Sometimes Groundhog Day offers you a surprise. Not that we are strangers to surprises in our yard. But still. I am beginning to wonder if I harp on the routine around here too much. And maybe I don’t always see the amazing and the unique when it passes me by. Maybe it takes a wild animal to clue me in. Maybe.
I was doing what I always do around 6:00pm – feeding my kids in the kitchen. Chicken, pasta, apple.
And I was saying the usual too.
“Sit in your seat, be sure to eat some apple too, I said SIT DOWN, would you like more milk… HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS THERE’S A BOBCAT!!!”
The next thing I said was…
“DUCK!” And we all ducked under the window.
I know how skittish these animals are. I’ve seen them before and have seen them bolt at any sign of human life (thank goodness considering… you know… my kids play back there everyday).
But I wanted a picture.
So I crawled over to my dining room table, snatched the camera out of my bag and peeked up out the window into my backyard. The bobcat was moving slowly up towards my house and would be passing the kitchen window in seconds. So we all scrambled back into the kitchen, giggling and anticipating. I froze with camera poised, the kids waited – and there it was. It froze too. Gave us this exact stare. And then scurried away.
Surprises. There’s nothing better. And maybe if I paid more attention to whats happening around me, I’d see more of them now and then. The little stuff and the big stuff can make a day more unique if you allow it to. Nothing like an afternoon bobcat to snap you out of it. Message received.
I was having one of those days this morning and it wasn’t even 9:00am yet. Snuggled deep into my covers, I was on the phone with my BFF. Amongst other things, I had missed her birthday and called her as soon as I had a minute to get to the phone. Where is my brain these days? And I was so sorry. So we talked and she is amazing and I sniffled along, trying to figure out a way to suck it up today.
That’s when I saw some birds. Well, a lot of birds in fact. Hundreds, maybe thousands. Circling in the sky. And they circled and swooped in the distance for the duration of our call. When I hung up, promising myself that today would start getting better, I walked out on to my back porch to see them a little better. So did my six year old. My Flip happened to be right there so I pushed open the screen door, turned on my camera and caught such an amazing sight.
I have seen birds like this in my yard before actually. This is the second time. (I wonder if flocking like this is a seasonal thing?) But this time there were more, and it was somehow more breath-taking than I remember (you will hear me catch my breath on the video below). While I watched them swoop and dive overhead, I couldn’t help but remember the words of a poem that I read at my grandparents memorial service years ago:
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.
It seems at times we all need to pay attention to the signs around us. Things happen for a reason. Watch, listen – the answers and quiet comfort will come. Take this for what you may but, for me, this was truly a moment in the morning’s hush and the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds circled in flight. And I was grateful for it.
P.S. Something you might not notice in this video was what sounded like rain falling. It wasn’t rain. And, since I was out there underneath it all, I got hit with it more than once.
Someone told me once that being shit on by a bird was good luck. Perfect. I’m going with that.
While the Lowry Park Zoo graciously offered me a day’s pass for my family to be guests at the Koala exhibit opening yesterday, I let them know I was planning to attend anyway. We love this zoo and happened to buy a family pass a few weeks ago anyway. We were thrilled to have another reason to roll in there.
The boys and I arrived at 10:30 that morning – fired up to meet Bundaleer the Koala . Honestly, though? Upon arrival, my kids took one look at the crowds gathered around the exhibit and then at the sprayground calling their name. Not surprisingly, their enthusiasm to see Bundaleer faded a bit. But before I unleashed them into those fun fountains, I had them watch the ribbon cutting and check out the cool koala cake before I set them free. And then I did. It made sense to to wait for the crowds, news cameras and throngs of strollers to thin a bit before we went over to say hello. So they ran and jumped and sprayed and spun and giggled in the water while I listened to a wonderful diggeree doo player and watched various handlers introduce interesting animals to zoo goers wandering by.
We eventually made our way over to meet the sweet grey furry bundle of Bundaleer. He was very cute. But I don’t think he realized how much commotion was being made over him. Acting very “koala-ish”, we found him sleeping off some of the 23 hours a day that they generally snooze, curled up behind a clump of eucalyptus. Luckily, a handler happened to go in right then so Bundaleer woke up a bit so I got a picture. They are adorable animals and Bundaleer makes a great addition to an already very fun Australian section of the zoo. Oh and check out his adoring crowds in the reflection!
After soaking themselves on the sprayground one more time, we spent the rest of the morning visiting animals. And finally wound up having snacks watching the rhinos in the “Africa” section before heading home. My boys cracked me up as they acted out the emotions of “grumpy” and “happy” for the camera (see below). It was a great day at the zoo for sure.
As you all know, sometimes Blogging has its benefits. And while I hardly blog for those few and far between benefits alone, I love ‘em when I get ‘em. And what perk came my way this weekend? A free afternoon at the Florida Aquarium for Tampa bloggers, tweeters and social media folk alike.
So with a gleeful kick of my heels, I packed my two boys and willing husband into the car spouting promises of lots and lots of fishies. “It will be better than the fishies in the aquariums at Walmart!” Oh. Ok. Now THAT got their attention. Better than Walmart fishies? They were IN.
When we were arrived, we were escorted into a conference room filled with fellow social media peeps. They too had brought their families, so we milled about and kept our kids from reaching into the lone fishtank found at the front of the room. After some welcomes and introductions, the Florida Aquarium staff brought out a few beasties to check out: one snake and one small gator. I felt right at home while my 6 year old waited patiently to pet each.
Next we walked out into the Aquarium and spent well over an hour walking from tank to tank. I appreciate how they have laid out the Aquarium. Visitors start in the Wetlands and meet the sort of wildlife you might find in your own Florida back yard (alligators, turtles, otters, birds and the rest). And as you walk through each exhibit and move through various stages of water, you experience the underwater wildlife you might find in mangrove swamps off the Florida coast or in the deep waters of the gulf.
My children were besides themselves with glee. They ran from tank to tank to tank to tank. “Look at this one Mommy!” “WHOA! Mommy, Daddy, look at THIIIIS!!!” They got to touch star fish, climb on displays, interact with educational technology, step over sharks and play under schools of fish. We all came to a screeching halt and were mesmerized by the floor to ceiling panoramic window displaying an enormous tank full of fish. The kids loved watching a diver interact with and take questions from visitors.
A highlight was certainly the penguin encounter. While I had to hold back my two year old by the scruff of his shirt (“I wub it mommy, I wub penguin, I wanna huuuugggg!!!”), my 6 yo listened intently to the Penguin handler. He promptly reported back to me what he learned later too: “Did you know penguins can poop 4 ft. away!?!” That’s great, babe.
We had a wonderful visit. The staff there were phenomenal. The vibe was child-friendly and relaxing. (That being said even though we never even made it out to the Caribbean Cantina tiki bar or splash park for kids set up out back.)
My only frustration? It is expensive to go very often unless you invest in a pass. Adults are $20.00 and children are $14.95 each. However, an annual pass is $140 (which includes parking) and is probably worth the investment if you and your children do love underwater wildlife and think you might like to visit the aquarium and their splash park more often.
Many thanks to Tampa Bloggers and the Florida Aquarium (on twitter at @floridaaquarium) for a fabulous family afternoon with Florida wildlife!
Mother nature must have been online yesterday. She must have taken a break from enjoying the sun’s rays in her cabana chair, wandered inside to refill her fruity cocktail and stopped in to check twitter. I bet she pushed her sun glasses to the top of her head, read all of pleads for rain in Tampa and said something to the tune of “Alright already. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. I got this.” I am thinking that with a sigh and one last wistful look at the sun, she set down her drink and got to work.
Meanwhile, back at my Morningside Mom ranch, my two boys and husband were playing baseball out back (just like they always do when he gets home from work), when the winds started up. I checked the radar and heard a low rumble of thunder. Whadda ya know. I told my fam it was time to come in, we might actually get a little rain.
And rain it did. Out of the blue, the heavens opened and down poured sheets upon sheets of rain. It had been many months since I had seen anything like it. The rain drove side ways, water gushed over the sides of the house, rivers streamed down the road and over flowed sidewalks. My backyard, frontyard and sideyards were flooded. Lightening cracked directly overhead, thunder rattled our entire house and the boys laughed and screamed and delighted in it all.
At one point I peeked out my front door to find a small turtle enjoying the new pond that was my front garden. His head was cocked skyward and his mouth wide open while rain splashed down on his shell. I think he might have been a little drunk. In fact, I was quite sure every bit of animal and plant life in my yard were drowning in gratitude and already far too over served. I blipped “It’s raining men” and was quite sure the gators were disco dancing below the surface of my finally refilling ponds.
It rained and rained and rained. It slowed some, but it kept raining. It was raining when we had dinner and while we watched the Lost season finale. And then, while I was brushing my teeth before bed, I noticed that the rain was quiet. But I heard a sound I had not heard in a long long time. So I rinsed my mouth, walked to the back sliding door and stepped out onto my dark, soggy back porch. And listened. The deafening sound of peepers (small frogs) filled the air. “It rained! It rained! It rained!” Damn skippy it did.
This morning I awoke to find a miraculous scene. I grabbed my camera, slipped on my flip flops and squished my way across the back yard. I took this picture (compare it to the picture I took yesterday). Mother nature took care of business last night. I am pretty sure she had it covered all along.
God bless Mother Nature, she’s a single woman too
She took off to heaven and she did what she had to do
She taught every angel to rearrange the sky
So that each and every woman could find her perfect guy
It’s Raining Men! Hallelujah! – It’s Raining Men! Amen!
Don’t laugh at me. But I am obsessing about rain right now. It really needs to rain. I am kind of freaking out about it.
Do you see how low our back pond is? Look at that. In my almost four years in this house, I’ve never seen it this low.
This is kind of boring you isn’t it? Well, its big news for me.
Let me back up a bit.
While I am home everyday, putzing around the house and writing posts, I don’t see all that much action. Unless you count my 2 yo pooping on the floor 3 feet away from his potty “action”. But I don’t really call that action. I call that a pain in the ass. But I digress.
So while real people in real offices wearing real business suits watch the exciting world go by from where they busily tackle the world’s problems, I am tucked away here in suburbia. The trash truck comes by. The mail is dropped off. Maybe an occasional school bus. But other than that, the sun shines down, driveways await their commuting residents, the flowers wave in the breeze and nothing seems to really happen around here.
But I actually think a lot happens outside my “office” window. My backyard is a virtual daily drama. I’ve mentioned all the animals before. Currently, there are at least three alligators moving between our ponds. We have a rabbit who appears first thing in the morning and late in the evening to snack on our grass. All varieties of herons, hawks and other birds swoop in to enjoy what our ponds offer. Deer come to graze and sip from our receding ponds midday. Lizards, snakes and turtles hustle about. There are actual bass in those ponds and the alligators will chase your lure down for them. I’ve seen bobcat and wild boar on multiple occasions. At night, bats and owls flit about, the bushes rustle, we hear calls in the night and unknown shadows wander by (most likely armadillo). I have even awoken to hear someone trying to get into our back porch only to discover a raccoon, up on his haunches, working the door latch with all his might. We joke we need to charge admission to our backyard. Guests are guaranteed to see something interesting whenever they visit.
So my office is pretty exciting. At least I think so. I love to observe the comings and goings of every beastie, the progress of each growing plant and now the level of the ponds.
I hate droughts. And I could tell you the story about the drought I experienced in Africa that meant such severe water restrictions, our dormitories were only allowed two showers per week for 10 minutes stretches with 3 people per shower nozzle. I could go on about that. But it might sound a bit like my father telling the story about how he walked to school everyday in the snow, uphill both ways – so I’ll spare you. I just know the value of water. That’s all.
And I also know that the state of Florida needs some. Badly. We haven’t had any significant rain at all since that heart-stopping tornado awhile back. Not cool.
Here is a video of an alligator who was trying to get himself comfortable in one of the back ponds last week (last week there was still some water in that pond). My mother in law and I happened to watch this alligator crawl through my backyard (it was only about 3 feet long, not big – or dangerous – by any means) and then lumber down to the water’s mud’s edge. I grabbed my camera and this is what I caught.
On April 22nd, local and global communities alike will stop to recognize and celebrate Earth Day. And so with our green flags flying in anticipation, I would like to offer readers a solution to all of our environmental woes. You heard me right; I know what will end global warming, stop excess waste and create renewable energy resources. What, you ask, in our slowly warming world could possibly make all of this happen? The answer is right in front of us, running around with PB&J on their cheeks and a Spiderman costume on: our children.
You could laugh at me and say that they don’t understand just how far up this polluted creek we are or that they are too young to take on responsibilities such as these. But I disagree. This is their earth, we are leaving it to them. And just like they learn how to kick my behind in Wii Sports Baseball or memorize the names of every Star Wars character, they can learn how to sort their trash. They can learn what how to turn off lights and brush their teeth with the water off. They can learn how to respect the earth and understand how to care for it. Because if they don’t? We’re all in big trouble. So it’s up to us to teach them. No matter your political background, your religious affiliation, where you’re from or how big your house is: a clean, safe environment is something all of our children deserve.
So, with Earth Day right around the corner, let’s use this opportunity to begin educating our children. And then let’s keep it up throughout the year. One day of talking about our environment won’t change habits for a lifetime.
Please note, however, that reducing, reusing and recycling should be encouraged as something positive – and even fun. If it isn’t a positive topic, they won’t want to participate. As parents, we can harbor all the eco-guilt for them for now I think. And with that said, here are some suggestions to encourage eco-friendly habits in your children.
Recycle with the Kids: Make the recycle bins easy to find and tell apart. Then make sure your children learn what used materials can be trashed, recycled or reused. Don’t forget how much waste can go to good use in a compost pile too.
Start a Garden: I’ve mentioned this tip before but nothing will give your child more respect for their earth than allowing them to play in it. Consider planting something special on Earth Day to mark the occasion!
Reward Good Habits: When kids remember to turn off lights, the TV, the computer and the water when they are done – reward them. Positive reinforcement creates great habits.
Get Outside: There is no better way to appreciate your environment than getting out there and enjoying it. Go explore local parks with your children, learn about the indigenous plants and animals in your area, stop to watch the clouds go by or spend an afternoon throwing rocks and leaves into a nearby creek. Your children will grow up bound to protect the outdoors if they grow up loving it.
Explain the Concept of Waste: This is a tough one. Kids don’t always get what doesn’t affect the immediate world around them. So when they throw out half a bag of grapes or use too many paper towels, it’s hard for them to understand what they have done wrong. Keep telling them to use only what they need and reward them anytime they reduce waste in any way.
Be an Example: I have worked very hard to remember the cloth bags for the grocery store. I talk about remembering them and grumble loudly when I forget. My kids have been paying attention and now never let me leave the car without them. If you care for your environment, your children will too – it’s as simple as that.
Continue the Conversation: As I said before, April 22nd shouldn’t be the only day you promote eco-friendly habits with your children. There are opportunities to reduce, reuse and recycle every day. Get out there and show them their environment, teach them to love their earth and the amazing natural resources all around them.
And as a mother who uses the computer often, I have found some great links to keep the conversations happening with your children in a fun, productive way. Whether they are online games and videos, educational printables (on recycled paper!) or cool crafts – there are lots of ways to teach our children how to put the Earth first. Check out these links here.
PBS Kids: Earth Day videos and Eeko World (an interactive environmental website – my kids love this one.)
This Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Seaworld with a fabulous crew of mom bloggers. All thanks to Ted Murphy at IZEA and Wendy Piersall at Sparkplugging.com, we were able to spend an entire day at the park soaking up all things aquatic. I had never been to Orlando’s Seaworld before and was very excited to see what all the fuss was about. And while I wasn’t able to bring my children, I got to see the park through the eyes of the other mom blogger’s children – all while plying them with cotton candy.
So who did I go with? Well the wonderful Shellie from Blog 4 Mom , the brilliant Susan from Egg Marketing and Sometimes Parenting Sucks , the wildly witty Britt from Miss Britt, and the beautiful Melanie from Modern Mami. And had I ever met these women before? Well, here and there on Twitter or in passing at Blog Her last year – but for the most part we met as strangers. But c’mon. Give us some credit. We blog, we’re moms, we had pleeeenty in common. We really had a wonderful day together and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to hang out with them and their families.
Now what about the park? From sea exhibit to shining sea exhibit, I had an amazing time. Since it is February, the weather was perfect and the park was not very crowded. We walked casually to each section, we never felt too overwhelmed by other visitors and enjoyed every sea creature we saw.
The dolphin area was amazing. Visitors had the chance to feed dolphins and reach out to pet them if they happened to be at arms length. You could truly enjoy this creatures curiousity – they are such wonderful and social animals. The under water viewing area was impressive. The dolphins peered right back at us, swimming slowly by. I think they were equally entertained.
After checking out some wonderful manatee (and debating with husbands whether they are technically considered “cute” – which they are), we went to the Blue Horizons Whale and Dolphin show. I happened to capture the finale on video to share with my children and all of you.
Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch and then headed over to the shark exhibit. I really enjoyed being able to move through the shark tank and see them swim over us. I also appreciated seeing how thick that glass was separating us and the sharks!
The big event for the afternoon was the Shamu Show “Believe”. We all made sure to get spots as close to the front without technically being in the “splash zone”. If the kids had a choice however, we would have been right down front, bracing for wave impact. Nope. We mom bloggers are practical, we stayed dry. But I did catch that finale on video also.
At this point, the kids had been pretty good about following our agenda so we let them run wild in Shamu’s Happy Harbor while we chatted. Or should I say, the moms chatted and the dads braved the climbing contraption with netted tubes three stories above us. While we compared blog tips and tweeted from iphones, the dad’s sweated their way through it all, each coming back down exhausted and a bit overwhelmed. Be prepared if you head up into that maze yourselves, it is not really built for adults sizes or large crowds and can get very warm!
Our final stop was for the wild at heart. A few of the mom bloggers braved the Kraken – a ginormous roller coaster found at the back of the park. It absolutely took my breath away and was an incredible ride. Awesome for sure, but it left me seeing stars a bit on the way back to the car. (Groan, am I getting too old for roller coasters? …never.)
All in all, it was an amazing day. Seaworld is wonderful park for every aged family member. While it brings a lot of the Florida sea life to visitors, it does a great job giving us real accessibility to the animals. Afterwards, visitors are left with an educational visit and a true appreciation for what is really living in our oceans.
Find some time when it won’t be crowded at Seaworld and go yourself!
This morning, my 5 year old came running in to tell me there were lots and lots and LOTS of birds in our backyard. “Uh huh, that’s nice dear.” “No, Mommy, LOTS. Come see.” And I did. And so did my husband with my 2 year old toddling behind us.
There were, in fact, many birds in our backyard. Hundreds potentially. A flock like I had never seen were swooping and swirling and flying just above our heads. And then landing in one bush, weighing it down. And then off they went again. It was close to magical.
I grabbed my video camera and threw this little montage of the scene together. It certainly doesn’t capture the feeling or size of this flock flying all about us. But blog-worthy still. My backyard strikes again.
By the way, I used my Muvee Reveal software for this. It took 5 minutes to put together. The software edits the footage to work right along with the song. Pretty cool, huh?
Well, it’s happened again. There was another highly publicized alligator attack here in Florida. A teen swimming in a Melbourne canal was grabbed by an alligator. He survived but lost his arm. He did, however, get a spot on the Today Show this morning discussing his attack. I am very happy to hear that he survived. And while he made some very good points about alligator over-population in Florida, he obviously did not have a perfect understanding of the potential harm these animals can bring or else he might have both arms today. But, once again, the country watched his report, wide eyed, and the notion of savage, blood thirsty gators hunting down Florida residents lives on.
I have lived in Florida for 3 years now. And as you might remember, I lived in Africa for a good portion of my life growing up. If there was one lesson I learned in Africa about animals, it was to remain humble about wildlife. We are only another animal in the grand scheme of it all. While we, as humans, have the capacity to remain separated and safe from animal attacks, if we are not well educated or respectful of the animals living in our environment, we can easily slip into our spot on the food chain and potentially be harmed. I have carried that lesson with me here. And Florida has certainly impressed me with its vast amount of wild life, just look in my own backyard. Even as I was writing this post and took a break to feed my kids lunch, I happened to see a gator swim across our back pond. This alligator is about 4 feet long and seems to have established this pond as its territory. Alligators are a very real part of our lives here and, it seems crazy to admit, seeing one is not quite the novel sight it used to be.
However, attacks can happen and so we hear of another on the news today. But, honestly, I’m just annoyed. These stories and fanciful national headlines very rarely give the viewer any sense of perspective. There is no information offered about the enormous mistreatment of alligators and our struggles to co-exist with an animal that has been going about its business in this state for hundreds of years. With the gory gator stories and all the misinformation out there, the masses just assume they want to eat us and that’s that. Even the victim had to make the comment “They’re out for blood.” Are you kidding me?
Do you know why alligators usually attack us? They aren’t afraid of us. And why would an alligator go against its natural instincts and move towards us, rather than away? Because unfortunately, it’s been fed by humans. It happens all the time. Even down the road, there was a group of baby alligators that would swim up to a fence along the sidewalk when humans walked by. That’s insane. No, they weren’t born smacking their baby gator jaws, hungry for people blood. They wanted the scraps people threw to them. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen those alligators for some time now so, obviously, a call was made to the local “Alligator Hotline” (yup, that’s for real) and they were removed – and destroyed.
Do you want another reason why an alligator would attack us? Human stupidity. If we swim into its territory (um, teen from Melbourne, FL – this is you, buddy) or dangle our toes in a fresh water pond while we fish or let our dogs play in the water while we stand by – I’m sorry, you’re asking for it. Bottom line. Alligators do hunt by nature and will come after a mammal proportionate to its size if its right in front of its nose.
I have 4 separate bodies of water out back and no fence (they’re bloody expensive and don’t do that much to deter gators, but maybe someday). As you know, I also have two sons. And, as I’ve mentioned, we certainly have gators in that water out back. But have we had a scare with an alligator? Nope. Why not? My children are taught to be as afraid of any local fresh body of water as they are of the road. They don’t go near it. As a family, we are respectful of the alligators territory. If we do see a gator, we watch inside the perpetually locked back porch with our binoculars and talk about it. If my husband or I happen to walk out on the grass to get a better look from afar, the alligator immediately disappears, maybe emerging on the far end as it crawls out and into an even further pond. I promise you, alligators don’t want to be around us.
And this brings up the final unfortunate issue. Teen from Melbourne, FL., you’re right. There are too many of us and too many of them. And while Alligators don’t want to be around us, they are. Potentially, there may be more than one alligator in every fresh body of water in Florida. And, as we all move down here, set up shop, slap on our flip flops and sun glasses and park our booties under these lovely palm trees, the alligators are getting encroached upon. And while I don’t see the influx of humans changing anytime soon, unfortunately, the gator population needs to be controlled. This is a serious issue in any animal park or reserve where one species doesn’t have any natural predators – there are too many and it affects the natural balance of an eco-system. So while I am not a big hunting fan, I do support any humane destruction or relocation programs for alligators. It sucks for the gators, but we are really not responsible enough to live this close to this many of them for much longer.
Now before I start getting any comments about what a bad mom I am for raising my kids so close to alligators (um, did you read this post?), you should be aware of a few facts. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, between the years of 1948 and 2004, there have only been 15 reported fatal alligator attacks. That’s nothing when you consider how many of them there really are around here. In fact, the FWC receives 15,000 calls about nuisance alligators annually and then removes about 5,000 of the gators they are called about. These beasts certainly show up everywhere: in front door atriums, under cars, in a ditch, anywhere. But to have only 15 fatalities occur in 56 years? They really don’t deserve the man-eater rap they have been assigned. Like I said, they don’t like us and would be quite happy to just be left alone.
So that’s my public service announcement about Florida Alligators. I hope you’ve learned something. And I promise you that if my gators start getting frisky or deciding that they want to make my backyard their favorite sunning spot, I’ll be calling the alligator hotline asap. Maybe you’re wondering what they do with the removed alligators that are destroyed? Well, they sell it to make alligator meat OF COURSE. Do you think I’m kidding? A neighbor a few doors down had a nuisance gator removed… and guess what was for dinner? I kid you not. Gator BBQ. Gotta love Florida.
While the Lowry Park Zoo graciously offered me a day’s pass for my family to be guests at the Koala exhibit opening yesterday, I let them know I was planning to attend anyway. We love this zoo and happened to buy a family pass a few weeks ago anyway. We were thrilled to have another reason to roll in there.
The boys and I arrived at 10:30 that morning – fired up to meet Bundaleer the Koala . Honestly, though? Upon arrival, my kids took one look at the crowds 
gathered around the exhibit and then at the sprayground calling their name. Not surprisingly, their enthusiasm to see Bundaleer faded a bit. But before I unleashed them into those fun fountains, I had them watch the ribbon cutting and check out the cool koala cake before I set them free. And then I did. It made sense to to wait for the crowds, news cameras and throngs of strollers to thin a bit before we went over to say hello.
So they ran and jumped and sprayed and spun and giggled in the water while I listened to a wonderful diggeree doo player and watched various handlers introduce interesting animals to zoo goers wandering by.
When we were arrived, we were escorted into a conference room filled with fellow social media peeps. They too had brought their families, so we milled about and kept our kids from reaching into the lone fishtank found at the front of the room. After some welcomes and introductions, the Florida Aquarium staff brought out a few beasties to check out: one snake and one small gator. I felt right at home while my 6 year old waited patiently to pet each.
My children were besides themselves with glee. They ran from tank to tank to tank to tank. “Look at this one Mommy!” “WHOA! Mommy, Daddy, look at THIIIIS!!!” They got to touch star fish, climb on displays, interact with educational technology, step over sharks and play under schools of fish. We all came to a screeching halt and were mesmerized by the floor to ceiling panoramic window displaying an enormous tank full of fish. The kids loved watching a diver interact with and take questions from visitors.
And rain it did. Out of the blue, the heavens opened and down poured sheets upon sheets of rain. It had been many months since I had seen anything like it. The rain drove side ways, water gushed over the sides of the house, rivers streamed down the road and over flowed sidewalks. My backyard, frontyard and sideyards were flooded. Lightening cracked directly overhead, thunder rattled our entire house and the boys laughed and screamed and delighted in it all.
Do you see how low our back pond is? Look at that. In my almost four years in this house, I’ve never seen it this low.
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