Last week my niece Hailey came to visit for 5 days.  It was her first time out to our new home, much less Long Island, and it was wonderful to have her with our little family.  (By the way, I have 5 nieces and 4 nephews in case you wanted to know!)    I think little V enjoyed her the most though.  There was always someone to color with, watch a movie with and play in the pool with.  In a way, it gave V an idea of what having a sibling would be like, though I doubt that really ever crossed her mind.

a girls day out

On Wednesday we took a trip out to Riverhead, Long Island to the aquarium aka Atlantis Marine World.  I had never been and had been wanting to take V there but wasn’t too keen on taking the trip.  Hailey was the perfect reason for a little road trip and boy was it worth it.  The aquarium is 10 years old and has a bit of everything: sea lion show, penguins, stingray’s you can pet, sharks, rescued animals, a few rides and even some monkey’s.

saying hi to Mr. Sea Lion

Probably our favorite part though was the butterfly pavilion.  A few butterflies even landed on Hailey.  V so badly wanted a butterfly to land on her but every time they came close, she just got too excited and they fluttered away.

posing with a butterfly (on the flower next to V)

making sure to inform passerby’s of the butterflies where about

In the end, it was a delightful day!  Our little family expanded for the week and we so enjoyed getting to experience being a family of four.  Hailey is on to her next adventure at summer camp but we hope she enjoyed herself as much as we did!