding. We could see them on the other side of the tank from where we were sitting. It was pretty cool!

And finally, the animal that has intrigued and fascinated me: the octopus!

Maybe it's their body shape, the hundreds or thousands of suctions on their legs, or their solitude nature, but either way, they just seem so mysterious!

Today's trip was so much fun and there's so much left to see down here! And because of the $17 we saved from the homeschool days event, we sure are thankful businesses are recognizing families like ours!