Rebekah and the Rats

I'll start this by explaining that on the particular day these photos were taken, Rebekah was having some hair issues. She went to bed the previous night with her hair slightly damp from her bath, which made it even more wild than usual when she woke up the next morning. She decided that morning that she would have nothing to do with pony tails, headbands or even a small clip. She informed me in a very matter-of-fact way that "Hawaiian girls wear their hair plain!" So now we can add culture lessons to the list of all the things she is teaching me.

On Monday, Rebekah's class had a field trip to Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets. It has got to be one of the neatest pet stores I have ever been in, if you live anywhere nearby and need a fun birthday party idea, they do one of the best birthday parties ever!

We started the field trip in their classroom where a bunch of animals were waiting to greet the children.

The first animal we saw was this cute hedgehog. I learned that the German word for hedgehog is Igel. Which made a recent conversion I had with the girls about an "eagle" make so much more sense.

A note to my mom: Mom, this is the part where you will probably want to look away, just skip the rest of this post in it's entirety ~ it's too gross. I'll post new photos of the girls soon, and you'll enjoy that a lot more than this.

These were the second animals we got to meet. Many of the children were a little scared. I said a silent prayer that Rebekah would be one of those children.

No, Rebekah, don't do it!

Really?!? You are scared of most dogs, but you're happy to put your face that close to a rat?

The white rat was too much cuteness for her to resist.

We saw so many cool and unique animals at Hoffer's like...

This softie chinchilla...

These tortoises that Rebekah and Amy raced across the table...

This bearded dragon eating a worm...{gross but true: our gecko attacks crickets in this same way. Just when I thought I was warming up to the cute little guy}

The kids each got to take a turn holding a sea star...

And see baby sea stars that were even smaller than their little fingernails...

Everyone marveled at the store's Nemo tank where all the fish friends from the movie make their home.

We fed the koi...

And saw the alligators.

When this snake slithered it's way into the insturctor's shirt sleeve...

Rebekah managed to offer a hesitant smile in gentle support. I guess she's smiling and doesn't mind that the snake is making it's way closer and closer to her neck, so I should smile too.

After all that excitement and fun, this is still the image from the day that is burned into my memory: