Year: 2011

Today we went on a Sea Life boat ride out of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium with a bunch of other homeschoolers. The man talking absolutely cracked me up. He had us all yelping like dolphins.

Me trying to control my laughter while “yelping” with my hand.

Heading down the inter-coastal waterway was so much fun. We watched for dolphin, but sadly saw none. They did drop a trolling net (called an otter net) and brought in sea life for us to see. I saw a seahorse, shrimp, clams, and lots of different types of fish. They record all the data from their sweep and then release everything back out to the wild.

We stopped at “One Tree Island” for some shelling. I opted to splash in the water and try to catch things in my net. It was high-tide so I didn’t have much luck.

What a beautiful day for a boat trip.

This was a flounder that they caught in the trolling net. Very cool! The seahorse was too small to get a good picture of. It was about the size of three pencil erasers. SUPER TINY!

I was so excited to visit the new Largo Central Playground. I have been waiting and waiting for it to open up. Well, it finally did open this past weekend but Mommy said we would go when there were less crowds. I loved all the new climbing structures and play equipment. I was still very fond of the sand digging area. I think I could have dug all day… until I saw THIS!

A MERRY-GO-ROUND! Just what I need to stimulate my vestibular system. I would just sit in the middle and spin spin spin! Here I am in the yellow shirt as I was hopping back on and trying to make my way back to the center. I was brave and fearless! Spinning is my thing!

The kids all took turns pushing, even I took a turn (actually several since I was on the thing for over 45 min!).

When it was my turn to push I got up quickly and ran and pushed as hard as I could. A big kid (probably 13?) came over and started to push as well. Unfortunately, he ran and pushed a LOT better than I did! Suddenly, I went FLYING while still holding on! It was pretty impressive. I let go and went tumbling along the soft astroturf ground. Mommy said she hasn’t seen a smile so big on my face in a while!

There were lots of parents standing around complaining that it was too dangerous. Maybe this is why so many kids are obese. You didn’t see the obese kids on the merry-go-round! They were being helicoptered by their moms while drinking sugary drinks and avoiding anything that could endanger them! Of which, Mommy overheard one Mom tell her son (probably 8) that he shouldn’t play in the sandbox because he could get worms. Mommy just giggled and pictured the spinning helicopter blades on the other mom.

We dropped Daddy off at the airport today for his business trip to New Orleans. Afterwards, Mommy took us out to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium since it is free this month with our Great Explorations season passes.

First stop… RIVER OTTERS!

They were so cute. I could have watched them play in the water all day. They eventually got tired and went to take a nap. Then I got bored.

We checked in a bit later as it was feeding time. They were up and swimming again. I so love otters!

We watched a movie and learned all about Winter the dolphin. She got caught in the rope of a crab trap and her tail was strangled and she lost it. She taught herself to swim again but she was swimming like a shark with a side to side motion versus the up and down that dolphins do. A local company made her this prosthetic tail and they are teaching her to swim the correct way again. They needed to do this because the shark like swimming was very bad for her spine.

This is Pamana. We watched her swim around for a while while we waited for the Winter show.

The trained is getting Winter ready to put on the fake tail.

Here is Winter without the prosthesis.

Prepping her to get her back to straighten, muscles to relax and generally calm down.

All done and ready to swim like a dolphin should! Can you see the artificial tail?

I loved watching her swim around with the help of her new tail.

What a great visit to the CMA.

I always love the playgrounds that they have set up for the Flower Garden Festival.

Another favorite for me… MARIE!

More climbing!

What a great day!

Mommy planned a nice day out with some of my good friends. We picked them up and drove up to Hudson to Brenda’s Blueberry Barn for a morning of picking berries. I had a great time picking and sampled a few, but not too many. I kept hearing gunshots. Apparently, that is how they scare away the birds that are trying to land in the fields and eat the berries. There was a man across the street with a shotgun and one on the property where we were. I got used to it after a while.

I found out that the other people that were picking were too tall and never bent down to look low. I managed to find a ton of BIG berries this way.

We picked and picked but the buckets didn’t seem to fill up!

Finally all done. Emmerson and I (with a bit of Mommy’s help) picked just about 4 pounds!

We brought them home and cleaned them up and had a nice after lunch treat!