first visit to Denver Aquarium!

Check out the photos we took if you have a minute:


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054656&id=1519428543&l=8ab70675dd

I think it's very safe to say that we broke in our new camera. Have I mentioned this new awesome camera? This is the first time?
Whoa.
I need to get with the program.

Thanks to Rick's dad for making a suggestion, we were able to find a camera that we knew was already awesome from some good expertise. Our budget was tight, about $200. Naturally, we didn't want any fancy gadgets on it. Let's save the fancy gadgets for when the kids (and I) won't easily break it. Let's face it, the kids (and I) break things all the time.
Here is what we purchased:

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?omid=103&ref=froogle&utm_source=Froogle&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=OMST9000K&sku=OMST9000K

We are in love with it. It was so cool to finally be able to take it with us somewhere and snap snap away. And boy did we. We snapped about 200 photos (some vids mixed in) in a span of 2 hours. What we love most about this camera, is not only how super EASY it is to use (it is literally made for idiots like me) but it's also built with some sort of mechanism to pull in as much natural light as it can. Most photos didn't require a flash and most of the time it didn't matter how dark the areas where. If we used the flash it didn't produce too much glare like most basic cameras.
I did a few test shots like this:

Amazing camera I tell ya.
There are a few other settings that we're messing around with and I can't wait to experiment. I am so in the basic mode of learning about cameras, but this just gets me more pumped.

The kids had such a fun time today. We were originally going to attend a community center event that was linked with James' school, but we took forever trying to get out of the house today and felt that a nice trip somewhere to celebrate the up and coming birthdays was more appropriate. Oh it was.
Natalie was really cranky around the last quarter of the visit but she held strong.
The kids are still talking about the stingray tanks, especially the one where we got to pet some stingrays! and they're also still amazed by the jellyfish and tiger. Yes, a tiger. He was a tween-aged tiger who also sprayed at the kids when he walked by. Good thing there was glass there, eh?