Author: Mom

We started out day at the International Wildlife Museum. It was run by Safari Club International. Which basically means it was a museum of stuff that was killed and mounted. It was rather creepy but we had a great time exploring and learning about taxidermy. I enjoyed the birds of paradise exhibit. This is something you dont see in many places. Some of the mounts were really creepy and realistic. The hall of heads was terrifying to all of us. There were many really cool animals but it was just overwhelmingly creepy. Some things like the wild boards were cute. Then there was a display with Christmas lights? How weird. After lunch we picked up Dad and headed up to Kitt Peak for an afternoon dn evening astronomy program. We sat and ate dinner when we learned about the observatory. We stepped out on a break for hot cocoa and saw some awesome blue birds. Our group walked to an observation area dn watched the sun set from the mountain. The temperatures dropped quickly and the winds picked up. We were prepared but were still really cold. We had a wonderful evening learning about the stars and the observatory. The winds were chilly when the dome moved around to look at new star clusters. It was really neat to see it all happen.

We arrived safely in Tucson. We had a wonderful little campground head town. It was small but fit our rig well. There was a building where E and I could hang out and shoot pool, play foose ball or sit and play boardgames. This was great when Dad was working.

Our first night day we spent in Saguaro as a family since it was the weekend. We got to hike a few trails and really enjoy the cold temperatures. We were all freezing but knew it wouldn’t last so enjoyed it. I loved all he cactus. It was amazing how different each saguaro cactus was. I also really enjoyed seeing the wren nests in some of them. We learned that when the cactus  freeze their arms droop. I loved the teddy bear cholla. ALMOST cute enough to hug, ALMOST! Desert life is dangerous!

We visited the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and learned all about the cactus wren nests. We earned our Jr. Ranger badges and saw lots of cactus! My favorite part was the humming bird aviary. There were hummingbirds flying all about. It was amazing ! We hiked up to see the park petroglyphs. They were very neat to see and understand how old they were.  What a great family outing! More to come from Tucson!

Mom got some cool new sherpa blankets. We snuggled in for the long drive to California. The miles passed as the pages flipped on the Kindles. We were eager for any rest stops that weren’t for fuel. We loved leg stretch breaks. It was quite cold and we were in shorts since we were toasty in Luna. We arrived safely in San notion for a few nights of rest. We had a list of places to visit but opted to be lazy since the weather was so icky out. We decorated our campsite for Christmas in the rain and found out later that we won a decorating contest! We went to the campground potluck and had a fun time singing songs and eating yummy food. The campground went all out. It was a fun event. We have stayed at the San Antonio KOA before and enjoyed it then too! Our prizes in the contest, a mug and a jar of cookie dough. I was being really goofy and refused to take normal looking photos today. Emmerson took a hundred photos and finally one that I wasn’t being a goof! The elves found us along the road. I am happy they did but I am more happy that they seam to behave better in the motorhome than at home. We had a grand old time at the party. We called it an early night since we were all exhausted. The next day we had great intentions of doing something fun. Mom dragged us all into the car and wouldn’t say where we were going. Mom and Dad took us to Star Wars! We were so excited. It was a great theater. We called it a day after that and relaxed before hitting the road towards Tuscon.

We have had a busy few weeks. We to part time off school to keep up with everything else. I am finished with my FLVS classes until January so this was a good time for a little break. I have been working on studying for the 4- Insectathon in January. I prepared my club level demo on flower parts and pollination. Below is my poster that I made.

I also organoide a District IX 4-H Council meeting and two events for Project LIFE (Living in Florida’s environments). We had some two grad students from Eckard College come talk to the group about microplastics and what choices we can make to help our environment.

We got to see micro plastics in various samples under the microscopes.

We held our council meeting, of which I am the historian. We set up some good ideas for communication and planning events for future months.

After the meeting we did a coastal cleanup in canoes in the mangrove areas around Weedon Island. It was a lot of fun, but I was hungry and exhausted at the end!

Mom went with the non canoe group on a hike around the island. We have been playing with the new camera on Mom’s phone. Mom just LOVES this photo of me! 🙂 I kinda do too!

After the program we high tailed it to Disney. Dad and Emmerson had gone over earlier in the day. I enjoyed a huge cupcake that was shaped like a campfire. 

We went to the campfire singalong.

Our annual photo with one of the chipmunks. Mom and I saw a deer about 3 feet of the walking trail at the campground. We had a fun walk around first thing in the morning.

Dad had to work a lot on this trip but we found fun stuff to do. We checked out all the resorts and played pool at the Contemporary. We loved all the holiday treats and decorations. Some more pool in the afternoon on our loop back. We had an audience this time! We went over to Magic Kingdom for the evening for a late night Seven Dwarf Mine Train fast pass. We wanted to stay for the fireworks but the Main street area hit capacity but the time our fast pass was over. We just gave up and headed home.

The next night we did Mickey’s Backyard BBQ. We all enjoy this one a lot. Mom somehow convinced me to go dance with Emmerson. I growled and mumbled but was soon smiling.

We all really enjoyed the trick roper!

The next day I was eager to get going. E however was being pouty. I just kept hugging him until he came around and was happy.

We left Disney a day early to get home and turned around for the 4-H Archery. We took one of our club members with us on a n early morning drive.
After a few hiccups I started shooting better. I had some equipment issues. I never fully recovered but I still had fun.

The next day was the annual plant sale at the Florida Botanical Gardens. E and I picked out about 20 new plans and some cactus too. We had a early Christmas with Grandma Susie before we had to leave for our holiday trip out west. We got out insect collections finalized for January when we return. We squeezed in some caroling with our 4-H club at largo Central Park. Darth Vader even came and conducted for us!

A little more work on the last few specimens we had drying.

We walked to the park and found the Irma Tree was finally gone. They left the decorations in the field after they chipped it up. We decorated the tree next to it. Long live the IRMA TREE!

Today we spent the day at UF again. We started our morning at the Florida Museum of Natural History. We saw some amazing items in the specialty collection that were in the museum archives. Then we learned from some professors and grad students bout DNA. We even got to extract DNA from a strawberry. It was really cool. We got to take him the DNA in a little vile.

E was playing in the kids area and found this beetle in the wrong collection. Bug humor!

Wwe ate lunch in the NATL and had a nice hike around seeing how flooded it still was over a month after Hurricane Irma.

Up next we were invited to the UF Jumping Spider Lab (Taylor Lab). We learned from grad students and professional photographers about some techniques for photographing insects.

I had a fun time setting up habitats and taking photos.

We need to get a better macro lens for things like this! I am excited to keep trying insect photography.

They even let us take home a few of the specimens we were photographing today!  We brought home a lynx spider, should bug and two golden orb weavers.

Here are some of the photos I took.