So, I was on fire with my posts and then spring break happened. My schedule got thrown out of whack last week. But I figure since I currently have a following of about…um, zero…no one cares that I’ve been slacking. Even though I live out in the far reaches of online space , I’m still going to throw our spring break experience out into the interweb world.
We had an animal themed spring break with the kiddos. Not because I am a cutesy, fun, planing type of mom, but because all the things that fell on my spring break plate involved animals and I noticed it, so I claimed the theme as my own creation. What can I say? I’m an opportunist.
In an effort to maximize the time and money spent on the animal-rich places we’d be venturing to, I made a contest out of it. I gave the kids little pocket notebooks and told them whoever had the most animals written in their notebook at the end of the spring break would win a special treat. (I had no idea what the special treat would be.) I was surprised how well it worked for the boys. Viv can’t write, so the excitement fizzled out quickly for her.
Our first animal adventure took place at the Georgia Aquarium. My mom came with us, which was awesome because it was packed, and I needed an extra set of eyes to watch over my chillins. Last time we went to the Aquarium we’d had a bad experience and I didn’t want a repeat. It was several years ago when my uncle and his young daughter came to town. The aquarium was really crowded that day too. Drake was 3, Jackson was 5, and Viv was still a bun in my oven, so I was a little a hormonal. After exploring the watery creatures for a couple of hours, I had asked my uncle to sit with my the boys and his daughter while I helped my mom grab some lunch for everyone. When I returned to the table Drake was gone. When I asked my uncle where Drake was he said, “Oh, there was another one?” Like he’d been tasked with looking after all of the stars in the sky or something. 3 kids! It was just 3 kids! I lost my mind and ran all over the place asking employees to help me find my son. In my mind I feel like I grabbed one or two employees by the collars of their shirts and shook them as I pleaded for help, but I probably wasn’t actually that aggressive…probably. Drake had only been missing 10 minutes, but my mind was already imagining the worst and I thought that I would die of heartbreak any moment. Right as they were about to put the place on lock down, about 20 minutes after little Drake had last been seen, I spotted a woman holding my baby’s hand in the crowd. My momma bear instincts were about to lash out at the poor woman, but it quickly became obvious that she had been trying to help him find me. It was the biggest relief I’ve felt in my entire life. It might be harsh, but I haven’t spoken to my uncle since (obviously, we weren’t that close anyway.) So, despite this awful experience we had at the aquarium a few years ago, I decided to give it another shot. Luckily, there were no mishaps this time.
We spent about 4 hours at the aquarium, looking at all the various tanks filled with exotic sea, river, and swamp creatures. We watched the dolphins jump and flip and other tricks at the dolphin show. After we got home I realized I took more pictures of my kids than I did of the fish. I guess I wasn’t even willing to take my eyes off my babies long enough to snap a picture of the marine life, but I love how spellbound they were by what they saw.
Our next outing was to the Atlanta Zoo. I went with I childhood friend of mine and her 4 daughters. Yes, our kids severely outnumbered us, and yes, the zoo was crowded, and yes, we lost a kid (one of my friend’s daughters…twice.) But we all made it out together and in one piece. My boys took some very serious notes, especially when we saw the reptiles and amphibians. Viv drew a meerkat and then called it quits on the note taking. Again, not too many pictures.
On Tuesday we headed down to Florida to stay with some family friends in their small, modest home in St. Cloud (yes, that was sarcasm). The picture below doesn’t do the house justice. The house had a Texas theme going on despite being in Florida. But it was pretty spectacular. They have freaking Zebras roaming around in their yard!
Our first day in Florida we went ventured over to Orlando. We tromped around the shops at Downtown Disney (we were too cheap to go to any of the parks), and we saw the movie Zootopia (super cute, fun for all ages.)
When we got back to the house the boys went fishing in the stocked pond. It was their first time and they were so excited. To my surprise both the boys and The Hubster each caught fish using cheese and bread as bait in less than an hour. It almost looks like they caught the same fish 3 times.
On Friday we went to Wild Florida. It’s a wildlife park and airboat tour. The airboat ride was awesome! We saw 3 bald eagles, a blue heron, and several gators as well as a lot of other wildlife. It was creepy being out there, so close to the gators in the wild. I sort of expected one to jump up on the boat and take a bite out of a couple of us, but the tour guide assured us that gators are pretty timid when humans approach. If we don’t attack, they won’t attack. But I’m more inclined to believe my instincts that scream “stay the crap away from that beast!” (Unless they are small and have their jaws taped.)
After our airboat tour we explored the park. There were tons of exotic animals for my boys to scribble in their notebooks. Sloths, lemurs, tamarin monkeys, beautiful birds, and of course…gators. One of the highlights of our visit was holding Fluffy, the baby alligator. I’m pretty sure the little guy wanted to eat us, but with his jaw taped up he just looked like he was smiling. When Drake held Fluffy, he went right for Drake’s ear. I don’t blame him. I nip Drake’s cute little ear all of the time.
Here is the group of Cerseys that made the trek down to Florida. We had a blast and I have to give a special shout-out to Ranier and April Munns for hosting us in their amazing home!
When we got home and checked the animal tallies in the boys notebooks, Jackson was the clear winner with 72 unique animals. He got a bag of frosted animal crackers and a promise that we’d go back to the Atlanta Zoo soon (I bought a season pass, so that’s kind of a given.) Luckily he seemed satisfied with that, and he even shared his animal crackers.
