My Nineteenth Birthday

On the 14th of May I celebrated my 228th month of being alive, more commonly referred to as my 19th birthday, and it was perfect. My family surprised me with a trip to the aquarium, which may sound strange. You're probably think, "Out of all of the places they could have taken you, WHY the aquarium?" Well, I'm going to tell you... Most kids take a field trip to the aquarium with their school sometime in elementary, it just so happens that I never did. Both of my brothers did, but somehow I always missed the field trip day by the smallest bit of time; so, for awhile now it's been an ongoing joke that I've never been to the aquarium. I've always REALLY wanted to go, we just never got around to it; therefore, my family surprising me with a trip to the aquarium was beyond perfect (I really hope that made sense).

Now getting back to the main point of this blog post... My birthday! We walked around the aquarium for about two hours and saw everything there was to see- penguins, fish, manatees, birds, seals, jellyfish, owls, stingrays, monkeys, flamingos, sloths, alligators! It was absolutely amazing.

Nineteen candles- Still can't believe that.

My first time seeing a sloth. He was of course sleeping.

Can you see the alligator?

Doesn't he kind of look like the Lorax?

"Smile and wave boys."

TREVOR! (Get it? Like Neville's toad that he's always losing.)

I believe this is an iguana.

Kind of reminds me of Flotsam and Jetsam.

Did you know that male seahorses carry the babies?

The flamingos are always adorable.

Once we were done looking around the aquarium, we went to T.G.I. Fridays for an early dinner, which was delicious, and then headed back home. I thought that this was the end of the surprises, but I was wrong. When we got home, my room was decorated with tons of balloons (including a 4ft. tall Mike Wasowski balloon, which I didn't even notice when I first walked in, even though it was right on my bed. It was quite comical, having a gigantic Mike Wasowski, until last month when my little sister scared the pee out of me by placing him right behind my bedroom door. Safe to say he was deflated that same night). Then we ended the night with cake and presents.

I want to end this post by saying a BIG thank you to my family whom without, this day would not have been possible. They make me feel so loved and special everyday, but they especially did on this day. The thought that went into making this day happen means so much to me. I will never be able to say thank you enough to all of them (especially my mom, who was the ring leader in all of this). This is definitely one of those days that I will always be able to look back on, and smile about. Everything about it was perfect.

-Melissa P. Cooper