Florida Aquarium or Detroit Tigers, a House Divided (and, a car seat tangent)

For Day 2, we split up. Thomas and Kara went to a baseball game and everyone else went to the Florida Aquarium. Since I was with the Aquarium folks, we will start there.

I had never been to the Florida Aquarium. It is in Tampa, right next to cruise port. There were 8 of us present, me, Jack, Anna, Luke, Marta, Elizabeth, JD & Amanda. We couldn't all fit in the van (we took the middle seat out of the second row) so we moved car seats to Elizabeth's Excursion, which comfortably sat everyone. However, the car was made just before mandatory latch was instituted and we couldn't get Luke's car seat to work rear-facing with the belt. So, we turned him around. Luke is just 3 weeks away from being 3, but we still have him rear-facing (I had a long diatribe on my car seat safety views, but have moved it to the bottom of the post). But, it was fun to be able to turn around and see his smiling face.

I really wanted to just climb onboard!

We left around 9:45 and picked up JD and Amanda. The kids were thrilled to see their cousins and picked up right where they left off a year ago. Now that they are a bit older, it is nice that they remember everyone between visits. There is no warm-up period for the older kids with their Florida family and friends! The drive took about an hour, during which we convinced Anna to play the quiet game. I can't remember the last time I went to the downtown Tampa area, it might have been July 2004 when we took the Florida Bar Exam. It was fun to be there again, under happier circumstances.

The Aquarium was nice. They had a Florida wetlands (indoor) trail, which was pretty cool. We saw lots of interesting birds, reptiles and even some mammals. We listened to an informative talk about invasive species, after which, the kids got to touch an invasive frog (unlike native Florida frogs, he has poisonous glands that make his natural predators few). We saw lots of beautiful fish, and even a few sharks. My favorite exhibit was probably the sea dragon area, but I didn't get any pictures. They had several interactive touch experiences, including large sting rays, horeshoe crabs, coral catsharks, urchins and mollusks.  We had lunch there and everyone had a good time.

My two Hollywood Herons, with a Florida heron in the background. Can you find him?

Sweet cousins

That ray is actual size of some mega ray

After the Aquarium, we walked down on the pier and saw an old WWII supply ship, but we decided not to do the tour, since it was getting kind of late.

Elizabeth has been working for a large animal vet this summer (she is planning on vet school herself) and had to take care of the vet's animals this weekend.  We drove there from the aquarium so the kids could see the animals and help her. The vet has a pretty nice set-up, she lives on a large property and has several horses, hunting dogs and pet dogs, along with a pretty log cabin with several outbuildings.

Anna was in charge of filling the water buckets

JD with the horses

Meanwhile, Kara and Thomas were enjoying some awesome seats at the newly renovated Joker Marchant Stadium. By both accounts, it was an amazing game. At one point, the Tigers hit 3 home runs in a row! Then, the pitcher hit Miguel Cabrera and was thrown from the game as the crowd booed from the stands. The final score was 11-4 and it was the best game Kara had ever been to! They had hot dogs and ice cream and walked around the stadium. Kara even got to pick out a souvenir (a necklace) from the gift shop.

After all that excitement, I went to Panera with my sister while Thomas managed the kids. We had a good visit. It is always nice to spend time together and you can have a much better conversation in person than you can over the phone (although, we will take what we can get!).

Here is my car seat tangent:

Most people have subjects that they feel more strongly about than the general public and for us, one of those issues is car safety. The older three kids still use boosters and will until they are at least 4'9"; we never let them sit in the front, even on short drives to school; and we are going to try and keep Luke rear facing until the age of 4 (our original goal was 3, but after reading more safety studies, we feel like we should try and get him closer to 4). To most, that seems incredibly excessive, but it works for us and I know that he is significantly safer this way (just look to the Swedes!). But, for this trip, he got to be forward facing. He was very excited for the first 30ish minutes of the drive, then started to get irritated that he couldn't see the people in the back seat. Based on my observations:

1. He is more comfortable rear-facing, I know lots of people wonder where kids put their legs, but he didn't know what to do with them just hanging down in front of him. Rear-facing, he either crosses them, lets them go perpendicular with the seat, or, throws them over the seat back, using the top of the seat like a foot rest (we took off the head rest to give him a better view). Forward facing, he just kept kicking my seat, which maybe he liked better, actually :)

2. The view is fine either way. He can see what we see as we see when forward-facing, but he can see all his siblings and has a clear view out the back rear-facing.

3. It was much nicer for me to have him forward-facing. He was easier to buckle, see and interact with. I liked looking back and seeing his sweet face and not the bulky back of the car seat. But, alas, for now, it is not meant to be and we have already reinstalled the seat in the van rear-facing.

He could get used to this...but, he won't. At least not for another year(ish).