Our Girl's Day!


Tuesday was my day off this week and Ella and I had a girl's day out! I am going to miss one-on-one time with Ella so much once the baby is here. I have made it my priority to do as many fun and safe activities with her as I can before the baby arrives. 




Our day started with pastries from our favorite little bakery in Seal Beach. I got a jalapeno cheese bagel, and Ella got a raspberry cheese danish (her favorite.) We got them 'to go' and ate them in the car on the way to the aquarium.


The Aquarium of the Pacific is one of our favorite spots. We used to be members there before Covid happened. They have been open for a while but we haven't felt comfortable going. I spoke to some others who had been recently, and they said it was incredibly safe. After our experience, I couldn't agree more! They are only allowing outdoor exhibits, so at no time are you inside. Masks are required for anyone ages 2+ and there are stickers at every station to promote social distancing. We arrived as soon as they opened at 9 am, so we didn't see many other people at all.



It was our first big outing since our trip to the zoo for her birthday ... so this was very exciting!



Ella FLIPPED out when she saw the tanks. She kept saying she wanted to take the fish home, and ride them... Hahahaha! 


 

Ella was so brave feeding the birds! I bought some nectar from the feeding station and as soon as we entered the exhibit 10-12 birds flew at me. Ella was terrified. Luckily, once we walked a bit, they backed off. 



The sea turtle was definitely the highlight of Ella's day!



And she insisted on taking a picture with this little penguin. Which she also wanted to take home... and ride. Hahaha! I had to explain to her that not all animals are for riding.



There were lots of touch tanks open, so Ella could touch and feel the various stingrays and even some sharks. She loved it! 

I brought towels to dry her hands and we had a mini hand sanitizer with us that we used at least 30x. Luckily the park also had sink stations and touchless sanitizer stations everywhere. So hand-hygiene was not an issue!  Once we noticed more people arriving, we decided to leave. An hour and a half was more than enough time to enjoy everything they had open. 

 

I let Ella run and play by the water fountain for a bit. She thought it was amazing and was running back and forth just screaming her little head off.



When the sun came out Ella goes "Mama! Sun out. Sooo hot!" It was a gorgeous morning!


As we were driving home, Ella goes "no home Mama." So I figured she wanted to keep our adventures going. The park closest to our house had a few other kiddos there (not all masked) so we turned around and went to a different park to play for a bit.


Luckily this park was empty! The downside is that there are no swings, which is Ella's favorite part of the playground.





But we found other fun things to do! :)



We ate lunch outside on the patio per Ella's request, and afterward played with some chalk outside in the driveway.



To wind Ella down for her nap, we took a nice long walk around the block. 


Overall, it was the best little afternoon together. It was first Ella's big outing in almost a year and I can't wait to do something else with her. We will be back on Monday to share our weekend with you. We're hoping for good weather so we can have some fun outdoor time together. We hope you have a nice weekend.


-Ashley & Ella
xoxo

2 comments

I appreciate and love all questions and comments!