Mommy and Daddy love me very much. However, Daddy says that my name must be periodically influencing my behavior.
Yes, you read that correctly. The only anagram for my name in common use is: “bothering”. Yup. ”Bothering”. Daddy did a face-palm and rolled his eyes when he typed my name in.
(This is from the WolframAlpha Widgets website: Anagrams)
Today we went to Clearwater Main Library to see a show called Wonders of Nature. This may have been the best and most interactive show I have ever seen with animals! I got a seat in the front row with a group of my friends. We were all glued to the show.
The show started out with “Jedi the Augur Buzzard”. He is basically a hawk! Matt Edmonds’, the teacher, held him on his glove so he didn’t get cut from his talons!
In mid sentence the hawk took off and flew around the room and back to Mr. Matt!
I was so amazed!
A goofy picture while about 100 camp kids piled into the room from the local YMCA.
Mr. Matt had the bird do a few more flights across the room. Truly beautiful. I kept telling MOmmy it was the most beautiful thing I had even seen!
Up next was “Stitches the Grey Squirrel”. Stitches is the kid of squirrel we have in our yard but Stitches is trained!
He likes to hunt for peanuts in the dirt.
He climbed all over Mr. Matt while I giggled with delight!
This is “Scooby the Burmese Python”. Scooby is 24 years old and had belonged to Mr. Matt since he hatched from his egg and fit in Mr. Matt’s hand!! WOW!
One girl got to go up and pet the snake. I guess normally all the kids get to do so but there were well over 200 kids plus adults in the room.
There were a few other animals: a rat named Sagan, an Amazon Parrot named Moby and Sun Conures(didn’t get their names). They all did tricks and preformed on command. Mr. Matt is a professional animal trainer! When the parrot was preforming he told us that it took him EIGHT years to teach him the tricks he knows! Wow, and he is a professional trainer.
The next animal out was quite hilarious! it was called a Red-legged Seriama. His name was Bambam.
In the wild they catch lizards and bash them against rocks until they die.
Mr. Matt gave the bird a plastic alligator to do it with. Over and over the bird smashed it into the rock. Neat way to kill your prey.
Next to last was a flying squirrel. I think this was my favorite because he was very cute, tame and could FLY! He ran all over Mr. Matt.
Then he sent him up a pole and the squirrel jumped and FLEW to Mr. Matt. I was so amazed!
The show wrapped up with a “Nova the Eurasian Eagle Owl”.
Really watching intently and learning.
The owl flew from Mr. Matt to a perch on the other side of the room. It was so QUIET! The only way you could tell(besides seeing it) that it was flying across the room was the wind from the wings when it first took off!
Then it would glide into its house.
It would perch and fly back out again!
This was such a wonderful show and I want to see it again some day! WOW! I talked about it all day!
We got back in town late late Sunday night after a long drive home on US19! Very pretty drive and no highway stress for Daddy but I just wanted to be home. We spent the entire day Monday recovering from the trip: unpacking, cleaning the house and playing with all the toys we missed for the near month we were gone.
Tuesday I spent the day with friends (without Emmerson!!!!) and we went Letterboxing at Philipee Park in Safety Harbor and then I went to my friend Zachary’s house and went swimming at the HUGE pool at Innisbrook. What fun!
Wednesday we went to Music with Mar and then chilled out for the day… no major plans.
Thursday we met up with some friends again for a morning of Letterboxing and then playground climbing fun. I took a long nap because I was so exhausted! Mommy work me up at 3:45 and said “TIME TO GO” and we went to go see Toy Story 3 at the Clearwater Cinema Cafe (my favorite movie theatre because you can have milkshakes and popcorn while swiveling in the chair!).
Today, Friday, we headed down to Indian Shores to the Goldman’s house (Miss Lynn and one of my best buds Zachary). We spent a while at the Suncoast Seabird Sanctuary enjoying all the wonderful birds. I even saw a baby white pelican! Very cool! Mommy found a Letterbox at the sanctuary so that was a cool extra treat… it even had a hitchhiker (a traveling letterbox that you have to go hide in another letterbox!).
Afterwards we headed out the back door of the sanctuary and saw all the birds of the beach… there were thousands!!!
We were all being very silly! I look like a giant here… I was just closer to the camera and Zachary was doing a straddle.
Emmerson watched on as Zachary and I played in the water. At first I asked Mommy if I could take my shoes off and not get wet. Then I asked if it was okay to get my pants a LITTLE wet… next thing you know I was in up to my ears! Good thing MOmmy is always prepared with a change of clothing.
The dark-ish skies are courtesy of Tropical Storm Bonnie coming across the state of Florida today! Nothing major!
After a long play on the beach we came back to Zachary’s house and all got showered off and had lunch. After lunch… TV COMA!
We played hard all morning and continued to run and play inside up until about 6pm when we headed home. What a fun day! Glad to be home but miss my Grandparents…
I had a blast with my cousins today. Aunite Kim, Her friend Gary and my cousins (Anna and Ian) stopped by on their was home from Virginia Beach. I enjoyed the morning showing them my tree fort and then a hike down to the bridge. Cousin Ian is crazy! He climbs everything! If it is high off the ground he NEEDS to find a way to climb it!
We had a very busy day at the Cradle of Forestry, Trout Farm, Looking Glass Falls and then Pisgah Recreation Area.
I loved hiking with Ian on the trails.
We got to dig in sawdust to see what we could find. I found a LOT of nothing!
Once again Ian had to climb the train!
ALL ABOARD MY CHOO CHOO TRAIN! WOOOOO WOOOOOO!
Iam climbing something else! I climbed this too but Mommy wouldn’t let me up the crane part.
Yee Haw I am a cowboy!
Looking Glass Falls and home of my meltdown of the day! I wanted to go in the water but Mommy said we weren’t going to swim here we were swimming later in the day.
Finally to the swimming place after a stop at the Trout Farm and a quick Letterbox grab.
Cousin Ian jumping off the rock face.
I am mighty! I am strong! I can lift ANYTHING!
Goofing around in the water.
Iam must have jumped 30 times!
Building a dam with Emmerson, Anna and Mommy. We tried to get the water to pool and redirect. After a good 20 minutes of work, we finally did it!
I had an amazing day and LOVED being around my cousins. I have missed them. I am not looking forward to 10 hours in the car tomorrow but I miss Lightning and my house, friends and toys. So I guess it is time for our adventure to come to an end.
Today we went to the Cradle of Forestry for the Woodsy Owl’s Club. The theme was “poking around the pond”. If you know me you know that there is nothing in life that makes me happier than being knee deep in muck looking for bugs! There were about 25 kids plus their adults at the meeting today. We all had to learn about Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl and their mottos. We learned all about the wetlands and what we could expect to find around the pond. We then took a short hike down to a pond. We listened to all the directions and then got our nets.
Mommy helped me scoop a bunch of muck out of the pond. The teacher said I scooped too much but I found a lot of bugs including a dragonfly nymph, 3 baby salamanders, a sack of eggs and a few other things.
Getting more muck.
Some of the bugs and things that all the kids caught. My eggs are on the spoon. The teacher thought they may be salamander eggs but I told her they were too big and were probably frog eggs.
You could not pry me from this bucket unless you bribed me with more bugs!!
Grandma Jo helped me put some bugs into the viewer.
This was sooooo cool!
I enjoyed showing all the other kids the buts I put in the viewer.
Amazing that with this many people NO ONE fell in the lake and ALL the kids were so amazingly well behaved!
After the pond adventure we went back to the classroom to talk about where the different animals were living in the pond.
We each got a picture to put on the pond. I got a “Water Skimmer” and correctly placed it on the top of the pond.
They had a craft at the end (make a turtle from a paper bowl) but I had already done that craft at home with Mommy before so I wanted to move along. We loaded up the car and drove down the road to the fish hatchery. I love the Trout Farm! They have these long rows of trout with running water. for $.25 you can get a handful of oily stinky food to feed the fish.
I had a blast feeding them. I figured out that if you go to a big group near the edge and drop in the food that the fish will get you soaking wet! 
When we came home and Emmerson went down for a nap Mommy gave me a new toy she had been saving for me. It is called Bizarre Builder “In-Sections” . It is like Mr. Potato head but all the pieces are bug parts and you can chose to follow the directions or free build you own bugs.
My first of MANY creations!
My next of a zillion creations.
Today we drove over to Bryson City, NC to take a ride on the GSMR train! It was raining when we arrived so we spent our time in the Lionel Tot Train Railway Museum. They had a LOT of trains moving. One had 3 separate levels of track that totaled over 5000 foot of track! AMAZING! There was so much detail.
We killed a little more time at the Thomas Train table.
Almost time to get on board. I just kept giving Mommy goofy grins when she went to take my picture. Oh well, I guess I have to live with them posted here now!
Watching out the window from the “family first class” coach. There was LOTS of kudzu. I became an expert by the end of the train trip. I could point out all the kudzu between the starting station and the return trip home. PLus I now know that they can make honey from kudzu flowers. COOL!
Despite the rain the views were pretty neat.
Chilling out with Grandma Jo.
We ate lunch on the train and had our own car attendant. She refilled our drinks and even found me hot chocolate to drink!
We arrived at the break point and got out and walked around for a while. This is where the white water rafters pull out after their trips down the river.
Heading back to get on the train to ride home.
I really liked this little waterfall.
On the way back we got to ride on the other side of the train (we all had to swap seats!) so we could see the other scenery.
I had a really great time even if I got wiggly towards the end. That is a long time for a kid to sit still! haha
We took a nice drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway today. We made a few stops to look out and enjoy the view.
Doing my model pose and showing off my new “Dinosaur on a bike” shirt! RAWR!
We went to the Cradle of Forests and enjoyed an educational and fun walk.
I was allowed to make all the noise I wanted in this tunnel! SO MUCH FUN!
I greatly enjoyed watching the lady weaving.
This man was making bees wax candles.
Chilling out after a nice hike.
Emmerson and I insisted that we had some of this liquid stuff! It is called Sugar Not. Mommy kept joking it was Sugar Snot. This was “Booger Blue Raspberry” and Emmerson had “tropical loogie”. They were actually really gross. We are not use to sweet tasting drinks. YUCKIE!
Before we headed out for more fun I LOVED playing with the blocks and “tree cookies” (a tree cookie is a slice from a tree). I made all sorts of neat sculptures!
Then I wanted to make a chair.
Mommy said I should check it out.
So proud! I worked!
Now I build up up up!
One more sculpture before we head out.
We visited the little river that I love to look for salamanders in.
Mommy caught me a fish!!!
Back to looking for more living things. I did find one blackish salamander but I couldn’t catch it. It was too fast for me!
Having a blast out in nature!
We went to downtown Hendersonville today. we had a fun time walking the streets and seeing all the neat stores. I got to paint my own pottery! I chose a BIG dragon and a little dragon.
Such a goof!
Daddy even helped paint!
Thanks Grandma Jo for getting a family photo.
We headed back towards the car and we saw a gem and mineral museum. I wanted a geode. I love geodes (thanks Uncle Matt for that one!). They had a HUGE claw to break the geode! Very cool!
After it was cracked open I got to hold it and then look at under a light that made it glow green.
Cracking open the second one.
On the way back to the house we stopped off at Bent Creek to play in the river where it joins the French Broad.
I had a fun time wading around trying to catch things in the water.
I caught a whirly-gig-beetle.
I also caught some sort of skipper type bug.
We came home and FINALLY went up to my fort. I had a blast dragging sticks around and making a huge pile.
I decided I was building a FORT. Emmerson was my helper.
Daddy helped snap a few dead branches off of the trees so I had more sticks.
More being silly.
I was walking with a huge stick and not watching where I was going and I tripped. This is the result.
Well, we made it safely to Asheville and have been busy busy busy since we got here. We got in at about 4 pm on Tuesday and had a relaxing evening at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Grandpa Howie went back down to Florida for a week or so to take care of some things. We get to entertain Grandma Jo all by ourselves!
On wednesday morning we went Letterboxing. He had a grand time despite the poison ivy and hot temperatures. The last one we got a little obsessed about but still never found. Mommy has decided to limit long hikes for cooler weather. Asheville is unseasonably warm right now.
We came back to the house to cool off and then changed into out swim suits and went swimming in the lake in Grandma Jo’s community. It was a bit murky in parks but I wanted to look for fish and “stuff”. Mommy learned that sometimes there are leaches in the water so she made me relocate to the clear pat of the water. I left kicking out to the rope and trying to navigate the swimming line but it would get too deep and Mommy would call me back in. I am rally trying to swim. Mommy caught me kicking with my feet on top of the water and trying to scoop a bit. I am terrified of a swimming pool and things that may eat me but i just went right into the lake! who knows! (mommy wishes she would have grabbed her camera for the lake but didn’t want to risk getting it wet). I scarfed down my dinner and had some popcorn and watched Scooby-Doo to wrap up the first full day in Asheville.
Today we got up and went to the Health Adventure. I always love it there! They had two traveling exhibits. One about satellites and one about “The Wizard of Oz”.
I wanted to do the satellites first. I made this little house while Mommy was getting the passes to get in.
We learned about orbits. One tube made a circular and one made the balls go in an elliptical orbit.
We learned how the satellites take images and also how they can tell how tall things are on Earth.
Pictures of different imagines satellites have taken from space. I never knew there were so many things looking down on us.
On to the Wizard of Oz. I built a scarecrow…
I worked on the yellow brick road.
I thought the balloon picture was really cool.
There is no place like home!
I really worked hard on my tube invention.
All done! TA DA!
We went to lunch at Mama Cita’s Burritos and then out for ice cream at Ultimate Ice Cream. Just around the corner from the ice cream place was the WNC Nature Center. Mommy thought we had been there before but we had not! It was kind of a zoo. They had a lot of animals in cages. I liked looking to find out they camouflaged in their tanks.
I slide down the human version of an otter slide.
I pet the goats.
RAWR!
A coyote!
Emmerson and I have enjoyed trying to wear Mommy out by making her push us both in the stroller. She said she would rather push both than listen to both whine! I think we are too big for the stroller.
A grey wolf relaxing on the cool dirt in the shade. It was about 92-94F out and we were way too hot.
On the way out we hunted for two more Letterboxes in the parking lot! Cool! I did not have the patience for anything more than an easy find today.
After breakfast today Mommy and Grandma Susie took us “letterboxing” in Boardman Park and then in Poland Woods. Basically you follow clues that you can download from the internet. At the end of the clues there is a hidden package. Inside the package is usually a stamp pad, a stamp, a log book and a pen.
The first two tries were unsuccessful. We were confident we went to the right place but didn’t have any luck. The third try was a charm! Here is the first letterbox I ever found!
It was called “you scream, i scream, we all scream for ice cream” Inside was a stamp of an ice cream cone!!
Cool!
Then you hide it back where you found it and leave it for the next person!
It was SO much fun!!!
We tried one in Poland Woods and the tree where it was supposed to be at looks like it collapsed from rot. If you find something like this you are supposed to contact the “person who hid it” and let them know.
After another failed try, Mommy took Emmerson and Grandma Susie for some rest time and we proceded to Mill Creek Park to the Lanterman’s Mill. We had to hike for nearly a mile following clues to find this one! I found it all on my own!!!
Very cool stamp inside. It was a hand carved picture of the Lanterman’s Mill! Very near piece of artwork!
We proceded to check out one more by the covered bridge but had no luck finding it. So we were going to call it quits and I told Mommy I wanted to do more! So she quickly looked up a few in the area. She found one that supposedly had 12 boxes hidden on a pathway! That sounded FUN!
We went to the Ford Nature Center and parked the car and then hiked down the road and followed the clues. The clues produced stamps from all 12 months of the year. We missed 2 because we just could NOT find them. So we figured 10 out of 12 wasn’t bad. They were also all hand carved. This was my favorite!
We left exhausted after the hike in the woods and all the hunting.
We headed home for some lunch and then off to the YMCA for some swimming and cooling off.
What a fun last day in Ohio. I am going to miss it here. But on to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Howie in the morning.